In September of 2014, I wrote One Way to Deal With a Desire Line, describing the University of Minnesota’s attempt to deal with a desire line by planting a tree in the middle and placing concrete curbs to reroute traffic, costing pedestrians several seconds a day each.
Today, we follow up, asking how did that tree do? That tree did badly (Score one for human behavior and the desire to walk in straight lines).
A sad tree here (June 8, 2015). Note the tree did slightly divert the desire line to the right.
Not only did it do badly, on a path to die of its own accord, the university went and killed it.
Tree no more, but the desire line remains, as witnessed by the poor grasses that get trampled more than their neighbors (June 23, 2015)
And not only did they kill it, they are doing a bunch of construction around those parts again this year. I am not sure why they renovated last year, and again this year, but it is the University.
Construction work at McNamara Alumni Center (July 7, 2015)