Recently, I started using the Ottawa River Pathway all the way to get to Metro. I previously stated that I don't like multi-use pathways for bike transportation, I decided that I dislike riding with cars a lot more. In order to reach Metro from the trail from the west, you have two options. The first one, in blue on the image below, is a detour of over 200 meters including a very awkward turn that would likely involve threading one grass. The second, 100 meters to get from the same points, involves an awkward 20 meter desire path going up a small hill. You can probably guess that I, as well as a significant amount of other people opt to take the shortcut.
The unofficial shortcut is commonly known as a desire path. These are the small shortcuts that people take when the build environment ignores how people will actually us it. From a usability perspective, these are a slam-dunk since they are currently in use. No need to guess whether people will actually use it or not. Active transportation activists always get criticized for advocating for infrastructure where people are not currently cycling or walking (often prompting the analogy that you don't build a bridge only where people swim across a river). The fact that these are not addressed clearly shows that even people show demand for active transportation infrastructure, it still doesn't get built.
I know some people will wonder "Why do we need to address this if people are currently using it?". You have a certain percentage of the population, myself included, who won't bat an eye at a brief cross-country biking experience. Last week, I went with my wife (an inexperienced cyclist) and daughter (she was on the cargo bike) to Metro to pick up food for a picnic at Petrie Island. When we got to the bike rack, I got a look that highlighted her discomfort with the desire path. The goal of active transportation is not to provide a better experience for those who are already partaking even though we do appreciate it. The goal is to enable the next person who is interested but who is uncomfortable with using the current infrastructure. We need to address the pain points to enable those people to switch modes are remove a car from our streets (if you need a reminder of why this is a good thing, check out this video by CityNerd with links to references in the description).
I did reach out to Laura Dudas's office about getting this particular desire path addressed. I got a long email about the complicated process to get anything done in this city. I plan on being a bit more vocal and annoying to try and get desire paths in our community addressed as part of my work with the community association. I created a short form to report desire path in the community that you can use to report any desire path in Convent Glen Orléans Wood. I will create an inventory on this website which will include a count of the number of people reporting each desire path.
If you want to help me advocate for better active transportation in Orléans, please fill out this short form. We are expecting the study for Orléans Boulevard in the fall and I will use the email address from this survey to mobilize engagement.
P.S. I decided to check out the path on the Strava Heatmap and it looks like a very popular shortcut.
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