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“If you haven’t noticed a desire path before, look for worn-down grass made by people who step off the sidewalk and decide to take the shortcut instead. They’re not the designated, paved paths. They’re paths that are trod on the grass in between,” the moderator shared with us how we can all tell what counts as a desire path.
According to the moderator, in Dutch, some people call desire paths ‘elephant paths.’ “I think the translation is Olifantenpaadje. Someone on the subreddit said they’re called Trampelpfad in German,” the mod told us. However, they noted that they’re not quite sure how common these terms actually are.
“When I originally joined the subreddit, it was about 3,000 subscribers deep. I’d seen someone mention it in a comment section, likely on a post of a desire path on /r/pics or a mention in r/AskReddit of these paths being paved following natural foot traffic on a college campus,” they said.
“A user named SecularScience created the subreddit after someone posted a picture of a desire path on another subreddit, probably r/pics, and a commenter noted that they have a name! It [the online community] emerged out of curiosity,” the moderator told the Bored Panda team.
“When someone unknowingly posts a picture of a desire path, people tag the subreddit and the community grows,” they said, adding that the community grows through word of mouth.
We want to hear your thoughts! Share your perspective in the comments section at the very bottom of this post. But before you do that, don’t forget to upvote your favorite photos.
Do you tend to avoid desire paths overall, or do you find a guilty sort of pleasure walking where there’s no pavement? What desire paths do you take on your way to work, school, or your local supermarket? Where have you recently traveled, and what was your experience like?
Join the conversation and tell us all about it.
