Desire Lines: Determining pathways through the city

Abstract

The paper focuses on North American current situations concerned with Walkability, a term that refers to the level of amenity that an area provides a person with the many pleasant and interconnected experiences dealing with movement. Questions are raised as to why in the built-up portions of the city, the realization of Desire Lines are slow to emerge? Where is the permeability a city offers for walking based on Desire Lines? This term, coined by French Philosopher Gaston Bachelard, refers to the psychological, physical need to get from one place to the next, 'les chemins du désir.' We need to add to the general discussions about the quality of our sidewalk and park spaces, important edge conditions that have been exhaustively studied in theory and practice and grapple with the conditions found at the street level where the sidewalk and property line meets a wall of impermeability. The level of amenity that such built-up urban areas could provide to pedestrians as additional permeable walking space, it is argued, needs more attention by planners, architects, and designers to fully serve the needs of pedestrians that defines the urban experience. © 2011 WIT Press.