This isn't going to be a very long post, but I noticed something very interesting while walking to Target this evening. The city street I was walking down was a pedestrian mall, straight through downtown. So why, when I was walking down Nicollete Avenue was my path taking so many curves? Isn't the most direct path from point A (the bus stop) to point B (Target) a straight line? It makes sense from a design standpoint. However, there is one thing design cannot predict: humans.
We are the factor that can make or break a design, we cause architects to look at their completed projects with the little animated cloud of squiggly lines over their heads and mumbling bad words under their breath. People like to walk, but they also like to congregate, to move at different paces, and to create spaces of stillness in the middle of a corridor of movement. Also, we like to go off the beaten path, indulge in our sense of adventure. When you put all of these into a single downtown street, you find people standing in the middle of the sidewalk, walking opposite directions right at each other, and even those just walking in zigzags for the fun of it. This street becomes a living room, a hallway, a doorway, and more all at the same time.
Thus, my walk to Target became a constant zigzag, saying excuse me, and getting dirty looks when I didn't drop a dollar in the panhandler's cup.
God I love Minneapolis.
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