Estimating the heights of New Yorkers from their scuff marks

https://blog.jse.li/posts/smith9street/

by eat_veggies • 9 days ago

41 12 9 days ago

blog.jse.li

https://web.archive.org/web/20260714142831/https://blog.jse....

Hussain04• 9 days ago

Nah that last image caught me off guard

AndrewKemendo• 9 days ago

This is a good description, and similar to my favorite game to play in public with my kids: “Find the normal distribution”

Of course the most frequent ones are on door handles or pushes. Then usually parking space oil stains around an entrance. Etc…

Desire paths are also generally very tight gaussians.

You can learn a lot about pattern of life just by looking at how humans wear down the world

cogman102• 5 days ago

Universities seem like a social testing ground for the desired path problem.

Some universities get it. They'll see the paths humans make cutting through the grass and adjust their sidewalks accordingly.

Others don't and instead being a futile effort to penalize and police the grass rather than just giving into the human nature to want a straight line path.

artisinal• 5 days ago

It’s not just policing the grass. You have to be ADA compliant, you can’t have inclines too steep, you need sight lines with other traffic. There are many reasons a path is created somewhere.

Just look at the picture below and how the desire path could end up hurting the tree roots. You would also have a decreased sight line with traffic coming from the right.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desire_path#/media/File:Desire...

justsomehnguy• 4 days ago

Some universities get it. They'll see the paths humans make cutting through the grass and adjust their sidewalks accordingly.

And the humans would cut through the grass again and the u. would adjust their their sidewalks again. And the humans would cut through the grass again and the u. would adjust their. And...

In my life I've seen enough of the absolutely stupid shortcuts which just doesn't even make sense - like a less than a meter in length to slightly cut a 90-degree corner.

My favourite example is a bus stop where people would gun the road across instead of using a zebra 30 meters to the left or 50 meters to the right. The best part is what there is a literal river (albeit small) on the other side of the road and the two passages over it are way further left after the crossing and way further right after the crossing - you don't even have any benefits of illegal crossing, nor in the time nor the walk distance.

cogman102• 5 days ago

I can't get to the blog for some reason. Web archive is also failing to archive it.

Anyone have a mirror?

filoleg• 5 days ago

Failing to load for me as well.

chrisjj• 5 days ago

And me (UK).

Cider9986• 5 days ago

The archive is working for me: https://web.archive.org/web/20260714142831/https://blog.jse....

Here's an archive of the archive: https://megalodon.jp/2026-0718-0554-02/https://web.archive.o...

what• 5 days ago

Why are scuff marks assumed to be from shoes? Why not bags/briefcases hitting the wall while leaning against it? Might explain the “implausibly tall”.

cucumber3732842• 4 days ago

That's exactly where most of the wear comes from.

I once had a conversations with a painter at a university. They do the women's bathrooms every year whereas they do the men's as needed. Women have nails and rigs and purses with metal hardware and big fancy buttons and clasps and stuff on their jackets.

I wouldn't be surprised if subway wear on the back wall is gonna be dominated by people carrying things. People carrying things tend to filter there because you can put them down beside you more securely and a lot of those people already have backpacks so it's nice to lean against the wall.

Estimating the heights of New Yorkers from their scuff marks

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