This
interesting practice tends to happen on
college and
corporate campuses where there are large
buildings spread far apart with dozens of acres of lush green grass surrounding them. Suppose a new building is constructed, or some new
office opens. Sidewalks need to be constructed through the grass to this new
structure, but the big question is where to build these sidewalks so they get used.
The simple answer: Don't build sidewalks right away. People will walk across the grass to reach their destination. Within days, a path of dead grass will appear. Bingo; this is the best path to build the new sidewalk on.
There are problems with this approach, however. People are lazy and will cut corners in their walks as often as possible. Eventually the sidewalks will start to grow offshoots made up of more worn-down grass, upon which more sidewalks then need to be constructed. To avoid the resulting spider web of concrete walkways, we might as well pave the whole campus. It's either that or plant strategically placed shrubs to keep the pedestrians on the right path. This seems to be a very common practice at FIU.
Hell, let's pave the world while we're at it.