This is a “desire path”! /r/desirepaths was one of my favourites. Don’t think it’s on Lemmy yet

My university used to pave these paths any time they did new construction. They’d put in the normal walkway when a new building went up, wait till the next year and then pave the places where people naturally wanted walkways.

The best part of this picture is it’s clearly used like a road with heavy traffic going both directions, as there’s a little ridge of grass still growing in the middle.