I don’t actually know but I’ve been told that most highways were once trails. Trails carved from the hooves of pigs or cattle or such. I don’t know if they were feral pigs or longhorn cattle but over the years they carved niches out of the landscape and that seem like the only explanation for why the roads meander like they do. I used to be amazed watching the livestock come back to my grandmothers farmhouse pens every night from the fields. Regardless if they were pigs, cows or horses they would be lined up one behind the other following the same trail night after night.
I guess over time the beaten down trails became ruts from the passing of wagon wheels. Those same paths were eventually traversed by cars. Of course they leveled the ruts with various materials to make for smoother rides but the trails still exist albeit the livestock would turn into road kill today.
In a marketing class I took one semester I learned that there are patterns associated with how people maneuver especially in crowds. I was surprised to see that people would seemingly attract to each other like magnets and cause congestion even though there was plenty of surrounding open space. It’s really kind of bizarre Continue reading “Pig Trails”