A lot of universities with large campus grounds take the approach of observing the natural foot traffic wear patterns on grassy areas, and then build walkways where the most worn down parts are.
Its... pretty obvious.
If everyone is taking an alternate, non designed path... your design sucks, modify it to facilitate what people find more effective.
They did this in a park by my house. It used to have a long paved path that meandered through some woods. Engineers with the city noticed the shortcut that people were cutting through, and realized that most people didn't care for the long path. Apparently some anonymous person or several had been dumping gravel along the shortcut for traction and to make it less muddy. So the city paved the shortcut, and removed the long path so that nature would reclaim it.
Democracy in action.
It was kind of sad though to lose the long path because I liked walking through there, especially during the fall, but if it means having less maintenance machines going in there every week to pollute the place (lawnmowers, asphalt patching, etc) then so be it.
It is not design issue but not well behaved people. It is like saying that the trash can isn't a good design because people are throwing trash on the street. You don't path like that in countries with people that respect rules.
It is not an excuse, you can always bring your trash with you. That is what Japanese people do as there no trash bins in Japan (they are really real rare).
I have been in few countries in Europe and I see trash in the street. Japan doesn't have trash bins (not in the street, train, stations) and you won't see trash in the street.
You are lying or not paying attention. Got to Tokyo and you'll have plenty (as per Japanese standard) of trash in the streets specially near Shinjuku and Shibuya
And yes they mostly take their trash with them as there are no trash bins. But is it a smart design though?
I am not lying and if you do some search you will find out that there are rarely trash bins in the whole Japan. And that is the result of the 90s terrorist attacks. I have been there and I rarely seen trash bins and I have been in many different cities. There are may be exceptions in some areas but that is not the norm.
Why isn't a smart design? Why spend money for something that is not necessary. Also bringing trash home will ensure that people will recycle them. Trash recycling do exists in Europe but not in street trash bins. Trash bins exists in Europe because otherwise people will just throw their trash in the street like they do for cigarettes butts.
I don't need research because I've been to Tokyo plenty of times and I saw in fact lots of trash in the ground.
And again you're wrong, trash bins for recycling do exist in Europe because I use them all the time, and I also happen to have visited lots of European countries and I didn't see that much more trash in the ground than Japan. It's true for cigar butts, but not trash. You probably had one "bad" experience and are using that evidence anecdotally. You are comparing Japan, a country, to Europe, a continent, it's not fair
Haha, I need to take your word for because you say so when everyone says that trash bins are rare in Japan. There are even people asking for a guide to find trash bins.
Trash bin do exists but not everywhere especially in the streets. And when they exist it is only two types. And you will that people do not recycle and I saw the cleaners mix them.
When I say there is trash in the ground, I didn't mean that you see it everywhere.