Innovative or just ordinary?

Take a look at the picture. There is a path. And there is a fence. Apparently the fence has been built after people have used the lawn as a shortcut, the existence of the path would otherwise have been rather unlikely.

The fence is an ordinary solution. It forces people to adapt to what once have been decided: This is a street with no crosswalk. This is not for crossing.

An innovative solution would have been to put a crosswalk in front of the lawn. Obviously people have a need here, to cross the street just at this very point. There is a need for change.

Lesson learned?

Ordinary people create solutions and put a lot of effort making people adopt them. It's in fact rather crazy, but as everybody else are doing the same thing, it seems to be right way.

Innovative people see the flow and follow it. Nobody knows where it will end but it's powered by natural forces. If you are lucky it will take you very, very far.

Comments

[Ben]

The natural flow for pedestrians in that place might be to cross the street in that place.
But what about the natural flow of cars and trams in that place?
It might just be a very convenient but dangerous place to cross the street and creating a pedestrians crossing at that point might hinder the traffic flow in that street enough to create a problem.

innovative solutions should solve problems in a simple and creative way but when innovation you should also take into consideration that other flows should not be hindered.