Desire lines?

17th Street SE, looking north across 3rd Avenue

In a recent post, I celebrated the completed conversion of 3rd Avenue back to two-way. Readers with remarkable retention will recall that, at the same time, 17th Street was turned into a cul-de-sac south of 3rd. (The stated reason was to prevent traffic from approaching the intersection from too many directions at once.)

The plan (as of March; note the right turn spur off Blake was not built)

Here is the cul-de-sac when it was just finished:

Here's what it used to look like:

As I've passed the intersection lately, however, I've noticed increasing numbers of tire tracks across the newly-closed part. (See top picture.) It could be construction vehicles... but there doesn't seem to be much construction going on anymore. Apparently, not everybody is down with the new alignment, at least as regards 17th Street.