Desire Line Analysis

Desire line analysis reveals the underlying demand for travel between places by drawing straight lines that connect each origin to each destination, with line width or weight proportional to the volume of flow between them. The term comes from transportation planning, where a 'desire line' represents the direct, idealized path a traveller would take if no network constrained them — capturing where people want to go, not how the roads make them go. Aggregating trips into an origin–destination matrix and rendering it as weighted lines exposes the dominant corridors of movement, making desire lines a foundational tool for visualizing and analysing travel demand.