Often detours are considered wasteful mistakes in the context of rational travel and logistics. However, detours may also be understood as culturally rich and socially dense phenomena that are vital to our everyday mobilities. We argue that they might even be seen as signs of street wisdom. In this paper we offer a theoretical scaffolding of detours and a tentative taxonomy of four different types of detours. These are related to empirical fieldwork conducted among unhoused, previously unhoused, and socially marginalised people in Denmark. This paper aims to provide a better understanding of how detours
are tactically used in four different streetwise ways: 1) Detour to avoid stigmatisation, 2) Detour as autonomy, 3) Detour as safety, and 4) Forced detours. The four different examples highlight how detours serve as survival tactics for unhoused people and how new design interventions create obstacles in their everyday lives, requiring them to generate new tactics on the fly.