The partially disjoint paths problem asks for paths $P_1, \ldots,P_k$ between given pairs of terminals, while certain pairs of paths $P_i$,$P_j$ are required to be disjoint. With the help of combinatorial group theory, we show that, for fixed $k$, this problem can be solved in polynomial time for planar directed graphs. We also discuss related problems. No specific foreknowledge is required.

We give a general construction of triangulations, starting from a walk with small steps in the quarter plane This construction is a discrete version of the mating of trees. We use a special instance of this construction to give a bijection between maps equipped with a rooted spanning tree and walks in the quarter plane. We also show how the construction allows to recover several known bijections between such objects in a uniform way.