Backbone.js facepalm

router-facepalm.js.coffee

class AppRouter extends Backbone.Router
  routes:
    'users/:user': user

  user: (user) ->
    console.log 'navigated to user:', user


router = new AppRouter
Backbone.history.start { pushState: true }

# This changes the URL, but does NOT trigger the AppRouter.user function:
router.navigate 'users/destroytoday'

# This changes the URL and triggers the function:
router.navigate 'users/destroytoday', true

# This also works:
router.navigate 'users/destroytoday', { trigger: true }

# In my opinion, trigger should be true by default. Why would you want to change the URL without doing anything?

"Why would you want to change the URL without doing anything?"
You could have tabs or a carousel with all the data loaded in the page and use different urls to have different states.
Then you have a unique url for each tabs or carousel item.