Pause icon for ferry crossings

[Herko ter Horst]

With the recent addition of some new pause icons to the planner (and the app in the near future), I was reminded of a suggestion I made about 2 years ago to add an icon for ferry crossings.

I still think this would be a useful addition, as ferry crossings are natural stops, places to sync up, etc. And with HERE sometimes not routing over a ferry crossing by default, it's a useful indication that the creator of the route indeed intended a ferry crossing there.

Existing pause functionality also makes sense for ferry crossings in my opinion (to indicate additional wait-time, for example).

[Jack van Tilburg]

@Herko-ter-Horst
What's wrong with this one?

[Corjan Meijerink]

@Herko-ter-Horst @Jack-van-Tilburg I literally just added the ferry icon

Great timing!

As of this morning, 4 more were added:

• Roadworks
• Offroad
• Ferry
• Highway

[Drabslab]

@Corjan-Meijerink

Ferries: very interesting subject.

There are very interesting ferries for a motorcycle holiday, for instance: you jump over the Channel, drive to Portsmouth, sail to Bilbao and come back over the road.

or Amsterdam to Newcastle... usually, a very good combination of a very relaxed sea trip and a motorcycle holiday.

In short, being able to see all ferry lines on the MRA map would be brilliant.

[Herko ter Horst]

@Corjan-Meijerink awesome! Thanks.

[Herko ter Horst]

@Jack-van-Tilburg Nothing, it just wasn't there when I looked at the new icons that were added earlier.

[Jack van Tilburg]

@Herko-ter-Horst

[Jack van Tilburg]

@Drabslab said in Pause icon for ferry crossings:

In short, being able to see all ferry lines on the MRA map would be brilliant.

I can verify that ferries are very pleasant. But there are a lot of ferry companies that operate ferries. It will therefore be very difficult to map all ferries.

[Herko ter Horst]

@Drabslab said in Pause icon for ferry crossings:

In short, being able to see all ferry lines on the MRA map would be brilliant.

Not sure what you mean, ferry lines are already visible on all maps (HERE, TomTom, OSM) and overlays (except the OpenCycleMap overlay), depending on zoom level. You will have to lookup which companies run those lines yourself, though.

Example: ferry lines from Rotterdam/Hoek van Holland to various UK ports on OSM:

[Drabslab]

@Herko-ter-Horst said in Pause icon for ferry crossings:

Example: ferry lines from Rotterdam/Hoek van Holland to various UK ports on OSM:

I know

@Herko-ter-Horst said in Pause icon for ferry crossings:

You will have to lookup which companies run those lines yourself, though.

and this is the problem, quite time consuming to find out which company does what route (unless someone knows a good tool for that?). For me this means that ferries are rapidly excluded from my searches for good travel opportunities .

[richtea999]

@Drabslab said in Pause icon for ferry crossings:

@Herko-ter-Horst said in Pause icon for ferry crossings:

You will have to lookup which companies run those lines yourself, though.

and this is the problem, quite time consuming to find out which company does what route (unless someone knows a good tool for that?).

ChatGPT does a reasonable job. It's 2021 data right now, but it's still a good starting point for a more detailed search by date, etc:

Q:
Please tell me which ferries carry motorcycles from the UK to Rotterdam

A:
As of my last knowledge update in September 2021, there were several ferry companies that operated routes from the UK to Rotterdam, Netherlands, and allowed the transportation of motorcycles. However, please note that ferry services and routes can change over time, so I recommend checking with the respective ferry companies for the most up-to-date information. Some of the ferry operators that typically provided services for motorcycles on this route included:

1. P&O Ferries: P&O Ferries operated a service from Hull in the UK to Rotterdam (Europoort) in the Netherlands. They usually allowed motorcycles on board.

2. DFDS Seaways: DFDS operated routes from Newcastle to IJmuiden (near Amsterdam) in the Netherlands. While not directly to Rotterdam, it's a relatively close alternative. They typically allowed motorcycles on their ferries.

3. Stena Line: Stena Line operated a service from Harwich in the UK to the Hook of Holland, which is near Rotterdam. They generally accepted motorcycles on their ferries.

4. Brittany Ferries: Brittany Ferries ran services from the UK to various destinations in France and northern Spain. While not directly to Rotterdam, you could ride from France to the Netherlands. They typically allowed motorcycles.

[EDIT: you can use new Bing search engine 'chat' feature instead of creating a ChatGPT account if you prefer, since it uses ChatGPT underneath anyway.]

[Herko ter Horst]

@Drabslab said in Pause icon for ferry crossings:

and this is the problem, quite time consuming to find out which company does what route (unless someone knows a good tool for that?).

Once you've found a route you like on the map (e.g. Hoek van Holland - Hull or vice versa), it should be a simple Google query "ferry Hoek van Holland Hull". No doubt the top result(s) will be ads from the company/companies that provide ferries on that route.

[Con Hennekens]

@richtea999, I had a hilarious conversation with ChatGPT that clearly shows how you CANNOT take it for granted (sorry, it's in Dutch):

Nothing but excuses for its own false information...