How to exclude short time road blocks during navigation

[Axel Härtl]

Hello @Corjan-Meijerink,

I’ve been an enthusiastic user of MRA for years (including as a Lifetime Member).

There’s one issue I keep running into, and I’d like to clarify it.

It happened to me many times that I suddenly come across a last-minute road closure that isn’t shown on the maps and therefore not accounted for in the planning.

With Calimoto (yes, yes, that was a long time ago), I could dynamically block the section of road ahead of me (1 km, 5 km, ...) so that the navigation would route me around the blocked section.

With MRA, I don’t know how to do that. If I simply take a different route, MRA guides me back to the exact spot that’s blocked after a few minutes. Then I have to switch to Google Maps, which I’d really try to avoid.

What is MRA’s approach to roads that are blocked at short notice? What should the user do to avoid being directed into the roadblock over and over again? Just deleting one or two shaping points ahead doesn't help.

Thanks for your answer.

Best, Axel

[Nick Carthew]

@Axel-Härtl If the road closure is unknown then how can the app respond?
You follow the local diversion signs and skip any waypoints that are in the closed section.

[Axel Härtl]

@Nick-Carthew

Hi Nick, the easy answer is: MRA should use a similar algorithm as Calimoto.

It happend to me pretty often that a detour is not shown by signs. So I just drive left or right in front of the block. That doesn't help as I explaind in #1.

[Rae Sewell]

Not just Calimoto but also the Tomtom Go Expert app has the facility to avoid the next few yards or miles.

[Nick Carthew]

You can select to see the original route, this appears as a white line. If there are no local diversion signs (not very common to see this) then you navigate around the closure back to the original route and skip whatever waypoints that you need to.
This is a perfectly easy solution, personally I do not wish for a clone of Calimoto or TomTom Go but that’s just my opinion.

[Axel Härtl]

@Nick-Carthew

Hi Nick, to be honest - that seems much too complicated for me - especially on a small mobil phone.

What's the reason not to implement a solution like other navigation systems? I'm shure most users will be very pleased with such a functionality.

[Con Hennekens]

@Axel-Härtl, The reason is that usually it is unknown how long the blockage is. You can assume 1 km or 5, but there is no realism in it. ALSO, usually a detour is on the signs on the road. Just follow that advised detour. ALSO, If you block say 1 km of road but the detour puts you on the road 3km further, your solution would send you back for 2km. So... I am happy with the way it is now...

[Axel Härtl]

@Con-Hennekens

Hm, I understand what you are saying. Your are right - the lengh of the blockage is not known a priori. So the software has to deal with that uncertainty (see my point #2 below).

1: If there are detour signs, following those is definitely the best choice. Of course some shaping, or - more important - via points have to be deleted.
-a: when are I back on the original route?
-b: which via points did I miss and have to delete them? (Assuming that shaping points are skipped automatically.)

You see - pretty much to do. Not very user friendly.

2: The algorithms of Calimoto and friends don't guide you back towards the detour you just took. Once you're back on the original route, the software continues to guide you in the direction of your original destination. That means, that the estimation of the length of the blockage is not crucial. If you choose a too long blockage, the detour will be longer. That's it.

So I keep my question open: why not a similar philosophy in MRA as in comparable navigation systems (of course, MRA is not comparable to any other system. )

Best, Axel

[Nick Carthew]

@Axel-Härtl As I have said in a previous comment, in the highly unlikely event of a road closure not having local diversion signs, using your inbuilt navigation device (common sense) you look at your screen and see the white line of the original route. It really is not difficult to navigate back to it.

[Axel Härtl]

@Nick-Carthew

Thanks, Nick. You have a very good point.

One could see, wether there is a via point (or an unskipped shaping point) on the white line. Then it is easy to delete them. Perfect.

Thanks - your solution will help me in future definitely.

Best, Axel

[Nick Carthew]

@Axel-Härtl You could always clear the blocked road like Corjan and I did in 2023

[Axel Härtl]

@Nick-Carthew

Again a very good point.

I will remember your solution the next time I'm facing a blocking.

[BMWBiker58]

I would also like to see better technical support in the event of sudden road closures. Unfortunately, I very often find that motorway exits are closed. This means you’re forced to drive past them. As a result, you’re directed in the opposite direction at the next junction, only to be led back to the closed exit after another U-turn. Especially when the closure is announced at very short notice, there are (as yet) no diversion signs. The advice to ‘navigate by sight’ back to the route is not helpful to me, particularly when you are in a completely unfamiliar area and have a poor sense of direction. Technical support that eventually guides you back onto the route would be the most useful improvement to the MRA NN app for me.

[Herman Veldhuizen]

last minute closures (caused by accidents typically) never have diversion signs. tomtomgo expert has indeed a useful feature to deal with such cases and it would be a useful addition to MRA. But if you ask me wether implementing it should get priority over some other issues my answer would be no.