Proposal for an algorithm to guide around unexpected road closures

[BMWBiker58]

As this is a subject close to my heart, I’d like to highlight once again a scenario that has become all too common, where the ability to block an exit on the planned route would be extremely helpful.
You reach a motorway exit that has only just been closed. So you can only continue straight ahead. After a few kilometres, you are diverted at the next opportunity. At that moment, you don’t know whether the app is (incorrectly) rerouting you back or whether it has found a new way back onto the planned route beyond the closure.
That is why it would be so important to be able to mark the closure with a button so that it is excluded from the routing. (Please bear in mind that you are driving on the motorway and cannot stop to fiddle about on the small screen).
This scenario, as well as sudden closures on country roads due to fallen trees, landslides, etc., is unfortunately becoming increasingly common and is no longer the absolute exception.
There are people with a very good sense of direction who don’t need this – for me, it would be a huge help.

[Axel Härtl]

@BMWBiker58

Perfect. I totally agree.

In my proposal the usage of shaping point A and B would be as follows.

If you press the button "here is beginning of a closure" shaping point A is automatically set.

If you leave the highway and press "here is end of a closure" shaping point B is automatically set.

The algorithm then excludes the road between A and B from the calculation and continues as I described.

Best, Axel

[BMWBiker58]

@Axel-Härtl Would this prevent the app from trying to reroute via the closed exit?
If I understand your suggestion correctly, only the section from the closed exit (first press of the button) straight ahead until the second press of the button would be blocked.
However, the exit itself (and certainly a few kilometres beyond it) – the road or motorway you actually wanted to take – would need to be blocked.

[Guzzist]

Now we are discussing 2 different scenarios? If I understand correctly, we have:

• the road you are driving (following the planned route) is suddenly blocked. So, you need to leave this road - and you need guidance to get back on the planned route
• You are supposed to leave the road you’re driving on – following the planned route. But the exit is suddenly blocked. So you can’t leave this road – and you need guidance to get back on the planned route

[Axel Härtl]

@Guzzist @BMWBiker58

Yes, there are two scenarios under discussion now.

1: if a planned route is blocked -> the algorithm is decribed in my post #1
.
.
2: by selecting "here is the end of the closure" at the exit of a motorway, shaping point B would not be set on the originally planned route but somewhere else (i.e. at the exit).

So in this case the algorithm should navigate to the nearest point of the originally planned route.

Here the rule for skipping a via point between A and the location, where the original route is met again must be implemented as I proposed in post #1

[Nomko Nomden]

@Axel-Härtl
Don't you have those diversion signs in Germany, like we have in the Netherlands, that direct you around the location of the roadworks when there are roadworks somewhere?

Or do you mean, for example, roadworks that suddenly appear without clear prior notice?

I get the point about having a button or function in MRA that allows you to bypass roadworks. Last year in Belgium, I experienced 3 or 4 times that roadworks suddenly appeared that hadn't been there a week before my tour. It is annoying, but stopping for a moment and checking how to get from A to B is, in my opinion, perfectly doable.

[BMWBiker58]

@Nomko-Nomden Yes, of course there are diversion signs when it’s a PLANNED construction project at a motorway exit. You can, after all, take these into account during the planning stage.
However, I’m talking about the increasingly frequent SUDDEN closures of motorway exits.
Or fallen trees or landslides on country roads.
In such cases, I would like to see a button that prevents the navigationdevice from repeatedly attempting to navigate through the closure.
I would like to point out that you simply cannot stop to look at anything or make a change because you are not allowed to stop on motorways.It would be possible on country roads, but it would be fiddly to set up a diversion manually on the small screen.

[Axel Härtl]

@Nomko-Nomden

Hello Nomko

This entire discussion pertains to the scenario where there is an unplanned, last-minute road closure. In such cases, there are often (based on experience) no detour signs. (Unfortunately, Germany is also on the decline right now, which is making the situation increasingly worse—but that’s a different discussion.)

In this case, you have to stop and re-plan your route. This is certainly possible with a little effort. However, adding a shaping point by pressing and holding a road segment on my phone during navigation unfortunately doesn’t work. So I have to stop the navigation, go back to planning mode, and replan.

However, if you encounter a closed exit on a highway, this isn’t an option, since you’re not allowed to stop on highways. By the time you reach the next possible exit, you’re no longer on the planned route and may be redirected back.

Various approaches to this issue (unfortunately scattered throughout the thread) have been compiled here.

In addition to the arguments for including a simple detour feature in MRA, we also see that other navigation systems offer this capability.

@Corjan-Meijerink has taken up the basic idea but has also written that implementation is not currently planned.

I hope this clarifies our request somewhat.

[Nick Carthew]

I do hope that we’re not going to over complicate the app by adding more buttons and settings. In my 50 years of using our road systems, I have encountered both blocked motorway exits caused by accidents and unexpected road closures (fallen tree) and I have always dealt with them without an additional magic button. Some of the posts in this thread paint an almost apocalyptic picture where these unexpected closures are happening on a daily basis. Just my thoughts.

[Axel Härtl]

@Nick-Carthew

Hi Nick. Do you regard TomTom as being overcomplicated, since there is such a button?

By the way: I encounter an unexpected closure nearly on every tour. This might be because I prefer small, windy roads.
On those roads you hardly find detour signs. They are simply closed and that‘s it.