Feature request for MRA Navigation app: detour (for next x km)

[FrankS]

Hi everyone,

I have this feature request for the MRA Navigation app:

From time to time it happens that you get to
a) a road forbidden for cars and/or motorcycles
b) a new road block, e.g. because of road construction work
that HERE does not know as such.

In such events it would be very hepful, if I could trigger MRA navigation to calculate a detour. If I have the information, I would optionally also define the length of the blocked road, so that MRA navigation knows how long the detour needs to be.

Looking forward to comments from the MRA development team!

Thanks
Frank

[Corjan Meijerink]

@FrankS Thanks for the elaborate suggestion.

Something similar is already in our backlog but given the complexity, it is not something that will be added in the near future. If you just take the detour, the app wil continuously reroute you to the destination / next waypoint. If it indeed doesn't know about the roadblock, chances are it will navigate you back to that closed road

[FrankS]

@Corjan-Meijerink Seeing the many construction sites on roads, bridges etc. which a rider may appreciate (as improvement) or not (as blocked road) and again my yesterday's experience with blocked roads not being shown as such on HERE and Google map: I really would appreciate if MRA conducts a poll about how many users of the MRA navigation app deserve a re-route feature in MRA, and if votes indicate, a righ ranking of this feature in your roadmap.

I also refer to Jörgen's proposal for a concrete proposal for a solution design: https://forum.myrouteapp.com/topic/5666/a-method-to-handle-blocked-streets?_=1713199140207

[Rob Verhoeff]

@FrankS I don't think MRA is guided by polls, whether initiated by themselves or not... Considering the many requests that come up here on the forum, I already believe that MRA deserves a big thumbs up for how they handle all those requests. And let's not forget, my wish can be your burden!

I rarely encounter roadworks during planned routes. That indeed requires some planning ahead! The past period was focused on solving a very annoying bug, fixing white maps when starting the app or navigating. I hope there will be some peace now and that the focus will shift towards implementing some crucial features for Android Auto and Apple CarPlay, and then refreshing the RouteLab so that we can continue making beautiful routes reliably in the future. That's my two cents.

[Bart De Medts]

@Rob-Verhoeff Amen

[Corjan Meijerink]

@FrankS definitely seen this suggestion! Just rather complex to implement given the current priorities
For sure it’s something we still have envisioned for the future

[Con Hennekens]

@FrankS, Everyone would like such a nice new feature, you don't need to poll that. Leading is how much value such a feature brings to the experience of driving a route. And personally I think that it is not a lot. Reason for this is that for sudden roadblocks the distance is usually unknown. Also a detour is usually added on road signs.

[David Emmett]

Posting here to say that I would like this feature too. I recently did 2600km through NL-DE-CZ-AT-DE-NL and came across a couple of blocked roads on planned routes. I ended up just trying to ride around the blocked road, but it felt like I was flying blind. The Garmin I used to use nearly 20 years ago had the option to detour around a blockage, the user having to enter the distance over which the blockage extends (which it's hard to know, but still).

So my suggestion would be for the app to work as follows:

1. Arrive at a road and find it blocked.
2. In the app, choose the option: Detour
3. The app asks: distance for Detour
4. Distance options might be 100m, 500m, 1km, 2km, 5km, 10km
5. After you select a distance, app calculates a route back to the original route, skipping the selected distance along the original route.

I suspect this could be built on top of the automatic route recalculation function which is already implemented for when you deviate from the planned route. But not knowing the codebase, I can't be sure.

[Rainer Treichel]

I know this function from my DomDom Rider from 2011.
It's not very practical because you have to stop in a safe place to parameterise the function (do you know exactly how long the lock is?) and start it.
The alternative is in Germany: there is always a diversion signposted if the road is not completely unimportant.
And with MRA there is the white line to which you can return manually to continue the tour exactly (almost) as planned.
To do this, you can deactivate the automatic recalculation so that the blue route line remains visible.
All this also works in your brain while you continue your journey.
RT

Translated with DeepL.com (free version)

[Con Hennekens]

@Rainer-Treichel said in Feature request for MRA Navigation app: detour (for next x km):

It's not very practical because you have to stop in a safe place to parameterise the function (do you know exactly how long the lock is?) and start it.

Exactly, I've said this many times before. This suggestion pops up from time to time

[David Emmett]

When a road is blocked ahead, the safe place to stop and input a detour is... at the place where the road is blocked.

And the detour signs in Germany are very useful, you have to know where the places on the detour signs are and how they relate to your planned route.

[Lex.Kloet.RX]

I've had this option for the last 15 years and 250.000km on my Garmin. I have never ever used it. Set recalculation off (when it is on) follow the indicated diversion and once you are back on your route you might set recalculation off.
Since I live in Germany, I notice, that roadblocks are temporarily freed during weekends

[Con Hennekens]

@Lex.Kloet.RX said in Feature request for MRA Navigation app: detour (for next x km):

Since I live in Germany, I notice, that roadblocks are temporarily freed during weekends

Yes indeed, often a road closure can be driven outside the working hours. Espcially with a motorcycle. I tend to at least try that, before taking a detour

[M. Schrijver]

The idea itself is not a bad idea. I thought for myself many times how to implement such a feature and i agree with @Corjan-Meijerink it is not easy to implement such a feature. Just like @Con-Hennekens said. It is unknown what length the obstruction has. That is at least one thing you need to know.
In most of times it happens. A solution present itself pretty easy.

[M. Schrijver]

@David-Emmett said in Feature request for MRA Navigation app: detour (for next x km):

And the detour signs in Germany are very useful, you have to know where the places on the detour signs are and how they relate to your planned route.

As a foreigner this not always that easy. The places mentioned on the signs are often pretty far off-route. This means you still need to guess how your detour needs to be.
But still it is always better than no signs at all.

[Lex.Kloet.RX]

@Con-Hennekens exactly! At first I was a bit anxious, but now I am even testing them at the VrijMiBo and last time they were still working at 15:00. I only asked: "kann ich durch?". Antwort war "Ja, pass auf, kann noch etwas glatt sein"