In the light of the number of user requests this year about Richmond Park closing at dusk (plus some prompting!) I thought I’d post here. Hopefully some of the users posting those URs will read this. Oh, for the good old days of sending comments back to users …
Given that Waze doesn’t (yet) incorporate opening/closing times for roads, we have to choose whether roads should be marked open or closed all the time. There are often disagreements about which one to choose, neither are perfect. The route across the park is a useful cut through and imho should be marked open all the time.
The opposite view would be that, particularly in winter evenings, the times that the park might be used are too limited and that it should be marked as closed. If I were to implement this I would set the Park roads to private so at least navigating to locations within the Park was possible.
Interesting I’ve noticed how many people turn up at Robin Hood Gate expecting to get through the Park - I wonder which gps they are using?
Views please!
I’d be inclined to say that the routes given by Waze should be reliably open. New users are more likely to be upset by being directed to the park when it is shut than they are by being unnecessarily routed around it when it is open.
So until Waze pull their finger out and deliver a system that can cope with part-time roads, I’d opt for routing people around the outside all the time. Probably best implemented, as you suggest, by leaving the roads on the map but marking them as private. People who know Waze and the park well could get themselves routed through it by adding a stop within it.
I’d go along with ditch56 - the annoyance factor to new users & people unfamiliar with the area is more important. Experienced locals will ignore Waze & head for the cut-through anyway.
Hi,
There will be the same problem for West Carriage and North Carriage Drive in Hyde Park/Kensington Gardens. Yes?
People who know the cut through will use it, and will likely know the time restrictions in place. As mentioned above, if they don’t “navigate” via the road, they can still drive along it and Waze will recalculate the route.
People who may not know about it will be irked when presented with a shut gate! I can’t remember how TomTom used to deal with West & North Carriage Drives. If no old sony has any breath in it I’ll see what it does, but that version is fairly old now… 
It may be worthwhile adding a landmark either over each entrance or on the whole road stating that it is closed at night? That may keep the uninitiated at bay… 
Des. . . 
And the various access roads around Regents Park too…
Yep I’ve seen Regents Park URs on the same lines.
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I’m tending to setting to private roads in winter and normal streets in summer. That way the summer evening peak gets to use the roads ok. Anyone see a downside?
I’ve made the internal roads private for now. We can argue about making them streets during the winter.
Too early to make them streets again. Dusk must be about 6pm (gates were open at 5pm today) - still too early for the evening peak?
Sunset tonight is 7:39pm - dusk will be 30 minutes previous so the park should be open until at least 7pm from now on. That should be late enough for the evening commuters.
Think I got them all. Let’s share any URs here so we can make sure it’s working right.
Resurrecting this thread since the history might be useful. Now that we (nearly) have time restrictions how should we best tackle the royal parks where closing is at dusk? Richmond Park is the only one of which I have extensive knowledge:
http://www.royalparks.org.uk/parks/richmond-park/visiting-richmond-park/opening-times-and-getting-here
[PDF] Detailed times - http://www.royalparks.org.uk/__documents/richmond-park/richmondpark_gatetimes.pdf
Which other royal parks have roads with restricted times?
Hi,
Hyde park has restrictions from Marble Arch/Cumberland Gate, Bayswater and through to Kensington Gore…
Des. . .
Details for Bushey Park to answer the question you asked to the person who raised a UR at the Hampton Court entrance.
The opening times for the other Royal Parks are listed at the foot of that page.
Thanks, that UR prompted me. I’m really only concerned with through roads like in Richmond Park but I suppose we might as well get the entry times correct for recreation use too.
You could probably implement a small number of coarse restrictions for the seasons, erring towards the shortest days (i.e. earliest dusk). It doesn’t have to be accurate to the minute though-out the equinoxes. Looking at woodvale’s link above, you’ll need separate restrictions to handle the varying opening hours anyway.
Random search led me to this calendar of dawn/dusk times for London. You may find a fixed timetable for the parks in question (e.g. Bushby).
Thanks Tim. I can’t remember if we can set times by month in the beta editor.
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You can set date ranges for each restriction, e.g summer nights, winter nights, etc.
Please post any follow up about time restrictions in Richmond Park in the general London’s Royal Parks thread - https://www.waze.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=55&t=68022