Richmond Park = Full of tossers

@will_s there are small tracks by the side of the road, eh? they get used now, don't see why people would forsake the park just to walk on the tarmac cause there are no cars.

It's human nature to spread out and use up as much space as possible, especially if it's a novelty that you can walk 'where the cars used to go'. I agree with @will_s in that banning cars completely would make it far worse for cyclists wishing to do laps on the road.

My theory is that the majority of hassle in the park comes from motorists who are using it as a short cut to get from A to B and they're annoyed at being 'held up' by cyclists.

The majority of people who have parked up and wandered around (walkers, runners, cyclists, twitcher-botherers, etc) have less of a sense of urgency to get through the park when arriving/leaving (there are, of course, exceptions).

One of the best ideas I can think of is to have some system of tickets or ANPR cameras and barriers at each gate that charge a small fee for exit except:

• Vehicles leaving by the same gate they came in through
  
• Vehicles who have stayed in the park for more than, say, 30 minutes
  
  

This allows free use of the park but charges for people using it as a cut through.