Hmm. In my real-life city, a public park is never enclosed by houses. The public (and maintenance crews) must have access without walking on private property. There is always at least a walkway wide enough for a pickup truck to service the park. (And I can't think of a single park that has only a walkway/service access. There is always a roadway.)
But it's economically annoying to have vacant lots in the center of the block. If there was unallocated land between the park and the road, then I agree the park shouldn't need to be touching a road, because the maintenance crew could drive across the vacant lot, which would also be extending the useful area of the park. That would allow parks to be more easily positioned, but it would mean the park would have to lock a vacant pathway to the nearest road.
We need a way to draw the connection to the road, so we are in control of where it is. Perhaps we could have a new graphic, a wide walkway that could connect parks to roads. Many (real-life) cities have winding wide paths that allow bicycles and pedestrians a safe corridor. They're wide enough for maintenance trucks (single lane only) and would require a small lot (or half a lot width) in the game and could add a feature of providing bike lanes through the city.
Or EA could simply allow a park (and possibly any building) to be placed at the end of a road. A road used that way could be drawn square, not round, to indicate the object's access is connecting with the end of "this" road, not the side of some other road.
