G'day, Welcome to Wazeopedia Australia!
This vital resource serves to explain the unique editing rules that apply to all editors working on the Australian maps.
Are you a brand new editor to Waze? Take a look at the Waze Australia onboard process.
What The Australian Community Expects From You
- Everyone is welcome to contribute to the Waze Australia map, but is required to follow the local rules, mapping standards and terminology as listed here in the Australian Wiki. Any rules/guidelines not covered herein will be available in the global Wiki.
- We occasionally make changes to standards which you need to keep apprised of. Changes as well as other announcements are often found in the Australian forums or Waze Australia Discord server.
- Any edit made is to improve the quality of the map for the benefit of Waze app users. If your edit is not going to value add, it is not welcome.
- If you don’t know or you’re not sure, check out this wiki, ask on the forums or Discord, or approach your editing mentor. Do not make an edit that risks damaging the map.
- Every volunteer Waze editor needs to acknowledge they are working as a part of a larger team, all working towards the same goal. It is therefore vital we work together, and not against each other.
- A component of teamwork is communication - for example, reading and responding to forum messages and emails, visiting the forum to view news and announcements, joining discussions on Discord, providing and receiving feedback, and working with local area, state and country managers.
- Do not take over a segment or area already being worked on. Check segment timestamps and look out for map comments (turn the layer on in WME). Reach out to other editors first to ensure you’re not damaging their contributions. You can reach out to them via forum PM or the Discord server.
- When you edit a segment, you become responsible for ensuring it is correct and complete. Make sure:
- The segment position and angles are realistically mapped
- The segment is connected correctly to other segments
- A name, city and state is applied, where known
- Check turns to other segments are correct
- Speed limits are applied
- It is locked to the correct level
- Lane guidance is applied, where applicable.
- You do not copy external data or information from other data sources (maps, websites, etc.) unless it meets our strict external data policy.
- All activities concerning Waze in Australia are carried out in a spirit of mutual respect and we want you to show it. So keep the wording nice and friendly, and use the "thank you" on the forums and Discord if someone helps you.
Your edits are visible for all to see, in addition to active monitoring by area, state and country managers. If you do not meet these expectations, you can anticipate contact via forum private message or on the Waze Australia Discord server. Rapid improvement is required, or the Australian management team will be forced to take action against your account to remove privileges, rank, editing area, and editing abilities. Sanctions against your account will follow you in any country you edit in.
Waze Editing Philosophy
It's important to understand the purpose of Waze. Waze is NOT a general-purpose mapping application. It is designed specifically to assist drivers of motor vehicles to navigate to their objectives and to avoid traffic. In other words, it is a NAVIGATION app. The Waze map is not a topographic map; it is a specialised diagram providing navigation information. Edits to the map that do not support these goals in some way are strongly discouraged. Edits that detract from these goals, even unintentionally, do not belong at all. (See Misunderstanding Waze's purpose).
This is hinted at in the first two goals of Waze map editing - usability and simplicity. The map has to work for navigation, and it has to be no more complex than is needed to achieve that. Every extra road segment carries with it a number of costs:
- extra clutter on the map as seen in the app
- extra processing in the mobile device to determine which of many segments best matches the current position estimate, and to display the segments, resulting in extra heat and shorter battery life
- extra bandwidth needed to transfer the data to the app
- the big one: extra complexity for the routing server, potentially causing it to be unable to find a route in the time available
The cost for a single extra segment may not be significant, but when there is a high proportion of unnecessary segments, the cumulative cost becomes a concern.
There are a number of guidelines that have been developed to meet these goals:
- We do not represent roads as parallel one-way sections unless it's really needed. See Dual Carriageways
- We do not split roads into a Y-shape where they meet a roundabout. See Roundabouts
- DON'T map every lane of a parking lot. Only map the parking-lot roads necessary to ensure proper routing to and from destinations, and the perimeter lane when necessary so that parking lot traffic will not be detected as slow traffic on an adjacent road. See Mapping Parking Lot Roads.
- We do not map turn lanes unless they are really needed. See Should the connector be mapped
- Bike paths, hiking trails or other walkways that do not benefit drivers should not be mapped. See Pedestrian Paths
- In general, there is no reason to have multiple rail lines mapped. See Railroads
- We don't map small loops at the end of dead-end segments. See Cul-de-sacs
- We don't map short driveways. See Driveways
- Don't fiddle with angles or distances near intersections until you thoroughly understand U-turn prevention and How Waze determines turn instructions. The details at those references are more complex than they appear at first, and even a small change (for example, to align the road segment on the map with the road shown on the aerial photography) can cause Waze to issue misleading turn instructions or even direct the driver though an illegal turn.
A good rule to bear in mind is: will the map generate the right instructions without the change I'm thinking of? If you are uncertain, ask for advice in the Australia forums.
New editors are often keen to add as much as possible to the map. The reality is that the established metro areas have been pretty comprehensively mapped, and you're unlikely to find much that needs doing. Focus on new housing developments, where the Waze map hasn't caught up. Oh, and remember that you mustn't copy information from other maps, only from what Waze provides in the map editor or you see in real life. See External Sources and Map Editor - External Sources. We have permission from Waze to use Government announcements of road closures when updating the map.
Topic List
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Please do not edit any of these pages without Country Management permission. |