Australian Road Types & Naming

This page covers road names for the country listed in the page title. For other countries see this page.

Introduction

This forms part of Australian Editing Best Practice. Editors are encouraged to follow these guidelines.

Road Name & Number

As first country in Waze Australia has a complete set of road shields, which are generated by the system automatically, if a certain pattern in applying the Road Name & Number is observed.

To get a road shield displayed in the client the form of the shield and the number (numeric or alphanumeric) that it should field have to be coded in the street name in a predefined pattern. Please use the patterns exactly as stated there, otherwise the display in the client will not work properly.

Traditional route numbering

Road Shield Example (Client Screenshot)	Pattern	Example streetname in WME
National Highway	NHx - Name NHxx - Name	NH1 - Stuart Hwy
National Route	NRx - Name NRxx - Name	NR1 - Pacific Hwy
Alternate National Route	ALTNRx - Name ALTNRxx - Name	ALTNR1 - Dandenong Rd
State Route	SRx - Name SRxx - Name SRxxx - Name	SR8 - Anything Hwy
Metro Road	MRx - Name MRxx - Name	MR5 - Centenary Hwy
Rural Road/Route	RRx - Name RRxx - Name	RR99 – Dontknowit Rd
Tourist Road/Route	TRx - Name TRxx - Name	TR7 – NoIdea Rte

Alphanumerical route numbering

Road Shield Example (Client Screenshot)	Pattern	Example streetname in WME
National M	NMx - Name NMxx - Name	NM39 - Goulburn Valley Fwy
	Mx - Name Mxx - Name Mxxx - Name	M3 - Eastern Fwy
National A	NAx - Name NAxx - Name	NA8 - Barton Hwy
	SRx - Name SRxx - Name SRxxx - Name	SR8 - Anything Hwy
Alternate A	ALTAx - Name ALTAxx - Name	ALTA2 - Warrego
	Bx - Name Bxx - Name Bxxx - Name	B12 - Road Name
	Cx - Name Cxx - Name Cxxx - Name	C234 - Example Rd

Abbreviations & Acronyms

We decided long ago to use abbreviations (Rd instead of Road) and made an extra page for it, because all abbreviations have to be introduced to TTS for proper pronounciation. For place, feature, roadway & traverseable path naming, please see:

Abbreviations & Acronyms (Australia)

Unfortunately this has not been observed in the past, so we have to do a lot of fixing.

Road types and Lock levels

The following convention is the recommended way to label road types in Australia. If it is too difficult or complicated to determine the road type, it is best to label the road type in a way that would be helpful to the driver on that road. More information can be found Here.

To protect the high ranking roadgrid from accidental damage especially from unexperiened editors the segments have to be locked at a certain level which you find for each roadtype in the respective section.

Special Note
Unfortunately there is no nation-wide consistent system (i.e. NR8 is according to official WA governmental documents a freeway, even if it would be a Minor Hwy by its shield according to QLD or VIC standards). So use judgement and discration in combining the shields with the proper roadtype.

Freeway

Waze Road Type	Description
Freeway	Freeway, motorway, expressway and tollway. There must be no intersections and there must be no access or exits except from ramps. Usually designated by a gold-on-green alphanumeric road number designation that begins with the letter "M".In the case of tollways the sign is presented in a gold-on-blue style, but for toll roads are handled in another way we don't cover it with the road shields.

• Road Type: Freeway
• City: activate No-City checkbox
• Name: <Mx>" - "<Name> i.e. „M3 - Eastern Fwy“
• Lock: lv5

Major Highway

Waze Road Type	Description
Major Highway	National highways. Usually designated by gold-on-green shields with the word "National" written at the top. May contain alphanumeric numbering with the letter "A" at the start of the number, or may just use a number. Also referred to as primary routes.

• Road Type: Major
• City: activate noCity checkbox
• Name: <Axx>" - "<Name> i.e. „A8 - Barton Hwy“ or
  <NHxx>" - "<Name> i.e. "NH1 - Stuart Hwy"
• Lock: lv3

Minor Highway

Waze Road Type	Description
Minor Highway	State highways or State Roads. Usually designated by a numbered white-on-blue bullet sign, or by a gold-on-green alphanumeric designation starting with the letter "B" or "C". Also referred to as secondary and tertiary routes.

• Road Type: Minor
• City: City Name, see Australian City Naming
• Name: <SRxx>" - "<Name> i.e. „SR8 - Graham Farmer Hwy“ or
  <Bxx>" - "<Name> i.e. "B12 - Mallee Hwy" or
  <Cxxx>" - "<Name> i.e. "C234 - Borung Hwy"
• Lock: lv3

A special note on locking:

The above mentioned roadtypes are vital for routing calculation in Waze, therefore they need to be locked to prevent especially new editors from unintentionally damaging these traffic arteries. But keep in mind that a lock also blocks lower level editors from adding streets. So only apply a lock on a segment, if all roads are

adjected.

If creating a new road in a not yet mapped area, you also may choose to add just one short segment of an adjecting road (a handle) to create the junction and allow a lower level editor to connect the surrounding streets later without beeing

blocked by the locked highway.

Primary Street

Waze Road Type	Description
Primary Street	Main Roads, Regional Roads, Tourist Drives, Scenic Drives, etc that are not classified as highways. They connect suburbs and towns. May also include roads designated as"D" roads in some states. Also referred to as tertiary routes.

• Road Type: Primary
• City: City Name, see Australian City Naming
• Name: <TRxxx>" - "<Name> i.e. „TR10 - Princes Hwy“
• Lock: lv1

Street

Waze Road Type	Description
Street	Urban streets and rural roads not identified above. Use also when in doubt of proper street type.

• Road Type: Street
• City: City Name, see Australian City Naming
• Name: Streetname according to postal adress
• Lock: lv1

Dual Carriageways

The following convention should be followed where possible, although it is acknowledged that you may need to deviate from it in some circumstances.

A road can be split into be 2 one-way roads if all of the following conditions are met:

1. The central reservation is > 15m
2. There's a visible gap between the GPS traces
3. It is split by physical barrier (Concrete, Armco, pedestrian barrier etc)

Pedestrian refuges and painted road separation (cross hatching that can be driven over) should not normally be split.

Special Note

You have to keep in mind, that Waze actually is not supporting split roads - i.e. all reports to the opposing lane of a split road are in vain, because for the client this are two seperate one-way-streets, it doesn't know any opposing directions. Road splitting has been done way to often in the past, so we "increased" the conditions to be met before splitting a road. But if you have a perfectly working splitted road that does not meet the above stated conditions don't unsplit it. It's a lot of work with the risk of loosing valuable traffic data and house numbers (if done wrong).

Motorway Carriageway Naming Convention

Whenever possible, on split roads, name carriageways with the direction of travel. Insert the direction of travel at the end of the road name:

Examples:
1. M3 - Eastern Fwy (Inbound)
2. A4 - (W)
3. M25 - (ACW)

This makes traffic and incident reports much more useful and helps with navigation.

Exit and Entrance ramps (on/off ramps)

Exit Signage along M1 - West Gate Fwy (E)

Exit signage along M1 - Monash Fwy (SE)

For the best balance between information and screen real estate, the following conventions are used. All ramps will be set as the 'ramp' type in the Waze Map Editor and be locked at the same level as the freeway which joins to them. The name of the road, route number (if applicable) and compass direction (for entrance ramps) should all be added for clear guidance to be given when using the Waze app.

Exit ramps:

• If the exit sign shows a number as well as a street or highway name, the exit ramp should be named "Exit 15: SR16 - Police Rd".
  • A colon has been added because it adds a pause, which makes the Text-to-Speech directions easier to understand.
• If the exit is not numbered, "Exit to: C722 - Donnybrook Rd" will do.
• If a single exit serves multiple roads, use a slash with leading and trailing spaces: "Exit 32: Terminator Blvd / Total Recall Rd".
• If an exit number contains one or more letters, include it exactly as displayed on the sign: "Exit W2: NRALT1 - Kings Way".
• Include everything that is present on the last sign prior to the exit. Do not combine all possible pre-ramp signage into the single ramp segment name.
• If the exit off the main interstate or highway serves multiple exits further down the road, it may be advisable not to name the first exit ramp, to name only the ramps which are the first one to a distinct destination. The Waze client will give all the proper exit and keep left or right instructions to guide the driver to the correct exit, even if the first one is not named. That said, this should only be done if the signage for the first ramp is the same as that on the subsequent, named ramp.

Entrance ramps:

For entrance ramps, use this format. For example:

• "Entry to: M1 - Monash Fwy (NW)"
• "Entry to: M39 - Goulburn Valley Fwy (N)"

Roundabouts

To aid navigation instructions, roundabouts should typically remain without a street name

• City: enter either suburb/city
• Street: Tick "None"

- where the client comes across a segment with no name it will use the next named segment as the next named instruction whilst retaining any turn signals.

If the roundabout does have a proper, signposted name, then this can be labelled using a 'Junction/Intersection' type landmark that fills the centre of the roundabout.

• For further advice, see Editing Junctions and Roundabouts

Freeway Service Centres

Freeway Service Centres should be mapped according to the following convention:

• Use "Ramps" on and off the motorway labelled as detailed in the Ramps section of the wiki.

• Use "Parking Lot Road" for all roads inside the Freeway Service Centres.
  This is necessary to avoid the creation of traffic reports.
• You may use "Private Road" for limited access roads (with no public right of way). Ensure that they are set to unknown connectivity, turn restrictions are set so that no-one can turn into the road and the segment(s) and connecting segments are locked to enforce the turn restrictions.
• Do not add a City or Street name to any road with the exception of the ramps.
• Set landmarks for the major buildings on site (i.e. Services Building, Fuel and Hotels etc).