Road Editing in Canada

Road Naming

Highways

Freeways, minor highways, and major highways should be named in this format:

Nova Scotia, Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta,British Columbia & Territories

Hwy # (H is capitalized, the 'wy' in lower case, followed by a number), e.g. Hwy 16. NotNot 'Highway #' or 'HWY # (all caps)'.

Quebec, Newfoundland and Labrador, New Brunswick and PERte

Rte # (R is capitalized, the 'te' in lower case, followed by a num r), e.g. R. Not 'ot 'Route #' or 'RTE # (all caps)'.

Autoroute is abbreviated to Aut, e.g. Aut 15.

For ALL of Canada

Where the signage indicates the highway based on a name ("Lougheed Hwy" or "Sooke Rd"), the name should be used. If, however, the signage refers to it by number primarily, that is to be the primary name, regardless of the local knowledge (e.g. the Sea-to-Sky Highway is signed as Hwy 99 and Wheeler Blvd is signed as Rte 15). If a numbered highway has local named signage as above e.g. "Lougheed Hwy" or "Sooke Rd", the highway number must be used as an alternative name.

Big Green Signs

Segment naming for ramps and wayfinders should follow the big green sign (BGS) text with the following rules.

Segment name should generally follow signage as read, i.e. left to right, top to bottom, except all numbered highways, should be shown first, followed by destination, followed by icons if applicable. All should be separated by a forward slash (“ / “), with a space before and after the slsh.  Most BGS layout follows this standard.

Acceptable icons to use are “✈️” for Airport and “⛴️” for Ferry.  You must copy and paste these exact icons as these are the only ones that work correctly with TS.  Only use icons if they are used on the BGS, i.e. do not use the icon to replace a spelled out destination such as “Toronto Pearson International Airport” or “Powell River FerYourmay omit airport and ferry mentions for length considerations. y”.  

For more general information on BGS segment naming, please refer to the USA Wazeopedia sections for wayfinders and entry/exit ramps.

Abbreviations

Please follow the Canada Post street type abbreviation at all times even if it differs from in-real-life road signs.

Note that while Canada Post does not abbreviate "Place" in French, Waze does abbreviate it as "Pl", just like Canada Post does in English.

Please do not shorten names when they are integral to understanding the street name:

 e.g. Bad: N St, S St, Ave Rd
 e.g. Good: North St, South St, Avenue Rd

It is recommended to use the Custom Canadian WME Validator Script. It will highlight all the incorrectly abbreviated street names.

Street Name Abbreviations

Approved Abbreviation	Pronunciation	Do Not Use
Alley	Alley	Aly
Aut	Autoroute	Autoroute
Av	Avenue (French)	Avenue, Ave
Ave	Avenue (English)	Avenue, Av
Bend	Bend	Bnd
Blvd	Boulevard	Boulevard
Boul	Boulevard (French)	Boulevard, Blvd
Brg	Bridge	Bridge
Bypass	Bypass	By-pass
Carref	Carrefour	Carrefour
Ctr	Centre	Centre, Center
Ch	Chemin	Chemin
Cir	Circle	Circle
Circt	Circuit	Circuit, Cct
Close	Close	Cl
Common	Common	Com, Cmn
Conc	Concession	Concession
Crnrs	Corners	Corners,Cors
Crt	Court	Court, Ct
Cove	Cove	Cv
Cres	Crescent	Crescent, Cr
Crois	Croissant	Croissant, Croiss
Crossing	Crossing	Cross, Xing
Cds	Cul-de-sac	Cul-de-sac
Divers	Diversion	Diversion
Dr	Drive	Drive
Éch	Échangeur	Échangeur
Espl	Esplanade	Esplanade
Estate	Estates	Estates, Est
Expy	Expressway	Expressway, Expwy
Exten	Extension	Extension,Ext
Field	Field	Fld
Gate	Gate	Gt
Gdns	Gardens	Gardens
Glen	Glen	Gln
Green	Green	Grn
Grnds	Grounds	Grounds
Grove	Grove	Grv
Harbr	Harbour	Harbour, Harbor, Hbr
Hts	Heights	Heights
Hwy	Highway	Highway
Hghlds	Highlands	Highlands
Hill	Hill	Hl
Hollow	Hollow	Holw
Imp	Impasse	Impasse
Inlet	Inlet	Inlt
Island	Island	Is
Knoll	Knoll	Knl
Landng	Landing	Landing, Lndg
Lane	Lane	Ln
Lmts	Limits	Limits
Lkout	Lookout	Lookout
Manor	Manor	Mnr
Meadow	Meadow	Mdw
Montée	Montée	Mtée
Mount	Mount	Mt
Mtn	Mountain	Mountain
Orch	Orchard	Orchard
Parade	Parade	Pde, Pr
Pk	Park	Park
Pky	Parkway	Parkway, Pkwy
Passage	Passage	Psge, Pass
Ptway	Pathway	Pathway
Pines	Pines	Pnes
Pl	Place	Place
Plat	Plateau	Plateau
Plaza	Plaza	Plz
Pt	Point	Point
Port	Port	Prt
Pvt	Private	Private
Prom	Promenade	Promenade
Rg	Range	Rge
Ridge	Ridge	Rdge
Rd	Road	Road
Rdpt	Rond-point	Rond-point
Rte	Route	Route
Rle	Ruelle	Ruelle
Sent	Sentier	Sentier
Sq	Square	Square
Subdiv	Subdivision	Subdivision
St	Street	Street
Terr	Terrace	Terrace, Ter, Tce
Tsse	Terrasse (French)	Terrasse, Terr
Thick	Thicket	Thicket
Tline	Townline	Townline
Trail	Trail	Tr, Trl
Trnabt	Turnabout	Turnabout
Villge	Village	Village, Vlg

Dividing and un-dividing roadways

When to divide a two-way road (and when not to)

Generally, a road should not be divided unless it meets any of the requirements for dividing a road. When initially reviewing whether to divide or "un-divide" (merge back together) a roadway, consider these points first:

1. Consult the Local / Global Champ for your area of the country before dividing/un-dividing.
2. The default representation for any roadway is a single two-way segment, even if the physical roadway is divided. Dividing a roadway carries with it the burden of proof that the change will improve the usability and/ or simplicity of the Waze map.
3. If a road is currently working with no problem reports, consider leaving it as is.
4. Try to avoid switching roads back and forth between being divided and two-way. For example, if most of the road is clearly divided and only parts would be considered a single two-way road, consider leaving it all divided. If only a small portion seems better off divided, consider keeping it all two-way.

Current guidance from Waze developers is to divide the road "if a Corvette can't drive across the middle".

if you divide a road, you must examine all the junctions you have created for proper U-turn behaviour in accordance with the Canada standard.

A road may be divided when any of the following conditions are met:

• It is a limited-access highway using the "Freeway" road type.
• GPS tracks show a clearly definable and continuous gap (blank area) between the color-by-azimuth arrows at the 100m/500ft zoom level.
• Multiple houses or businesses with no off-street parking are located directly on the street but are not accessible from the opposite direction of travel due to a long median, obstruction, or traffic control signage.
• U-turns are required to properly make turns from public drivable road types that are blocked by a median.

A road should not be divided when:

• There is a center turn lane (any width) between directions of travel. Dividing this type of road creates problems when people turn from the middle lane because there is no road for the navigation to follow.
• The objective is solely for visual appearance or to make the road match another visual source like Google Maps.

Remember that dividing and un-dividing roads each comes with its own set of problems. Each situation is unique and some issues may be more manageable with a single two-way road, and some may work fine with a divided road. Consider every aspect of routing, and carefully examine each junction before dividing or un-dividing. Regardless of whether you're dividing or un-dividing, remember that you might cause more problems than you solve and you might have to put it back the way it was before. Also remember that dividing and un-dividing each cause loss of some traffic data, which can result in poor Waze routing for a few weeks at least.

How to un-divide two one-way roads

Unfortunately, there is no easy way to merge two one-way roads back into a two-way road - which is why you should always give a lot of thought before dividing a road in the first place. And then think some more.

When you come across a road in your area that has been divided but shouldn't have been, you have some major map surgery ahead of you. Because of this high complexity in this process, it is recommended NOT to merge the two one-way roads UNLESS there are update requests related to the road caused by it being divided.

The process to un-divide a road (convert from two one-way roads to one two-way road) written below has been specifically designed to preserve the underlying address information embedded in the street segments. It is very important that you do not simply delete one of the two roads because that deletes the house address data on that part of the road. They would have to be looked up and manually added back to the new road.

The steps below show how to properly merge two one-way roads and preserve the underlying house numbers.

This is our example road segment. For the entire length of the road you need to:

1. Select the two segments to be merged and set them both to two-way.

2. Disconnect both segments from one side of the section being un-divided. It is best to disconnect alternate ends of each segment as shown.

3. Bring the two disconnected ends together in the middle (and realign the roads as necessary, removing the unnecessary segments as shown). You can remove the junction point you just created by selecting it and clicking the trash can icon or using the Delete key (Fn + Delete on Mac). Please note that the two aligned sections must have matching road information (name, type, direction, speed limit, elevation, and lock) or the junction point will not allow removal!

The following video was recorded by an editor merging two one-way roads so the addresses were preserved. This video follows the described steps above but may help seeing it happening in real time. Press the "enlarge button in the lower right corner to see it full screen.

Un-Dividing Roads and Preserve HN - Video Reference
Un-Dividing Roads WME 2018 - Video Reference

After BOTH sides are merged into one, you need to re-align house number to the street so that it lines up with driveway/entrance of the building the bubble is over.

1. With the street/road selected, click ‘Edit house numbers’.
2. From the house number editing view, you need to select each house number one-by-one.
3. With the house number selected, you see the dashed line is attached to a circle on the street.
4. Select the circle and move it along the road closest to the entrance of the driveway to the building.

Also be sure to check the following:

1. Remove all "orphaned" junctions.
2. Change the direction of the preserved segments to two-way.
3. Check/fix the connectivity of all the roads already connect to the side you kept.
4. Connect (and set connectivity) of all the roads that used to be connected to the other side.
5. Make sure all the new two-way segments are connected.
6. Adjust the geometry to move the two-way road segments to the middle of the road.

Now repeat the entire process for the remaining segments matching the two opposite from each other.

It isn't difficult once you have gone through the process a couple of times.

Caveat: If you decide to be clever and edit the road properties of multiple segments at a time, first familiarize yourself with the known problems with mass-editing. It can be done - but if you're not careful, you'll find that all the road segments have reverted to streets and any alternate road names are lost.

Road Types

The USA has a standardized Functional Classification system which was adopted by Waze Champs as part of the method for classifying roads in Waze. Overall, this resulted in use of the highway types for arterial roads in urban areas, with the Primary Street type being available for collector-type roads.

Unfortunately, Canada does not have equivalent standardized government-published maps, but we can consider many of the same principles. This was first looked at in Edmonton, and seems to have been met with great success. With that in mind, we'd like to consider the following criteria for use within metropolitan areas and any city with a population exceeding ~40,000. In the event that the infrastructure of a smaller city has been designed with arterial routes, this may be adopted there, but will typically be less obvious.

Most local governments publish road classification maps, although there is little standardization between them so each municipality must be treated separately. Lists of existing conversions to Waze road types may be found on the province-specific wiki pages:

• British Columbia
• Alberta
• Saskatchewan
• Manitoba
• Ontario
• Quebec

Trans-Canada Highway

   

Road type: Freeway
Primary name: Hwy ## (e.g. Hwy 1)
Alternate: Trans-Canada Hwy

There are parts of the TCH that travel through National/Provincial parks with frequent stops, reduced speed and undivided portions. These segments should be reduced to a Major Highway with Freeway routing until the speed increases, stops are minimized or the highway is divided again.

Roads in Cities

As a highway enters a city/town, it often becomes a named street, and sometimes would no longer fit the usual criteria for a "highway".

Due to a number of reasons, including long-distance routing issues, as well as appearance, the highway should remain as the same type it entered the city/town (except if it's a Freeway -- if it no longer fits the Freeway criteria, it may be downgraded to Major Highway with Freeway routing until it is again a Freeway).

The road type designation should follow the entire numbered route.

Freeways

   

In general, Freeways will have:

• Multi-Lane, divided road
• No cross traffic
• No stop lights (except for ramp meters)
• No stop signs
• No parking
• No stopping (except for toll booths, freeway access metering, movable bridges, and traffic congestion)
• Highest speed limits (relative to region)
• Some have minimum speed limits
• Limited access:
  • Access restrictions vary by region but some typical restrictions are:
    • No pedestrians
    • No bicycles
    • No mopeds
    • No Animal-Drawn Vehicles
  • Entrance ramps are typically designed with an acceleration zone so that cars can accelerate up to freeway speeds before merging into freeway traffic
  • Exit ramps are typically designed with a deceleration zone so that traffic can exit the freeway at freeway speeds without obstructing traffic, then have sufficient distance to slow down before any turns

When considering the road type, use the above noted Freeway classification as a guideline, with the idea that a Canadian "Freeway" may lack one of the criteria (e.g. Whitemud Freeway in Edmonton is 80 km/h, but meets all other criteria; Hwy 16 west of Edmonton doesn't have ramps for every junction, but meets all other criteria)

Major Highway

   

Use for major arterial roads. Often these have 2-3 lanes (or more) in each direction, and may be structured to be turned into freeways eventually. Usually this means relatively few intersections, higher speed limit, and higher capacity.

Additionally, if a road enters an area as a Freeway, but then loses its limited-access situation, it will generally continue on as a Major Highway.

If only one type of arterial is used by the municipality on their maps, the decision between a "major" and a "minor" will be that of relative importance and capacity. Generally, a "major" will have 2+ lanes, whereas a minor may only have one. Local knowledge is also especially useful in determining this.

Minor Highway

   

Use for arterial roads. They are more direct than using collector roads and sometimes have slightly increased speed limits.

Primary Street

   

Suitable for collector roads through neighbourhoods and thoroughfares that aren't arterial.

Alleys and Laneways

Alleys and laneways should never be added to the map without approval from a Canadian Champ. In some cases (e.g. Toronto area), we have left the ones in place, but in most cases they should be removed.

This is particularly relevant to basemapped areas that included them -- e.g. Saskatchewan -- small towns should certainly have the alleyways removed.

In places where they are retained, they should have their city name set and the "None" box checked for Street Name. They should also be changed to Parking Lot street type. Do not use the Narrow Street type.

In considering whether one should be mapped, the primary question is "would it be appropriate for a stranger (e.g. pizza delivery guy) to park there and enter the residence from that side" - if the answer is "no", then they should definitely not be mapped.

Parking Lot Roads

Please read the Best Map Editing guidelines on parking lot roads. As of October 2018, North America has new guidelines: all parking aisles are to be mapped. US champs recommend enabling U-turns at the end of aisles, but this should not be done in Canada.

U-Turns

Waze allows U-turns at junction nodes or over a series of segments. U-turns at junction nodes are often barely possible if at all and drivers generally dislike them. The standard in Canada is to never enable the U-turn at nodes. Unlike US editing practice, this rule also applies to parking-lot roads in Canada.

Waze can recognize U-turns ove a series of segments at H or # style intersections on divided and parallel roads, like these:

Waze will recognize such a turn when all three of these conditions are met:

1. Three segments - The U-turn is a reversal of driving direction through three segments: an incoming segment (A), a single median/crossing segment (B), and an outgoing segment (C).
2. Short median - The median segment (B) is less than 15.0 metres long. Note that the WME rounds decimal places to the closest integer. A segment that is 14.8 metres long and a segment that is 15.4 metres long will both appear to be 15 metres long in the WME although they will behave differently in U-turn recognition. Always adjust such median segments to 14 metres and less or 16 metres and more to trigger the U-turn behaviour you desire.
3. Parallel segments in and out - The in and out segments (A and C) are  within ±5° of parallel to each other. The sum of the angles through the U-turn must measure between 175º and 185º .

It is possible for this method to fail to recognize a U-turn when it is the first segment of a route or it immediately follows a reroute.

The default condition in Canada is to have the Waze routing algorithm prevent U-turns through median segments 15.0 metres (or less) long. The US allows them. The rationale for this decision is that most standard vehicles have a turn radius of 10-15 metres, making such U-turns difficult in all but perfect conditions.

How to prevent U-turns

The best way to prevent a U-turn through a junction that would permit it by geometry is with a junction box (an editor rank of 4 or above is required to install a junction box).

If you can establish all required prevention of U-turns with that junction's standard turn restrictions, use those to prevent a U-turn. This situation is most commonly found at three-way intersections.

The only other way to prevent U-turn routing through a geometry that would permit it is to artificially narrow the median segments to less than 15 metres. This used to be the preferred method but is now obsolete.

How to enable U-turns

Sometimes you have a geometry that by default would not allow a U-turn in Waze but it is important to allow one for user navigation. One example is a destination on the other side of a divided road that would otherwise require an excessive detour to get to.

Again, the easiest way to enable a U-turn through a geometry that would prevent it is with a junction box. Junction boxes overrule all default conditions inside them.

The other way to enable a U-turn through a median segment that measures less than 15 metres is to create a node on it, but we do not recommend this. Nor do we recommend artificially widening a junction to create a median segment larger than 15.0 metres.

Where to enable U-turns

Every province maintains its own road code. In Quebec, for example, you can make a U-turn at any intersection unless it is forbidden by a sign or you must cross a solid lane marker line to do so.

Despite provincial regulations, we generally discourage U-turns because they provide a poor experience for the Waze user. Use your discretion in accordance with local regulations.

Here are the provincial regulations we have found. It is important to note that some municipalities have their own U-turn restrictions. For example, Saskatoon has rules that are not aligned with provincial regulations.

British Columbia References - Motor Vehicle Act of British Columbia Chapter 318 - Section 168

Alberta References - Use of Highway and rules of the road regulation - Alberta Regulation 304/2002 - Division 7 Pages 28-31

Saskatchewan References - Saskatchewan Driver's Handbook

Manitoba References - C.C.S.M. c. H60 The Highway Traffic Act: Section 191

Ontario References - R.S.O. 1990, c. H.8, s. 143. Highway Traffic Act

Quebec References - The Highway Safety Code does not specifically mention U-turns, so they are allowed at any intersection unless expressly forbidden by signs or other restrictions such as crossing solid lines.

New Brunswick References - New Brunswick Highway Act - Section 162(1)

Prince Edward Island References - PEI Highway Safety Act - Section 182

Nova Scotia References - Nova Scotia Highway Act - Section 158

Newfoundland and Labrador Statute - RSNL1990 Chapter H-3: Highway Traffic Act, s116