Freeway carriageway naming convention
This policy was changed in February 2014.
Due to changes that have been made to the Waze App in recent times which has helped improve reporting of incidents on freeways (motorways), compass directions in addition to the road name are no longer required when mapping any road in Waze.
This does not apply to roads which have a compass direction in their actual name.
If there are existing roads with compass directions on them, please remove them.
All that is required is the route number (if applicable) and the name.
Example: "M1 - Monash Fwy"
On and Off ramps
This policy was changed in February 2014.
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 (level 5 in most cases). The route number(s) (if applicable) the name of the road and destination(s) should all be added for clear guidance to be given when using the Waze app.
PLEASE NOTE:
Naming is only to be used for freeway style on and off ramps. Please do not add names to forks, splits or slip lanes on other types of roads, as this is unnecessary for directions to work.
Off ramps to non-freeway style roads and freeway to freeway ramps
- If the ramp exit sign shows a number as well as a street or highway name, it 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 ramp exit is not numbered, "Exit to C722 - Donnybrook Rd" will do. The colon is not necessary when there is no exit number.
- If a single ramp serves multiple roads, use a slash with leading and trailing spaces: "Exits 15 / 16: SR16 - Police Rd / M3 - EastLink".
"Exit to SR56 - Valley Way / Princeton Rd".
- If an ramp exit number contains one or more letters, include it exactly as displayed on the sign: "Exit W2: ALTNR1 - Kings Way".
Off ramps that don't have a fork along them
If there is no fork along the off ramp, then place the destination(s) on the off ramp itself. Example: "Exit to C422 - Koo Wee Rup Rd to Pakenham / Koo Wee Rup"
Off ramps that do have a fork along them
For these ramps, some minor additions need to be made to the segment positioning to enable correct TTS (text to speech) instructions from the app.
- Small 90 degree angles are to made to the 2 fork segments which come out of the fork node (refer to Detail #1 on image below).
- The ramps which join the non-freeway style road need to have straight 0 degree joins at the end (refer to Detail #2 on image below). That is, the very end of the ramp needs to overlap the non-freeway style road for a few metres - achieved by dragging a geometry node from the ramp directly over the road it is joining.
The following naming conventions are to be used:
For the segment before the fork:
"Exit to M1 - Monash Fwy".
For the segments after the fork:
"M1 - Monash Fwy to Warragul". (e.g. for one fork)
"M1 - Monash Fwy to City". (e.g. for the other fork)
On ramps from non-freeway style roads
For on ramps, use this format. For example:
- "Entry to M1 - Monash Fwy to Chadstone / City"
Unique scenarios
If you encounter a uniquely designed interchange or ramp system, and not sure of the best way to name the ramps, then ask for help from other friendly Australian Waze users over on the Australian Waze Forum: [1]
Naming
Due to the variety of different styles of naming and destination mentioning which is on signs across the country, and due to differences in the way the text to speech in the Waze App works as well as the limited space for ramp names to display until they are cut off, slashes, the word 'and' and the word 'to' may all be substituted for each other at the editors discretion to obtain the best naming result for a particular ramp.
Suburb and road names should not be shortened unless it's part of a standard Waze text to speech abbreviation. Otherwise, road names and destinations will sound incorrect when they are read out aloud.