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About Waze Rwanda

Welcome to Waze Rwanda. This guide is here for people wanting to edit the map in Rwanda using Waze Map Editor (WME)

You will find in these pages information about how to edit Waze in the Rwandan specific situation.

Please do not hesitate to first get in touch with the community via the following channel:

• Discord Channel.
• Rwanda Forum

The country manager for Rwanda, living in Kigali, is Kstor_80

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Basics

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Road Editing

Rwandan Road Network

The Rwanda Transport Development Agency (RTDA) technically decribes the Numbered Roads (PDF).

National Roads (NR)

• Starts with "NR" (used to be "RN")
• These routes connect the different districts
• Tends to run through multiple provinces.

District Roads (DR)

• Starts with "DR"
• Major roads linking main localities in a District.

We will try to follow the RTDA numbering in Waze, even if sometimes the road signs have not been adapted yet. When a road sign shows an older number, It will need to be adapted in WME so the user is not confused.

Other roads

Most of minor roads does not have any road number. In the main cities, Street naming system is in place.

Highways  

A highway is an arterial road, much like the pulmonary arteries (main veins at the heart). They serve a dual purpose:

• carry traffic over long distances between towns, and
• carry traffic from collector roads to freeways, where applicable.

Rwanda has a few numbered highway systems, which are called "numbered routes".

Waze's definition of "highways" includes all these, but it also includes other roads that are not necessarily a part of any numbered route. In other words, think of the dictionary definition of "highway" ("a main road, especially one between towns or cities") rather than the legal definition of the term.

Waze distinguishes three classes of highway: Freeway, Major Highway and Minor Highways.

	Freeway (Fw) In East Africa, a main paved road linking different countries. It may be 2X2 (or more) roads with seperator between one way carriages or just main 1x1 roads. Only National Roads (NR) can be a Freeway type.  Only paved roads In Rwanda, applicable to NR 1 (Kigali-Rusizi-Burundi), NR 2 (Kigali-Musanze-Rubavu-DRC), NR 3 (Kigali-Uganda), NR 4 (Kigali-Kayonza-Rusumo-Tanzania) All other NR segments classified as Expressway and with a minimum of 2 lanes in each direction separated. (example: NR5 from Kigali to Bugesera Airport)
	Major Highway (MH)  Characteristics of major highways  Other National Roads(NR) , Other than Freeway They are routes connecting towns, and may go through the center of a town,  Only paved roads. 2x2 roads in main cities (if not classified as Freeway)
	Minor Highway (mH) Unpaved NR (with the "unpaved" checkbox checked) paved DR Major 1x1 roads in main cities
	Ramps (Rmp) Ramps connect other road types to Freeways/Expressway (example at Kicukiro Flyover) between the terminal ends of the freeway, at an obtuse angle, and is a 1-way direction. They should only connect any road type to Major/Minor Highways where the slip way is long and at an obtuse angle from/onto the Major/Minor Highway types. The "Ramp" road type should never be used as At-grade connectors for creating slip ways; instead the same road type the slip way connects to should be used.

Streets

"Collector roads" are all road types lower than highways, namely streets and primary streets which collects the traffic onto the highway to the freeway. Again, think about your body's vein network. 

	Primary Streets (PS) Roads that are not highways and are heavily used. Generally be the fastest route you would take to travel through a sector. Primary Streets that are unpaved but that are well defined (as is often the case in rural areas) are to be marked as street type but with the "unpaved" checkbox checked. Used for Unpaved DR (with the "unpaved" checkbox checked)
	Streets (St)  Any road that does not fit into the categories above, is a street. Streets that are unpaved but that are well defined (as is often the case in rural areas) are to be marked as street type but with the "unpaved" checkbox checked.
	Narrow Streets (NS) ...
	Off-Roads / Not maintained (OR) There is a bigger penalty for the road type "Off-road / Not maintained". Road is in a very bad state Roads to be used only be used if no other routing option exists. Private farm roads and trails that are used exclusively as 4x4 trails should preferably not be mapped. They provide no functionality for the general commuter and will not be routed over.
	Private Roads (PR) Roads that are restricted, for local traffic only or not accessible to the general public. Some complexes have multiple entrances that connects to the national grid at opposite ends, and if they are not marked as Private Roads, Waze will incorrectly attempt to route people through there.
	Parking Lot Road (PLR) used to map parking lots for shopping centers and Parkades. It is strongly advised not to clutter the map by drawing every single lane of the parking lot, but just the general exits and entrances and main sections that lead directly to shop fronts. If you map all lanes, do not be surprised if some of your edits are deleted by Area Managers. Parking lot roads are especially useful to 'offload' false traffic jam information when parking lots are close to main roads and Waze might think you are stationary on the main road. Parking lot roads are also used to map fuel stations.

Non drivable road

Template:Walking Trail
Template:Pedestrian Boardwalk
Template:Stairway
Template:Railroad

In general, we do not encourage the use of these categories. They are unnecessary, but some railroads are already mapped. Ensure that you never connect any of these to the normal road network, as Waze will attempt to route traffic across these roads if they are connected to normal drivable road types. The general standard is to set 'Railroad' road types to ground level unless elevated over or under a road (change to applicable level). Negative levels are only to be used when the segment is actually below ground level.

Road Editing

(under construction)

Places editing

Generalities

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Fuel Stations

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