The Parking Lot Area (PLA) Place marks a well-defined area constructed for off-street public or private parking, including parking structures and garages as well as at-grade lots. The parking lot feature in the app will recommend parking lots to Wazers navigating to a nearby destination. Waze will recommend lots within 1 km of a Wazer's destination. As the feature matures, Waze will recommend the 'most popular' lots that other Wazers have chosen when navigating to the same destination.
When to Map a PLA
If there is a distinctly-marked area where cars can park, separated from the road and with its driveable segments, it should be mapped.
If the car parking spaces are accessed directly from the road, this is on-street parking and should not be mapped, whether or not there are car park signs.
Aims of PLA mapping
- We only want Waze to navigate users into their destination parking. There is no requirement to navigate the best route through a parking. Waze has no idea where the empty spaces are. We want users to concentrate on driving within the parking without being distracted by their sat nav.
- We want Waze to be able to navigate users out of a car park to their next destination. In a small, simple parking a single segment may be sufficient. In the interest of simplicity, it is okay to map a Parking Road down the centre of a row of spaces or even the entire car park, rather than following the driving lanes.
- We want to ensure that Waze captures users within a car park so they don't get erroneous navigation instructions from adjacent roads. This may mean mapping segments across parking spaces at the edge of a car park. It is beneficial in large car parks to map a few internal roads to give a relatively direct route through the car park, but bear in mind the limitations of mapping any roads in multi-storey car parks.
- Should there be minor mapped destination points within a car park (collection points, pop-up businesses, EV charging points, etc), then mapping should reflect this to allow Waze to navigate correctly.
How to Map a Parking Lot Area
Mapping
All mapped parking lots must be areas (hence PLA), editors can only create parkings as an Area polygon within the WME. parking lots should be mapped to the edge of the drivable tarmac.
Note: Parking lot imported by Waze or created via the App are shown as Points. Map Problems will then highlight these after being detected by automatic systems and should be converted to Areas.
Underground car parks
Underground car parks should be mapped as an area that matches your best estimate of the underground parking area. However, the boundaries of the polygon should reach the point where the entrance/exit road passes underground to be able to capture Wazers entering/exiting the parking lot.
Lay-bys
Lay-bys along the side of major roads should not be marked with a car park landmark but should instead be mapped only with parking lot roads per How to classify and name roads.
Naming
The foundational guidance for naming a PLA when the lot serves another entity, is to follow this basic format:
Parking - [Entity served]
Name the parking lot using a sensible name that indicates it's a car park, e.g. Parking - Oasis Mall
Do not use the [P] prefix.
Car Park, car park, Carpark, Parking..?
Parking
Parking lot roads
- Parking roads should not be named, as it looks better to have a label on the landmark
- Parking roads should never be marked as a "Toll Road", even if the parking is not free.
Set the navigation point at the entrance, on the first segment of the car park, not the road outside. This will enable Waze to navigate to the car park, including the turn into it, and then announce you have arrived, leaving the user to find a space without further instruction. Should the parking lot have multiple entrances, each entry point should be mapped with a navigation point. Each navigation point should be named as simply as possible to differentiate them.
Parking lot type
Setting the Parking Lot Type is important as Waze should not offer users Restricted or Private car park types when nearing their destination.
- Public: Unrestricted access If you can park and then go where you please, it is classed as Public; most city-managed car parks are Public. Where a car park is associated with several businesses, you should use your best judgement.
- Restricted: Public access with some restrictions (customers, visitors, partons, etc.) Frequently parking lots associated with supermarkets, retail parks and other businesses have notices displayed stating that the car park is for customer use only, these are classed as Restricted.
- Private: Limited access (residents, employees, etc.) Car Parks that are signed as staff/residents only are classed as Private; these car parks often have barriers or gates across the access.
Operator
The Operator field should be set if owned and run by the Local Council or a car park operator.
Do not set the operator for regular car parks owned by a business and provided for customers.
Cost
The Cost field should be set to Free for car parks that do not charge.
For those that require payment, Cost determination should be made based on parking lot fees for other similar and nearby lots for the same type of venue.
Opening hours
Opening hours should be set based on the ability to access the parking lot and not when parking charges apply.
Attributes
All other attributes should be filled in to provide as much information as possible about the parking lot.
What does not qualify as a PLA?
On-street parking
On-street parking should not be added at this time.
Gas stations
Gas stations are already drawn on the map as an area and typical usage includes parking to get gas or enter the convenience store (when present). They are therefore handled specially by the servers, and do not require an additional PLA to be drawn on top of the gas station area. However, if there is a significant parking area which is worthy to be recommended to users who are navigating to nearby venues (e.g. a truck stop, etc.), then you may add a PLA there.
Valet only facility
Parking lots or garages accessed exclusively by valet staff, and situated away from the valet drop off point should not be added to the map. (If regular drivers are not allowed to drive up to the valet facility, and rather must drop the vehicle at a different location, and the valet drivers are the only ones driving to this facility location, then it serves no purpose being recommended ever.
In such cases, where the valet drop off is not near the stop point for the place it services, the valet drop off may be added as a PLA, and marked as valet only in the name.
If regular drivers are allowed to drop their vehicle at the valet facility, or there is mixed use of the facility where non-valet users can park as well, then a PLA should be added.
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Last edited by Kstor 80 on 8/02/2024