DRAFT
Introduction
Roads in Ireland are largely very similar to those in the UK, and many of the editing conventions are the same. Most of the differences lie around road naming, but there's a page for that.
Since Ireland never had a base map import, all roads have to be added to the map by hand. This means that many roads — especially minor roads — are missing. All motorways and major highways are complete, however. A number of villages, especially those that don't lie on major roads are also missing. Many areas are also missing active area managers.
Priorities
In order:
Missing roads
Naturally, it's impossible to navigate efficiently (or even at all) if there are many unmapped roads. Even unnamed roads are better than no roads at all, since the routing engine will still use them.
Missing cities/towns/villages
As you add new roads or while editing existing roads, you may come across towns and villages (mostly villages) that have not yet been created on the map. Feel free to create these, but naturally check that they haven't already been created at a nearby location. A village may just consist of a couple of houses and another building, such as a post office, a pub, a school or a church. See Cities for naming guidance.
Name un-named roads
Even where roads have already been created, they may not have been named at all, or they may have been marked as having no name. Naming roads means that Waze will give more useful turn instructions that give reassurance to users that they're being routed to the right area.
Please do not mark a road as having no name — leave it completely unnamed (and red in WME) if you don't have time to name it. This makes it much more obvious to a future editor that the road needs to be named. Red roads can still be routed, so they are better than no roads at all. There are some limited cases where it's valid to mark a road as having no name, such as short segments where different instructions are needed depending on the user's direction of travel.
Name partly un-named roads
Many roads may have some name, but might not be completely named. For example, they could have just the road number (such as "L1234") but no other part of the name (so they could be more completely named "L1234 Graiguenamanagh Rd" or "L1234 Glencormick East").
Speed limits
Motorways, major and minor highways almost all have speed limits set, but most lesser roads don't have their speed limits set. Sometimes too, the speed limits on major roads are out of date, because they were based on what was visible in Street View at the time that they were given speed limits, and the Street View images may have been updated since then.
Local oddities
Naming differences
- With limited specific exceptions, all segments should have a name
- No dashes between road number and name (eg "R123 Dublin Rd", not "R123 - Dublin Rd")
- No brackets around cardinal directions (eg "M11 N", not "M11 (N)")
Units
Speed limits are always in kilometres per hour and distances are always in kilometres or metres. If you're editing near the border, note that they switch to miles per hour in Northern Ireland, so your editor may need to be adjust as you switch between jurisdictions.
Townlands
A townland has, despite the name, nothing to do with a town. It's a historically-determined subdivision of land that generally forms part of a postal address in rural areas. It may be sparsely populated, or may not be populated at all. The main reason we care about townlands in Waze is that we use their names for road names where roads otherwise have no assigned name.
Working out what townland a road runs through can be quite time-consuming, so although it's preferred that townland names be used for road names, it's not mandatory.
Notes from other UK editors
Ianinessex
Thoughts of an Englishman editing in Ireland.
I have now been editing in Co. Cork for about 2 months and thought I would put down some notes to help or possible just confuse any intrepid souls who decide to follow in my footsteps.
Objectives:
- Add in all missing roads. Making sure they are properly connected and the turn directions correct. For all new roads you add, unless you have the full details, leave them blank – no name, city or country. This makes them obvious when you come back to add the names. If you add any part of the name it makes them harder to find and add the full details later. Also do not set new roads to Private or Parking unless you have set the name etc. as again, you will not be able to find them when you come back. In the rural areas you will probably find many as yet unmapped roads. Even in the towns and villages there are often undrawn roads to be added.
- Add in missing villages. Several small villages are missing from the map. These need carefully checking to make sure they are actually places and then adding. Make sure you do not add any Townlands as villages. Often you will find a village named after the Townland (but often spelt differently). Even places that do not appear on any maps still have name signs on the entrance roads or a post office, village shop or Church with a village name.
- Add road names to all the streets using the Townland name where the road does not have its own name. One of the major differences between Ireland and the UK is in Ireland there should not be any roads that are not named. Do not trust any existing Townland names as many have been added before the more accurate Townland area overlays were available. Try and add at least one road in each Townland, even if it is a private road to a farm. You will find many Townland names are repeated, even in the same county. Apparently this is a standard way to confuse visitors to Ireland! While you are adding the road names you can clear the MP’s that have been marking the roads with no names for a while now.
- Add in any missing road numbers. M (Motorways), N (Major highways) & R (Minor Highways) have already been done and seem to be good. Some Ls (some Primary and some streets) have been added but many (most?) are missing. A lot just have the first segment done but no further. You will need to understand the numbering system to decide the type of road. As this appears to be the main navigation aid in Ireland, it is important the L roads are all numbered. Where I have been editing in Co Cork, I have used just the L number on the Primary Roads, L2xxx, L3xxx but use the L number and the Townland on the rural streets, L6xxx, L6xxxx and even smaller, L6xxxx-xx (which seem to be dirt tracks going to a farmyard, but someone has given them a number!!). I still haven’t quite got the differences between the numbers yet, but Lxxxx (4 digits) starting with a 2 or 3 seems to be a primary road, Starting with a 6 or 7 seems to be a street. Anything with 5 or more digits (and particularly the ones with a hyphen in) seems to be single lane tracks going who knows where!
- Finally, go back yet again and add the speed limits. (I estimate I am about 6 months away from even considering this!). Then wait and hope someone actually drives in the area.
Points to note
- You will need to understand the Townland concept. The whole of Ireland has at some time in the past, been subdivided into small (some very small, some not so small) areas and given a name. Some of these names are wonderfully long and probably, if I understood Gaelic, very descriptive. Some unfortunately are boringly short and often repeated, making them of little use in navigation. To use these to name the roads, you will need to install WME Geometries and download the appropriate County data file from Chris. This then overlays the WME and gives you the line to break the small roads and add the names of the Townlands in the correct places. A point to note that confused me, when you have installed Geometries it appears under the Areas Tab (I had to ask other editors where it was because I couldn’t find it)
- Don’t be afraid to be the first to add a road name or village, just because you can’t find it in any of the other map systems. Even the Irish OS seems to have places missing and roads with the wrong names. Google, Here and others are even worse. Even the AA map I bought to check things, does not seem to always be correct. I have found the most reliable reference is the EIRcodes data. Do not place too much credibility on the underlying map, as this is the Irish OS, but when you select a red dot, the road name it shows has (so far) always been correct. But I guess if you can’t trust the Post Office to know where you are you stand little chance of ever getting your mail delivered.
- Unlike the UK, farms, a useful navigation point in rural areas, do not appear to have names (or at least any I can find) All you can do is add the Townland name to the road leading to them, making it Private if it just goes to the farm or Street if it goes past and on to other places. One thing I have noticed is that private roads mostly appear to have a gate across them. This can usually be seen in streetview. It is also useful to remember the Google streetview car does not go down private roads, so if Google have been down there it is probably a public street.
- Ireland does not have a Counties (States) field. Because of this some of the search features are a bit limited as everywhere is in the same State.
- Road and place names should be added in English where available. Only use the Gaelic name if there is no alternative.
- Fairly obviously, Ireland is metric so before you can correct or set any speed limits you need to change your settings to metric. (Don’t forget to change back when you go home!!)
- Joking aside from earlier, you will need to understand the L numbering system to decide if the road is a Primary Road or a Street and how best to number/name it.
- I have also found some L-xxxx roads which I have re-named to Lxxxx.
WME Tools:
You will need many of the normal tools you use at home, Toolbox, Validator, Magic, WMEFixUI, Clicksaver, Bookmarks, Junction Angle info, Clicksaver, are mostly standard for all editors now. Annoyingly, the Speedhelper does not seem to work here (Metric?).
Being familiar with, and using it regularly, the inbuilt streetview is indispensable.
Colour Highlights - Set to show the roads with no name (but where someone has set the town or country). This along with Magic showing the completely unnamed roads is indispensable to see what needs fixing.
Street View Availability – To show where some of those missing roads are hiding. Turn this on and spot where there is a blue streetview line but no road in Waze! Then go find it.
WME Geometries – Essential to enable you to add the Townland overlays (supplied by Chris – CW1998) without which you will have no idea where you are!! Once you are set up with an area, contact Chris and he will point you at the file you will need for your area.
Kevintiobraid
- Don't add a "-" between the road number and name. i.e. it should be R123 Dublin Rd, not R123 - Dublin Rd. Not sure why Ireland decided this, as it adds a natural pause in between the road number and name in the TTS
- Don't delete the names on parking lot roads in petrol stations, industrial estates, hotels etc. Its instinctive to do this if you are used to UK editing practices.
- Eircodes are accurate almost down to individual houses, unlike in the UK, and are very useful for navigation in Ireland where streetnames are non existent outside large towns, and townlands are random and cover large areas. IMO, thats why Ians first point is the most important, concentrate on the missing roads first.