If your map looks more like the one on the right, you starting in an area with a base map. This is good news. It means Waze has acquired information about roads in your area. You do not have to manually map most of the roads. This gives you a head start on getting the map to the point where you can use it to plan a route to your destination.
Incompleteness of the Base Map
Base maps are supplied with different amount of information, so some base maps are more complete than others. And the information can be inaccurate or out of date
- Roads may have no names. Or some may be named. Some names may not follow the same conventions used for naming roads in your country
- Road types may be missing. Or incomplete. Or not match the conventions used in your country
- Roads may have no city name attached to them
- Roads may be all set to No Entrance. One-way and two-way settings may be absent or wrong
- Roads may be missing or with an incorrect layout
- Junctions may be set to allow no turns, so there is no connectivity between roads. Or connectivity may be incomplete or wrong
- Junctions may be missing, especially on [[glossary|dual carriageways]
This isn't too bad. Even if the base map is the most incomplete it can be, a small city can be made fully mapped by one person in a few hours.
Requirements
- You need a reliable source of the names of roads in your area
- You should be familiar with the agreed conventions for naming roads and setting road types in your country
- You need to decide on a systematic way of working across the map. It can be very difficult to identify roads you have not yet worked on if they look the same as other roads. If the road directionality on your base map is all set to No Entrance, you can see the roads that you have edited. It is impossible to tell by looking whether you have edited a junction, which is why it can be useful to do step 2 at the same time you do a road.
- You need permission to edit the map. Anyone can edit the names and set the properties of roads on a base map. But you cannot change the connectivity of roads or edit junctions without map editing permission. You can gain permission within a few days of driving along the roads with Waze on - this permission extends about to any point within a mile (1.5km) of where you have driven. But you will find it easier and faster to [[Area Manager|apply to be an Area Manager] for this area
- You need to know how to use Cartouche for edit the map
Method for completing a Base Map
If you just drive around with Waze turned on it will learn to change the road directionality to one-way or two-way, correct road layout, and know what turns are allowed at junctions. But there are some things Waze can't yet learn automatically, like the name and types of of the roads.
Name the roads and set their properties
Note that while this is Step 1, you may find it more efficient to carry out all 3 steps at the same time. The next two steps will happen automatically as wazers drive over the roads, but that may take a very long time on seldom used roads. So read on ahead before you get started.
- With a systematic approach, select a road on the map. You can hold the Ctrl key down to select multiple segments of the same road. Then from the Edit Panel choose Edit Road Details
- Choose the appropriate road type - if in doubt, choose Street
- The country will be filled in for you. If in the USA you may need to choose your state
- Type in your city name. As this will be repeated for every road, highlight the city name and press Ctrl-C to copy the name to the clipboard. Next time, instead of typing it you can press Ctrl-V in the city name box
- Leave the English city name blank unless there is an official city name and a common English name. For example the city name may be 北京 but the English city name would be Beijing
- Next to Street enter the name of the road
- Set the direction as two-way unless you know the road is one-way. If one-way you have a choice of directions. You may see the road labelled as A-B, so choose One-Way-> for A to B and One-way<- for B to A direction of travel. Once you save changes the road will show arrows in the direction of travel. If it is wrong, select the road again and then choose Reverse road direction
- Click on Save changes
- Well done. Now repeat for the next road. Don't worry if you make a mistake. The roads can all be edited again at any time.