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Parking Lot
- The decision to map a Parking-Lot Place is covered here, and the decision to map a Parking-Lot Road is covered in the Road type article for mapping parking lot roads.
The Parking Lot Place marks a well-defined area constructed for off-street public parking, including parking structures and garages as well as at-grade lots.
Place visibility (Area or Point)
As of this writing, the primary application of the Parking-Lot Place is as an Area. Future additional applications of the Parking Lot as a Point are under consideration (see The Parking-Lot Point Place).
Principles
Three principles govern whether a given lot, structure or garage warrants a Parking-Lot Area Place:
- General Public Use
- The Waze map must never show a Parking-Lot Area Place where a naive driver could risk towing, ticketing, or violating community norms. All Parking-Lot Area Places must be legally and locally condoned for at least short-term use by the general public. There are no exceptions.
- General Purpose Use
- Drivers who leave cars in a Parking-Lot Area Place should be entitled to walk or take other transportation to any destination of choice, and this should be a common occurrence. The sole exception is for public waiting lots where drivers are required to remain with their vehicles, such as airport cell-phone lots.
- Distinctive and Significant
- Overuse of Area Places quickly leads to map clutter. A Parking-Lot Area Place must mark a parking facility that would be distinctive and significant to passing drivers, including those not seeking parking.
Parking that does not satisfy these three principles shall not be marked with the Parking-Lot Area Place.
Implementation
Interpreting 'distinctive and significant'
For the purposes of the Parking-Lot Area Place, the 'distinctive and significant' principle means a facility or lot fully dedicated to parking and no other activity. An otherwise compliant parking garage that is part of a multi-use structure does not satisfy this principle. However, should the structure warrant an Area Place for other reasons, it is acceptable to add "Parking Lot" to its category list.
Extent
Parking-Lot Area Places should be mapped to the property boundaries (the "fence line"). If those are unclear, map to the extent of the lot, structure, or garage.
In situations where a compliant Parking Lot is located within the boundaries of another Area Place, it may be best simply to add "Parking Lot" to the larger Area Place's category list. Compliant parking located within a much larger Area Place, such as an airport, should still receive its own separate Area Place within the larger Area Place.
Naming
If a parking facility or area has a documented identity, such as "Beach Street Garage", "18th Avenue/Geary Lot", "City Lot #7", "Short-Term Parking", "Cell-Phone Lot", etc., its Area Place should reflect that name to facilitate searches. Generic park-and-ride lots should be named consistently according to local custom, for example as "Park & Ride". If a Parking-Lot Area Place is contained within a larger Area Place, do not repeat the larger Area's full name; for example if the Domestic Garage is contained within the "SFO San Francisco International Airport" Area Place boundaries, it need not be named "SFO San Francisco International Airport Domestic Garage", "Domestic Garage" is sufficient (unless the neighboring region has a number of other Places whose names incorporate the words "Domestic Garage", in which case "SFO Domestic Garage" may be more appropriate).
Some municipal parking facilities have no separate documented identity; for example, general-purpose public parking adjacent to a hospital may not have its own explicit name. Area Places for such parking should leave the name field blank unless local Waze convention dictates otherwise. In particular, never use hopelessly generic names such as "Parking" or "Public Parking" for unnamed parking facilities. Names such as "St. Mary's Hospital Parking" suggest that the parking is dedicated and should also be avoided in favor of simply leaving the name field blank.
As with all Area Places, do not use mapping abbreviations for any part of a Parking-Lot Place name.
Free versus paid parking
As long as parking satisfies the three principles of general public, general purpose, and distinctive and significant, it is eligible for a Parking-Lot Area Place regardless of whether it is free or paid.
Suppression of automated problem reports
Like the Gas Station Area Place, Parking Lot Area Places suppress Waze's automated "Map Problem" reports such as for missing roads; thus the Parking Lot Area Place should never be drawn over or attached/snapped to roads bearing through traffic.
Special cases
Airports
Airports typically distinguish between parking for different terminals, for short or long term, for rental car return, and for cell-phone/waiting. As common navigation destinations, such parking deserves to be marked with Parking-Lot Area Places and named according to the airport's documented nomenclature, even if it means creating Parking-Lot Area Places within a larger Airport Area Place.
Bus and train stations
Bus and train stations are often located within city centers and may offer convenient public parking. At some stations, such parking may be intended and commonly used for general purposes. At others it may be illegal, inappropriate, or simply pointless and uncommon to park if one doesn't intend to use that transit facility. Thus whether to mark bus- or train-station parking with a Parking-Lot Area Place depends on the local situation. Regardless, if by local Waze convention the entire station complex itself would be marked with a Area Place (as opposed to a Point Place), the boundaries of the station complex's Area Place should include its associated parking, and rather than locate an additional Parking-Lot Area Place within the complex, the Parking-Lot category, if the lot is compliant, may simply be added to the station complex's category list.
Privately operated public parking
Private businesses often provide public parking in dense urban centers and near airports. Privately operated parking facilities that support short-term general-purpose parking for the public may receive Parking-Lot Area Places subject to the 'distinctive and significant' principle as interpreted above. Private facilities intended only for long-term parking are special-purpose and inappropriate for the Parking-Lot Area Place.
Rental-car return
With the availability of the new "Car Rental" Place, rental-car facilities and returns, including at airports, should now be marked with that Place category rather than with a Parking-Lot Place.
Examples
The Parking-Lot Area Place is always appropriate for:
- Generic Park & Ride and similar municipal commuter parking.
- General-purpose short-term public parking lots, structures or garages dedicated to parking only and independent of any particular mall, complex, campus, or other final destination.
- Named municipal public parking serving an airport.
The Parking-Lot Area Place is NEVER appropriate for:
- Street parking, whether parallel, angled, or right-angled.
- Parking intended to serve a single non-transit-oriented destination such as a business, store, office, church, park, city hall, library, hospital, gym, school, museum, restaurant, campground, etc. Do not mark such parking with the Parking-Lot Area Place even if locals use it as if it were general purpose.
- Unnamed transit-center parking if dedicated for transit-center patrons.
- Employee, student, resident, visitor, or guest parking.
- Parking for attendees of events, services, or performances.
- Parking associated with campuses, cemeteries, parklands, shopping malls, theme parks, stadiums, private installations, and office parks or complexes of any size or purpose.
Including noncompliant parking within larger Area Places
Some neighborhoods enjoy abundant but dedicated parking for shopping malls, office parks, theme parks, stadiums and the like. Parking lots for exceptionally large venues may even have distinct, named identities such as "South Lot", "Green Lot", etc. Such parking is typically not intended as general purpose and thus should NOT be marked with a Parking-Lot Area Place. If under local Waze conventions the complex itself warrants an Area Place, any associated parking can be included within its boundaries. For example, a Shopping Mall Area Place with dedicated parking could include all stores and parking associated with the mall if local conventions permit. Even if this is done, however, the larger Area Place remains ineligible to include the "Parking Lot" category if the parking involved is dedicated and therefore special-purpose.
The Parking-Lot Point Place
As of this writing the client display of Parking-Lot Area Places versus Point Places remains unclear. In the future, the Parking-Lot Point Place may be useful for identifying parking in certain situations that would not be appropriate for the Area Place, for example campus, park, stadium, or theme-park parking zones, privately operated long-term public parking, or parking located within a multi-use structure. However, until more clarity emerges, the Parking-Lot Point Place should not be used.