Places

Introduction

Places are points of interest and should only be mapped if they are a useful destination or help drivers find their bearings.

Places come in 2 forms:

• Point Places - These are not visible in the App but are searchable. Examples - are convenience stores, takeaways, car washes, banks, and coffee shops.
• Area Place - These are displayed on the map and are searchable. Examples - supermarkets, retail parks, airports, golf courses, parks, lakes. Overusing Area Places can clutter the map and make identifying individual landmarks difficult.

This forms part of UK Editing Best Practice. Please read in conjunction with the generic global page on Places, which has more specific information about how to use the editor and moderate Update Requests.

Point Places

Point Places should be used for individual businesses with buildings smaller than 40x40m, and for businesses that share part of an building that is already covered by a larger Area Place. Points should be positioned at the entrance of the business.

Waze will navigate to the closest segment to the Point Place; if this is not the correct location to send users, then an Entry/Exit Point should be added, ensuring that it is close enough to the appropriate street or PLR for correct navigation.

Area Places

Area Places should be drawn as simply as possible as Waze will substantially simplify the shape before displaying it in the App. You will be wasting time mapping every little corner and change of direction. Consider mapping with a basic rectangle.

There are 3 form factors of Area Places:

• Individual buildings - larger businesses, such as supermarkets, warehouses, cinemas, and stadiums, should only be mapped to the edge of the building lines.
• Building clusters - locations that consist of multiple buildings, such as hospitals, schools, and retail parks, should be mapped to cover all of the buildings in a single area.
• Campus complexes - buildings that form a unified complex or campus with an overall identity, such as universities and zoos, should be mapped to encompass the entire property, usually the property lines.

Waze will navigate to the closest segment to the centre of the Area Place polygon; if this is not the correct location to send users, then an Entry/Exit Point should be added, ensuring that it is close enough to the appropriate street or PLR for correct navigation.

Naming conventions

Places should be named as simply as possible. This often means that the business's brand name is sufficient to identify the Place; ensuring the address is correctly set will differentiate Value Shop in Wolverhampton from Value Shop in Dudley.

When more than one brand venue exists in the same city, additional detail in the name is useful; this ensures users can choose the best destination. Using the brand store locator, if it has one, for inspiration on how they name their stores can be helpful. As always, some research helps, and common sense should be used.

Format: : <brand name> <store type> <locality name>

Examples

Tesco, ibis

Tesco Extra, Tesco Express, ibis styles

Tesco Express Charing Cross, Tesco Metro Covent Garden, ibis styles Croydon West

Do not add venue names to segments that access the location, usually Parking Roads or Private Roads. These should be left blank by ticking the no name checkbox (unless the road has a given name which should be used).

Railway stations

Format: : <city name> Railway Station

Examples

Coventry Railway Station

Exeter Central Railway Station, Exeter St. Davids Railway Station

Car Park, car park, Carpark, Parking..?

Car Park

Addressing

The address attached to the Place should be as per the postal address of the venue, or as close as possible. This may not be the road that the place is closest to. Remove any indication of the road number (A/B-road) from the street name.

Be careful adding city names to places outside that city, even if listed on the venue's website. This can lead to city smudging.

Navigation points

Multiple navigation points do not yet affect the production App (May 2019). More can be read about the status of this feature in the Global Forum thread.

You can add up to 20 navigation points, 1 of which should be marked as the main nav point. Each nav point should be named appropriately, yet simply as possible, eg. Gate 1, Stadium Way entrance, Green Car Park. You should not include the original venue name. You can only create additional nav points once you move the previously created nav point away from the centre of the polygon.

Specific place mapping

Car Parks

For a comprehensive guide to mapping car parks, you should refer to the UK Car Parks page.

Morrisons Car Park

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.

All mapped car parks must be areas, editors can only create car parks as an Area polygon within the WME. Car parks should be mapped to the edge of the drivable tarmac. Parking Lot Road segments should be added. The category can only be set to Car Park. All other attributes should be added if available. Car park areas and roads should locked to 3.

Car park example

Lay-bys should not be marked with a Place but should instead be mapped per the UK Roads page.

Shopping centres / retail parks

Bicester Shopping Village

Shopping centres & retail parks should be mapped as an Area Place that covers the outline of the building(s) & named according to the name of the centre or park. Each business within the shopping area can be mapped using a Point Place at the entrance to the individual shops. The name of the shopping centre / retail park should be used for the Point Place Street name.

The category should be set to Shopping Centre. Minor locations within the shopping centre / retail park, such as Opticians, pharmacies, and ATMs, should be added as categories rather than mapped. All other attributes should be added if available. Completed places can be locked to 2.

Shopping centre example

Town high streets/city centres

An exception to this rule would be a general town high street or city centre; although it may be a shopping area, this should not be mapped as such. Instead, only the individual businesses should be mapped as Place Points with their postal address used.

Supermarkets

Tesco store in Manchester

Supermarkets should be mapped as a single Area Place covering the main building. The supermarket should be named as simply as possible; adding the town/city is unnecessary. If there is more than one of that supermarket brand in the town/city then you should use a unique name to help differentiate within search results (you can often use the brand website store locator for inspiration). The category should be set to Supermarket/Grocery. All other attributes should be added if available. Completed places can be locked to 2.

If the Supermarket has a petrol station, this should be mapped separately. If the store has a Car Park, the Customer Parking attribute must be ticked. The Car Park should only be mapped if the car park has parking for non-customers.

Supermarket example

Industrial units / warehouses

Large industrial buildings and warehouses can be mapped as area places as they can be used as reference points for upcoming turns and general locations due to often having highly visible branding signs, similar to having rivers and railways mapped. Even if the name is not shown on the map or no brand is displayed, users can match the map colouring to the large building they are passing.

This is also beneficial in areas where industrial buildings are the predominant structure, e.g. DIRFT (Daventry International Rail Freight Terminal), where mapping the overall industrial park is impractical.

Petrol stations

Sleaford Road Service Station

Petrol stations/filling stations should be mapped as an Area Place and cover the entire forecourt. This is so that it is as clear as possible in the App and because Wazers can only update prices within 500m of a petrol station. The only exception is stations within Motorway Service Areas where they should be Points (due to already being within an area). The access into and out of the forecourt should be mapped with Parking Roads, with care taken to set the appropriate directions & turn restrictions.

The category should be set to Petrol Station, any other facilities can be added as secondary categories, such as ATM, Car Wash, Shop. The Brand should be correctly set. If the brand is not listed, it should be set as Independent. All other attributes should be added if available.

Petrol stations should be locked to 3.

Ensure that all relevant Google Map venues (brands, retailers, ATMs, car washes) are attached to the Place. There doesn't need to be separate Places for the individual brands (e.g. Subway/Greggs/Costa Express) within the venue (except for Electric Vehicle Charging Points).

Naming

As these locations sell more than petrol and often include a small shop, the name should not include the word Petrol.

Know the difference between petrol retailers/franchises and own brand stations - generally, Esso, Texaco, Murco and Jet do not own stations. They are franchised out to retailers like MFG, Rontec, etc. Shell and BP are mixed franchises and owned.

• Retailer/Franchisee own stations (MFG, Rontec, SNG, EG, etc.) should be named as, e.g. "MFG Coventry"
• Brand-owned stations should be named as per the brand's website, e.g. "Shell Aintree" or (in the case of BP-owned stations) "Park Road SF Connect".
• "<Supermarket> Fuel" should be used for supermarket-owned stations, e.g."Sainsbury's Fuel".
• Tesco Express with Esso Fuel - "Tesco Esso Express"
• Standalone ASDA petrol stations (that have replaced Co-op branded or EG Group owned stations) - "ASDA Express"
• Applegreen branded stations are a special case, as not all their stations are identifiable. These can be called as per their name on the totem pole on their forecourts, and if that's missing, they can be called "Applegreen <localname>".

If unsure, use the name from the brand's website or ask a champ.

Petrol station example

Restricted use locations, such as Costco Fuel, should have the suffix - Members Only (or similar) in the Name and also in the Brand - e.g. "Costco (Members Only)". The location should also be locked to 4.

Should a petrol station need closing, the Brand should be removed, the suffix [CLOSED] be added to the name, and the category should be changed to Construction site. This will remove the location from the nearest petrol station list and ensure the name is shown in search results. You should make note of the location and be prepared to reopen the petrol station.

Service areas

These guidelines are for motorway services and other large service areas on major roads that include several facilities and businesses.

Woodall (N) services

Services should be mapped as an Area Place to the boundaries of the facilities, including the end of the ramps leading into and out of the services. If the services cover both sides of the carriageway, separate Area Places should be mapped. Services should be named to reflect the names shown on the highway signage, If the services are split by a carriageway then cardinal directions should be included after the name, eg. Woodall Services (S). Do not include the brand name or road name.

An entry/exit point should be added and positioned at the end of the exit ramp to ensure Waze navigates off the main highway and ends voice instructions as the Wazer arrives; they are then left to find their way to the appropriate parking or facility.

The category should be set to Services / Layby; any other facilities can be added as secondary categories, such as Fast Food, Restaurants, Coffee shops / Cafes, Shop. Do not include a Petrol Station or Hotel. The main brand of the services should be entered in the first line of the description (Moto, Welcome Break, etc.), and then the other businesses on the second line, separated by commas. All other attributes should be added if available. The road name or junction number, e.g. Mx (N) or Mx Jx, should be used for the services Street name in the address.

Petrol Stations and Hotels should be mapped separately with their own Point Places, positioned at the entrance to the building. Their name should include the services name, eg. Shell - Woodall or Days Inn - Woodall. The address should match that of the main services area.

The segment that enters the service directly from the main highway should be named Services; this provides the clear instruction exit onto Services. Segments that rejoin the main highway should be left with no name. If the service has a through road that does not provide direct parking, then this should be set as a Street. All other segments within the services should be set as Parking Roads. Any limited access roads (with no public right of way), typically connecting the rear of the site to the local roads, should be set as a Private Road.

Service area example

Natural Features

Generally, mapping natural features only improves the App's visual appearance. In some cases, they can provide a useful reference when crossing major rivers or passing lakes or woodlands. When fully mapped with an Area Place, these should be locked to 3.

• Parks, forests, lakes - these should be mapped using an Area Place, named if they have one, and the appropriate category set.
• Rivers, canals - these should be mapped using an Area Place, named, and the appropriate category set. These should be continuous and not be split where bridges cross.
• Seas / shorelines - these should not be mapped as provided by an external source.
• Farms - these should not be mapped as Area Places. If they provide public services, such as a farm shop or camping, then they can be mapped as a Point Place.

You may wish to use the Street to River Plus script to help create rivers and canals.

Residential Place Points (RPP)

When reviewing a Place Point Update for a residential dwelling, it should only be accepted if it contains a house number. This should be verified using Google Street View or a local authority map. Adjust the position to the correct location. You should review any photo(s) and delete any that do not clearly show the residence.

If the residential place has been submitted as anything other than a Residential Place Point it should be converted to one using the link in the left-hand panel.

Where a property is located on a classified road (A or B road), ensure the address on the RPP does not include the road number. Ideally, all properties on these roads should be mapped with RPPs rather than using the House Numbers function.

Named Residential Buildings

When adding or reviewing a Place for a named residential building, be it a Named House, Residential Apartment Block, Care or Residential Home, or Student Accommodation, these should regular Point Places and be assigned the category of Other.

Postcodes

Waze does not natively support postcode navigation, this means Waze must use a third party (Google Maps) to obtain the centre of a postcodes location and will then navigate the user to the closest segment. Editors have no designated way to set a postcode to the correct buildings, streets, or areas. Postcodes will generally cover multiple properties and, in rural locations, often cover large areas.

Fixing postcode errors

Postcodes should only be fixed in Waze where there is a genuine error in the location of the postcode, and Waze routes users to an inappropriate destination (i.e., the wrong side of a river/railway, the middle of a motorway/dual carriageway, etc.). It would be beneficial if the error is corrected on Google Maps, the source of the information, but this cannot be easy to achieve.

N2 4AD located on wrong side of railway, closer to Parkside Cr.

Postcodes should not be fixed if Waze already routes users onto the correct road; a postcode alone rarely locates to a single building. In these cases, users should remember that Waze is designed to navigate to road and business names for better routing.

Before attempting to fix a postcode, you should check the Royal Mail Postcode Finder to understand better which properties a postcode covers. If a postcode covers properties on both sides of an obstacle, such as a river, correcting it for one side will cause errors for the other side, and therefore should not be fixed.

Postcode Finder results for N2 4AD

Single buildings

When a single building is assigned an exclusive postcode (i.e., large apartment blocks, DVLA, etc.), a Place can be created for the business / building itself and the postcode linked in the External providers section.

Multiple properties

Details to add when fixing postcodes.

Fixing a postcode location for multiple properties works best when the postcode is assigned to a cul-de-sac but can be used for longer roads if the appropriate group of properties can be determined. Create a Place Point, locate it in a sensible position on the segment (i.e., the start of the cul-de-sac), and fill in the following details;

• Add the Address that matches the segment
• The full postcode as it shown by Royal Mail (N2 4AD) as the primary Name
  • The same postcode without any spaces (N24AD) as a secondary name to ensure we capture all possible search inputs
• Category set to other
• Add something to the Description to identify this as a fix of a postcode error
• Lock it to L3 to prevent accidental deletion
• Link the relevant Google Maps result in the External Providers.

Missing postcodes

The same method can be used for postcodes missing from the results. Usually, this is due to a new housing development not yet showing in Google Maps or the Royal Mail database.

Fixes for missing postcodes should be removed once the postcode data becomes available. You should leave a comment to allow other editors to monitor the status.

Categories

You should check the Waze Map Editor language in the settings tab. Using English (UK) will provide British translations to place categories.

Do not use primary category groups for places, instead use the secondary categories. Primary categories include; Car Services, Transportation, Professional and public, Shopping and services, Food and drink, Culture and entertainment, Lodging, Outdoors, Natural Features.

The only exception is Other which can be used where the place doesn't fit any other sub-category.

Always check the category on newly approved places, as they are frequently wrong.

Below is a list of venue types and the categories they should be listed under. Not every category may be listed, as their use should be obvious or as described above. These are listed as shown using the English (UK) language.:

WME Category	Places to Include		Max lock
Convention / Event Centre	Significant event or convention centres Do not use this for village halls or stadiums.	Point	2
Flowers / Gardening	Garden Centre / Nursery Florist	Area Point	2
Hospital / Urgent Care	Hospitals with an A&E Department	Area	2
Doctor / Clinic	Non-emergency hospitals Non-urgent medical, including departments within a hospital GP Practices Dentist Optician Audiologist Chiropractor Sports Therapy	Point	2
Shop (Convenience Store)	Newsagent Petrol Station Forecourt (Petrol Station must be primary category) Butchers/Greengrocers High St Express/Local/Food & Wine Any other shop that sells goods that doesn't have its own category.	Point	2
Photography	Photography Studio Photo developers (i.e. Max Spielman) Photography equipment suppliers
Town Hall	Should not include Village Halls, which fall under the Club/Community Centre category.
Government	Anything Local or National Government that doesn't have a category of its own. Can be used in combination with other categories.
Restaurant	Places providing reservations, table service and a bill at the end Pubs serving food [additional category]	Point	2
Fast Food	Places providing a takeaway service, app ordering, and home delivery. Ensure that the take-away and drive-true attributes are enabled as appropriate.	Point	2
Personal Care	Hairdresser/Barber Make-up/Nail Salon Tanning/Sunbeds Massage Tattooist Podiatrists Do not use for residential care homes - this should be Other.	Point	2
Railway Station	Main-line railway stations Heritage railway stations	Area	3
Underground Station	City transportation systems TFL Trams Metro	Point	3
Bus Stations	Main bus stations. Bus stops should not be mapped.	Area	2
Arena / Stadium	Any sports venue with stands. This can be used with Sports Club. A large Performing arts venue (i.e. Manchester Arena) can also be added as an additional category.	Area	2
Gym / Fitness	Sports/Leisure Centres Martial Arts/ Yoga/ Pilates	Area Point	2
Sports pitch / Court	Playing fields Practice Grounds Bowling / Tennis courts Trampoline Park BMX/ Skate Park	Area	2
Sports Club	Any amateur Sports clubs, which can include Football, Tennis, Rugby, Fishing, Bowling, etc. Can be used alongside Stadium/Arena if applicable.	Point	2
Racing Track	Horse Racing Motoracing	Area	2
Club / Community Centre	Recreation and/or Social Clubs Community Centres Snooker/Pool Halls Youth Clubs Sports Clubs which have a clubhouse (alongside Sports Club).	Point	2
Pet shop / Vetinarian	Also: Dog Grooming Kennels / Cattery Pet hospital	Point	2
Casino / Gambling	Also: Betting Shops Bingo Halls Ameusment Centre (i.e. slot machines)	Point	2
Factory / Industrial	Industrial Parks & Estates Business within an Industrial Estate [Shopping or Food & Drink categories should not be used unless they have a public shop] Large Industrial units Self Storage Haulage/ Freight Forwarding Building Material Suppliers Train Care Power Station / Water treatment	Area Point Area	2
Car Dealership	Car/Van/Caravan Sales Motorbike Sales	Point	2
Construction Site	Places under construction [For Building Suppliers use Factory/Industrial]	Point	2
Farm	Farm Allotments (named only)	Point	2
Other	Residential houses with a name Residential housing blocks Nursing Homes Student Accommodation	Point	2
Lodging [+ sub-categories]	Accommodation with rooms bookable by the public Do not use for residential buildings (see Other)	Point	2
Cottage / Cabin	Bookable Holiday rental (i.e. AirBnB). Residential cottages with names should be categorised as Other.
Hostel	Inexpensive lodging facility for usually young travellers that typically has dormitory-style sleeping arrangements and sometimes offers meals and planned activities. These are not Hotels.	Point or area depending on size	2
Marina / Harbour	[set first category as Sea/Lake/Pool otherwise it will appear grey on the map]	Area	3
Camping / Caravan Park	Publically bookable campgrounds or caravan parks. Residential caravan parks should be Other.	Area	2