India Quickstart

Welcome editor!

This page provides the basics to start editing the Waze Map in India. Most of the paragraphs include links to pages with elaborate information, in case you want to know more. Because Waze is a navigation tool and not a topographic map, some things are drawn differently than expected. Our advice is, after reading this page, to choose one type of edit and first familiarize yourself with all aspects of that edit. Otherwise, you might as well get overfed with information. Your Community (link to be added) is happy to help you make your edits work. A definition of the used terms can be found in the glossary.

Precautions

• Are you working in an area which has not been edited? Segments won't have any road or city names, or direction set yet.

• Are you working in an area which has been edited recently? Remember that this has been done by other editors who have invested their time trying to make the roads and cities as accurate as possible, so please be careful before changing others' work.

• You can always send a Private Message (PM) to the editors whose work you are about to change, as they might be working on a longer-term project to improve a particular area, and your changes might help or hinder this. When editors have invested a lot of time in improving an area, they can be a bit possessive about it, and want to be assured that new editors are going to make changes that improve it further.

• You might see URs on the map. These are reported by users that noticed something wrong or strange on the map. You can respond to them and request more information about the problem, more information about UR's can be found here.

• Do NOT map every road you see. If a road is not accessible to cars, it often is not useful to draw this in Waze. Pedestrian area's are usually only drawn if they are useful for navigational purposes. When in doubt, contact a more experienced editor.

If you have any questions,read the wiki and ask questions in the forums or on Slack. India has its own discussion forum which you should visit regularly. Join in discussions to get clarification for things you don't quite understand. Send PMs to other editors who seem to work in your area. Get to know the Area Managers who have shown good editing skills and have been allocated a specific area to look after.

Above all, use the search feature in both the forums and this wiki to find what's already been asked and answered. And have fun!

Getting started

Communication

Waze is dependant upon its local communities. A community requires people to communicate and organise. You can find most Waze editors on the Waze forum. There's also an Indian subforum for questions about Waze in India or to ask for help in India. You can find the Indian subforum here.

In addition, we have an chat communication platform on Slack. You can request access to Slack by filling in this form. You will receive an invitation to Slack, where you need to make an account. In Slack there are several channels, project groups, and you can send Direct Messages (DM) too.

How to get to the Waze Map Editor (WME)

1. Log in to www.waze.com. If prompted to login, use the same username and password as you do on the Waze client app and the rest of the Waze website.
2. Search for your location
3. Click 'live map'
4. Click 'edit the map'

Or, go directly to www.waze.com/editor/?env=row.

After logging in, you will see the following page:

If you want to learn more about the controls and functions of WME (Waze Map Editor), you can find more details on the WME Interface and Controls page.

back to the Table of Content

Practice mode

If you're a first time editor, it can be useful to start in Practice Mode. In Practice Mode you can practice editing without risking damaging the map, since your edits and changes are not saved. For more experienced editors this can also be useful to test out complicated or new road constructions.

To edit in Practice Mode, you go to the editor, and without logging in, click on "Practice Mode".

Roads

Indian cities have been growing rapidly, with lots of roads being made and connected to existing roads. If you notice any roads on the satellite layer that has not been added to the base map, please first confirm that they exist before adding them. Do NOT add any roads without either:

1. Clear GPS tracks following the aerial when the GPS Points layer is turned on.
2. Seeing the road in the Street View feature, where that's available.
3. Local knowledge, or confirmation by a local host.

If there are roads that were created before the Raid, please DON'T delete them without instructions from a local host. And if you're extending an existing road, please ensure that you always verify that the road has been completed and properly connected before extending it.

If you turn on the GPS layer, you can see if the road has been driven on. If the layer doesn’t show any GPS arrows, it’s possible that the road hasn’t been opened for the public, or is just a road that has not been driven on by a Wazer yet.
On the left of the image, running alongside the Yamuna Expressway, there is a service lane that hasn’t been driven on. Leave it like this, if you live in the region, pay the location a visit to see if the road is open and drivable.

Adding roads

1. Hover the mouse over the button on the toolbar at the top of the page and click "Road"
2. Click the mouse on the map at the point where you want to start the new road segment.
3. Move the mouse cursor along the path of the road and click the mouse to add a geometry node for each point that changes direction along the road.
4. When finished, double-click the last point to end the segment.
5. Select the segment again, and fill in the details of the segment in the menu pane on the left.

• Each segment that is added must have a Country, City, and Street name, under the "Edit" link left. If there is no City and/or Street name available, then the "None" box(es) must be selected, or the segment will not be used in navigation. In the editor, you will see a red outline around the segment (see picture-to be added).
• Be sure the road actually exists before creating it. If you turn on the GPS layer, you can verify if the road has been driven on already. Of course it's also possible that the road exists, but hasn't been driven on by a Wazer yet.
• Always try and find as much detail about the road as you can. Arguably the best source would be the Eicher City Map of the area, if you have it. If you don’t, buy one. It’s a worthwhile resource for a Wazer in India.

Tip: * You can change your settings to draw roads as two-way streets.

Junction & Geometry nodes

Segment geometry node

Places geometry node

When editing a segment or Area Place, large white circles appear where the segment changes direction ultimately altering its shape. Click and drag them individually to alter the geometry of the segment or Place. Press the d key while the mouse is hovered over them to delete the geometry node. Alternately, hold the d key and then move the mouse over the nodes you want to delete.

The smaller white circles between the geometry nodes are "inter"-geometry nodes. When you click and drag an inter-geometry node, it becomes a larger geometry node and two more inter-geometry nodes appear halfway between each side again.

Tips: * Under the Layer icon at the top right of the Map Editor Tool Bar, you can turn off the road layer , to have a better view on the road structure and Satellite Image.

• More keyboard shortcuts

Junction Nodes

In practice: There are roads with unnecessary Junction Nodes and Geometry Nodes. Junction Nodes that aren’t connected to other streets and are a part of the same road and elevation can be removed. You can click on it and press the trash can icon on the top right of the screen (or press ‘Delete’ on the keyboard).

Geometry Nodes

You will see Geometry Nodes as white circles when you select a segment. You can delete unnecessary ones by hovering the mouse over it and pressing d on your keyboard.

Junction Arrows

When you select a segment, you can allow or restrict the turns by clicking the arrows at the junction(s) with other segments.

• A green arrow means Allowed
• A yellow arrow with a clock means Partially Restricted (scheduled or vehicle-type based)
• A red arrow with the circle-slash icon means Restricted
• Clicking an arrow toggles between Allowed and Restricted (or, between Partially and Fully Restricted).

Road properties

All road properties that can be changed are visible in the left pane when you select a segment.

Name
Click on the pencil next to the name of the road. Clicking this will allow you to edit all the address information. There are many abbreviations for street names, so read this before entering them.

If you do not know the name of the road, check None on the right side of the Street or City box (see picture on the right); otherwise the road will remain red and this makes it difficult to use in routing.

DO NOT FORGET to click Apply after entering the street and city name.

Road type

India Freeway network

Road Type	Explanation
Drivable
Freeway	National Highways that are referenced in the map above.
Major Highway (MH)	National Highways that aren’t seen in the map above
Minor Highway (mH)	All State Highways and Arterial Roads within Indian Metro Cities
Primary Street	Busy Roads within Cities, and/or Feeder Roads to Arterial Roads
Street	Residential Roads
Parking lot roads	Used for Petrol Stations, Car Parks
Dirt road / 4X4 Trail	Unpaved Roads
Non-drivable
Walking Trail	Avoid using -- can cause strange routing effects.
Pedestrian Boardwalk	Not usually necessary
Stairway	Not usually necessary
Railroad	Elevation level as is. DO connect to drivable roads if they actually cross, and disallow turns to and from drivable roads
Runway/Taxiway	---

Concerning Non-Drivable roads: Most aren't worth adding, as Waze is an app aimed at commuters who drive. If you think they are necessary for navigation (like to orientate yourself), DO NOT connect these roads to drivable roads. Waze has been known to route people along walking trails and the like! The only exception is Rail Roads, which should be connected, with turns to and from the drivable roads restricted (red). Elevation levels should be conform they are in reality.

For more information about road types, see Road Types in India

Direction

Two-way, one-way or unknown. ALWAYS choose 1 of these 3 options, NEVER leave it blank.

Speed limit

Here you can enter the speed limit for each direction. Make sure you are entering in metric units (kilometers) and NOT in imperial units (miles). If you do not know the speed limits, leave it blank.

Elevation

This is for the elevation of the road if roads overlap without crossing. For example a bridge or overpass.

Lock

This determines what level editors need in order to edit the segment. You cannot edit roads locked by a higher level editor than you. To get it unlocked you should post on the India Forum or on Slack.

Depending on the road type, the road should be locked to specific lock-levels. Only lock them if you are sure they are correct - check routing in the live map! Sometimes it is necessary for a road to be locked higher than this because it is an important road, or the map does not match the satellite views.

Road type	Lock level
Freeway	5
Ramp	5
Major Highway	4
Minor Highway	3
Primary Street	2
• • • • Ferry • • • •	5

Non-existent roads

• 

  1. New Roads

• 

  2a. Non-existent roads

• 

  2b. Disconnecting a non-existent road

• 

  3. Unfinished road

There may be roads that have been drawn in the base-map but may not be in the satellite images, or they may not exist in real life at all. Again, the GPS points will help you determine their status. If the satellite image shows an incomplete road with no GPS points (Pic 2), leave the road in the base map. If it’s already drawn, disconnect the junction nodes to valid roads (Pic 2b). If no road has been drawn (see Pic. 3), go ahead and add the road with the name “Road Under Construction”. Do not connect it to any other roads. The road can then be easily found and completed once the road is opened.

Adding Places

Only actual "Places" or Points of Interests (POIs) should be mapped, i.e. those which help the driver to find their way.

For the purposes of searching for addresses or businesses, Waze gets its results from other providers (Bing, Google, foursquare), so it's not necessary to add them to the map as well, unless the information from the other providers is incorrect.

• See the guidelines on How to Draw and Label Places.

Gas Stations

We would like to open up the Gas Stations feature in the Waze app and need to have as many Gas Stations as possible added to the map. You can find them via Street View, and searching the websites of Gas Station businesses.

Gas stations (a.k.a Petrol pumps in India) should be marked according to the following guidelines:

• A "Gas Station" is drawn as an Area Place.
• The area is drawn over the entire forecourt, so it is visible on the map
• Routes in and out should be mapped with type "Parking Lot Road"
• All segments should have appropriate directions and junction arrows.
• The correct brand of fuel should be selected.
• Use the Place Name specified for the brand of fuel (see local wiki)
• Add all of the alternate names for that brand (see local wiki)
• If the station has a separate company name (Ex: Shaheed Jagat Singh Filling Station), add it in another Alternate Name field.
• Address and phone numbers should be added, if known.
• Lock a gas station at Level 2 to prevent loss of data. Gas stations on major highways need to be locked at Level 4 or above (ask your group for help if it is above your level)

For more information and how to add Gas Stations, see local wiki

Permalinks

If you want help with, or have a question about a specific area or road, it can be useful to generate a permalink. A permalink is a URL used to take you or someone else directly to a specific map location. It contains latitude, longitude, zoom level, visible layers, and optionally a junction or a place or one or more segments. To create a permalink, zoom and pan the map to show what you want to show. Next, hover the mouse over the permalink icon on the right side of the bottom bar until a message pops up. Then use Ctrl+C to copy the permalink. You can paste this link anywhere you need it.

Further Details

This page is only intended as a Quickstart and is not intended to answer all of your questions. If you only intend to add a few street names, or allow a turn, then this is aimed at you. Before you start any serious editing please also read the India Editing Best Practice.

For detailed explanation of how to use the Waze Map Editor, please read the WME Manual.

Should you still have questions after searching the forums, and if you still can't find an answer, post a topic in the correct forum. You can find contact links at the Community Page.