Quick start guide

New India Wiki is being built, For now, please see the pages about Waze in India in the old Wiki.

Indian Quick Start Guide

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. These pages can be Indian, but can also be global pages in Waze, general pages from another source or even from another country. If information seems to contradict, the guidelines for India always prevail.

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 overloaded with information. Your Community is happy to help you make your edits work.

How to get to the Waze Map Editor

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.

If you want to learn more about the controls and functions of WME (Waze Map Editor), you can find a detailed explanation on the global Wiki page on Interface and Controls].

Practice mode

If you're a first time editor, it can be useful to start in practise mode. See the global Wiki on 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 WME, and without logging in, click on "Practice Mode".

Editing the map

Most starting editors at first try to match the map of Waze perfectly to the satellite image. They split roads, add walking trails, make the roads very fluently and draw detailed places. However, Waze is not a topografical map, but a navigation system that routes you to your destination in the best/fastest way.

Waze relies on a map’s display suitable for a small smart-phone screen. It needs a map that accurately instructs where cars can drive, is simple and clear, and uses real time traffic data bound to the parts on the map. Therefore, we follow the three basic principles "Usability, Simplicity, & Retention"; Make it useful, keep it as simple as possible, and do not delete! The lesser the detail, the clearer the map, lesser data use, faster calculations, and easier maintainance. With that in mind, let's start edit the map!

Roads

Indian cities have been growing rapidly, with lots of roads being made and connected to existing roads. So much work to be done. Please only add roads when you are sure they exist. An important source of information is the underlying satellite picture. This picture can be outdated. Also, please be careful deleting roads, as they could contain valuable information. When in doubt consult with a senior editor or local Area manager (see the Community page) or submit your question via Slack.

Adding roads

1. Hover the mouse over the Road menu on the toolbar at the top of the page and click the "Road" option.
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, County (State), City, and Street name. If there is no City and/or Street name available, then the "None" box(es) must be selected, otherwise you will see a red outline around the segment.
• 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.
  

For more information on defining roads see the Road properties paragraph below.

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.

Junction nodes

Junction Nodes

There are roads with unnecessary Junction Nodes. All these unnecessary nodes just split up one road into several segments. 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). Guideline for a nice maximum length: 5 KM.

Geometry nodes

Geometry Nodes

You will see Geometry Nodes as white circles when you select a segment. Sometimes the road geometry should be corrected. Some roads are created by the paving function of the app while using a bad GPS fix. There are roads imported or created by hand while the map was shifted for 10 to 20 meters. With the help of the satellite picture slopped mapped roads can be fixed. A geometry node can be moved by selecting the node and than drag it to the correct position. One or more superfluous nodes can be deleted by hovering the mouse over it and pressing d on your keyboard.

Checking the Junction

After adding a new road it is always good to check the connections. If you select the newly created segment the Junction Arrows should resemble the possible directions. If the junction is correct there should be arrows pointing to all connected roads. If there are no arrows shown there is probably a problem. Refresh the screen and reconnect the end point of the newly created segment.

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).

Cutting a segment

You can cut a segment into two new segments. You can do this by adding a new segment from some random point nearby, to the point of the segment where you want to cut it. A new junction will be added. Delete the new segment just created. The newly created junction will remain and you made two new segments out of one. If you need to actually separate the road segments at that point, just relocate the end point of one of the two new segments.

Road properties

All road properties that can be changed are visible in the left pane when you select a segment.
Restrictions and Closures are described elsewhere.

Address

Click on the first address field to edit the address information. The concatenated address fields from the primary address becomes available as separates fields. Extra adresses can be added via clicking Add alternative names.

We try to keep the names uniform, which is important for the display as well as for routing purposes. Use the same spelling for all the segments with the same road name. And further use the abbreviations when you enter road names.

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

Road attributes

Road type
For every segment in the WME, you can choose the type of road. Road types are important for the display and routing, and may differ from the actual road type. In general:

• The main roads in a district or town should at least be set to primary.
• If segments will be used for through-going traffic or for longer distances connecting districts or towns, they should at least be mH (minor Highway)
• Main interconnecting roads with fast traffic should at least be MH (major Highway)

Always try to connect a road to a same level of road type or higher. Thus, Waze should be able to route from primary to primary (or higher), from minor to minor (or higher), from major to major (or higher), and from Freeway to Freeway. Another way of explaining this, is that you should be able to continuously drive on the same or higher type of segments for the routing engine to use that road type in the calculations.

This means we sometimes need to make small roads mH, for the possibility of calculating long distance routing. If anything is unclear, please ask your community for input.

For more information, see Road types in India.

Direction
Two-way or one-way, 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. Check the page of the state on speed limit information. For general guidelines on speed limits see the Speed limit page.

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

Lock
Roads can be locked to prevent breaks in the routing. Depending on the condition of the map and the road type, often the roads are locked to a specific locking standard.

You cannot edit roads locked at a higher level than your editing level. If you need to edit a road locked above your level, post an downlock request in Slack mentioning from which level to which level, where (which state) and why. The unlocker will react with the unlock symbol.

After the work on the downlocked segments is done a relock request should be submitted.

Places

Places like Petrol Pumps, Parking Lots, Train Stations and other Points of interest can be mapped. Be sure to have the Places layer of the WME enabled and click on the Place menu to show Place categories. Choose one and click on the map to add it. This will add a point place. Use the left panel to change it to, if necessary, into an area and to add other information about the place. For an area place, such as Petrol Pumps and Parking Lots, use geometry nodes of the place to change its shape.
See for more information the page on Places.

Problem reports (URs & MPs)

URs Update Requests; map problems reported by waze users
MPs automatically generated Map Problem reports
show where the map needs work. We must solve them to fix the map. URs also give us a way to contact our fellow wazers, who may become interested in editing. It is important to handle them with care and attention.
Please read our guidelines on URs and MPs.

Permalinks

A permalink (PL) is a URL used to take you or someone else directly to a specific location on the map. It contains all information necessary to discuss that location, like latitude, longitude, zoom level, visible layers, and optionally a junction or a place, or one or more segments. Below is a PL that points to a certain location in Delhi.

https://www.waze.com/en-GB/editor/?env=row&lon=77.09612&lat=28.66073&s=1681389015&zoom=3

• The first parameter specifies the environment where row stands for rest of the world.
• Next attribute specify the geographic coordinates to the position of a point on the Earth's surface via the longtitude and latitude
• Third attribute is the zoom level
• Fourth optional attribute - not shown here - are referring to selected segments or places.
  

Creating a PL
For locking / unlocking requests a PL should be supplied with all involved segments. From the WME screen create a PL by adjusting the zoom level so all segments to select are visible. While using the Ctrl-key select all involved segments. Then create a PL by clicking the symbol bottom right corner of your screen. The PL is now created as URL in your browser. Use Ctrl+C to copy the permalink. You're now able to paste this link anywhere you need it.

To include a single place, junction, or segment in the permalink, click on it before using the permalink icon. To include several segments and/or objects, use ctrl+click (for MAC:⌘ Command+click).

Take the next step

This page is only intended as a Quick-start 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 all the Indian mapping guidelines.

Helpfull tips and often encountered problems when starting editing are described in the page to Editing/Improve your skills.

And don't forget to join your fellow Wazers in your community, who will be happy to meet you!

Happy Wazing!

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