This page serves as the primary resource for editors of Montana. Review all the sections to better understand how the guidelines for this state might deviate from the overall USA or worldwide guidelines. If you have any comments or questions about this page or state refer to the community links below.
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Introduction
Montana is a part of the Northwest region, which includes the states and/or territories of:
Before editing the maps in Montana, be sure to fully review and understand the editing manual.
The Waze user community follows the Waze etiquette guidelines discussed in the Wiki. Be sure to familiarize yourself with these guiding principals while editing the maps and this Wiki, as well as when communicating with other Waze users.
Functional Classification
Montana follows the Functional Classification (FC) system for both state and non-state roads.
A Montana Area Manager has created an ArcGIS map which consolidates data from many of the following resources as layers on one map. There is also a script which will open the map and keep it synced to your current view.
Montana Cadastral data is a framework of property boundaries along with associated land ownership information (who owns what and where). The goals of the Project are to produce, and maintain, cadastral information in a consistent, digital format for the entire State of Montana. This is a crowd-sourced dataset and should be used with extreme caution as it may contain errors.
The Montana Road Log provides descriptions of Montana highways (useful to find start and end points when road signs are limited, or GIS resources aren't clear). From the MDT Brochures page. IMPORTANT NOTE: The "N" numbers are not the US Highway numbers; you must look in the details for that "N" route to find statements like "ENTER US 2" to determine the correct number.
City Plat maps show public roads on a land grid of township, range and section lines. These maps do not imply roadway ownership or maintenance responsibility. Cultural features adjacent to roads are displayed by symbols. The maps also indicate managed areas by owner, lakes, reservoirs, streams, canals/ditches, and, railroads.
City system route maps are updated annually to show current On System Routes and the City Boundary. On System Routes are comprised of the Interstate NHS, Non-Interstate NHS, State Primary, and State Secondary routes.
County maps show roads on a land grid of township,range and section lines. MDT departmental route id's are indicated with a beginning label and ending label, and MDT corridor id's are added to some routes where possible. These maps do not imply roadway ownership or maintenance responsibility. Cultural features adjacent to roads are displayed by symbols. The maps also indicate managed areas by owner, lakes, reservoirs, streams, canals/ditches, and, railroads.
City areas are blocked out on these PDF maps but they are available in the Urban maps, City Systems maps and Unincorporated Town Maps.
County system route maps are updated annually to show current On System Routes. On System Routes are comprised of the Interstate NHS, Non-Interstate NHS, State Primary, and State Secondary routes
Unincorporated town maps show public roads on a land grid of township, range and section lines. These maps do not imply roadway ownership or maintenance responsibility. Cultural features adjacent to roads are displayed by symbols. The maps also indicate managed areas by owner, lakes, reservoirs, streams, canals/ditches, and, railroads
The Waze forum is a great place to find answers to previously asked questions and also a place to ask new ones. Below are links to the forums specific to Montana.
New editors should consider checking into the formal mentoring program available at no charge.
Northwest Discord Server
Montana utilizes Discord, which is used to chat with local editors and area/state/regional management. If you're a new/existing editor in Montana or even if you're just visiting and want to relay information to local editors you can do so by clicking the link below to jump into the group.
Discord is a free app available on many devices including Windows, Mac, Android and iOS.
US Discord Server
Join the USA Discord Server. The US Discord Server is the main server of editors in the USA. It features region channels for cross collaboration between all editors. This is separate from the Northwest Region Discord Server which is strictly for conversations among NWR editors.
Cities and towns
One of the most common errors when editing the maps is when an editor creates a road and does not confirm the road by setting the city and road name (or stating it has none).
When editing a segment's City field, use the incorporated name, or use the CDP (Census Designated Place) name when the place is locally known and/or more commonly recognized by that name. Segments outside of the official limits of incorporated or CDP areas should have the "None" box checked instead. Unincorporated areas (unless they are part of a Montana CDP) and greater urban areas outside of city/CDP limits should also be checked as "None".
Creating your own city overlays: You must have WME Geometries installed along with Qgis a free geographical information system. Follow t0cableguy's guide that he has put together. Cross reference your maps for accuracy with U.S. Census Bureau maps by selecting Place on the bottom right. In the drop down menu select Montana and the appropriate city or town. Also use MDOT's City and Urban maps.
In Montana we have a set minimum standard for locking roads based on segment type. Any road of a certain segment type must be locked at least to the rank (level) in the chart below. Roads may be locked higher for protection and special situations (areas with construction, tricky design, frequent mistakes, imaging inaccuracies, and the like), but should not be locked lower.
A great time to implement these locks is while bringing the road types of an area into compliance with the current US road type standards (FC and highway systems). Lock the roads based on type after they've been set to current US road type standards.
Montana Minimum Locking Rank Standard
Segment Type
Statewide
Freeway
5
Ramp
5
Major Highway
3
Minor Highway
3
Primary Street
2
Street
1
• • • • Ferry • • • •
5
|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-| Railroad |-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|
2
Note: Certain roads may be locked higher than the above minimums. Please do not lower locks unless approved by the RC or SM of Montana.
State Highway Naming Standard
Montana's state highways are classified as either primary or secondary.
Primary Highways are signed with square markers containing black lettering on white background with 'MONTANA' at the top of the marker and the route number below.
Secondary Highways are also signed with a square marker but are distinctive in that the route number appears in black on a white down-pointing arrowhead. Route numbers 201 and higher are, with very few exceptions, exclusively reserved for S routes. Notable exceptions include, MT 287, and the former MT 789.
Nebraska Highway
Primary Highways are to be named MT-###
(TTS pronunciation "Montana ###")
Nebraska Link
Secondary Highways are to be named SH-###
(TTS pronunciation "State Highway ###")
U-turn Legality
Limitation on U-turns --[1] turning on curve or crest of grade prohibited.
An operator of a vehicle may not turn the vehicle to proceed in the opposite direction:
unless the movement can be made safely and without interfering with other traffic; or
upon any curve or upon the approach to or near the crest of a grade where the vehicle cannot be seen by the operator of any other vehicle approaching from either direction within 500 feet.
For Waze routing, u-turns should only be enabled where they provide the potential for improved routing, which includes recovering from missed turns. A common example is a median-divided primary street that has homes/businesses with their driveways/entrances directly on it, where reaching them would otherwise require lengthy, multi-turn deviations through side roads in order to end up on the correct side of the median.
Elevation Guidelines
These are the general guidelines for elevation in Montana:
Drivable and non-drivable segments are handled the same way with elevation.
Set elevation to ground in most cases.
Segment(s) passing over other segment(s), rivers, major waterways, and all bridges shall have higher elevation, relative to ground.
Only elevate/lower the actual bridge/tunnel section of the road.
Elevation of overlapping segments should be set relative to each other, with the lowest segment as Ground (unless a tunnel).
Tunneled segments shall have lower elevation, relative to ground.
Only segments that "cannot see the sky" should have negative elevation (i.e. tunnels).
Only set elevation as low/high as necessary.
If you use the Bridge tool to join segments, be aware that it raises the elevation of the joined segment. Lower the joined segment as appropriate.
"Seagull" guidelines apply to elevation in Montana.
Bridges should be cut at the start/end of the bridge.
Tunnels should be cut at least 15m/50ft before and after the tunnel, to allow time for the GPS to regain signal.
Do not cut segments for elevation purposes if the bridge/tunnel starts/stops within 60m/200ft of an existing junction.
Speed Limits
Montana follows the Waze wiki Speed Limit guidelines when it comes to adding SL to segments. The only exception to this guidelines is adding SL to work zone areas, we do not add SL to these areas as the SL will change at unknown times and can not be verified in some cities or counties.
Day/Night Speed Limits
Some speed limits in Montana have day and night provisions. The speed data in Waze should only include the fastest legal speed limit. This will prevent drivers from getting the "red speedometer" when traveling during the day.
Freeway Exit Areas
Montana follows the standard for Freeway Exit Areas (FEA) along all controlled access road segments.
Special roads
Drivable roads
Montana follows the standard USA guidelines for all of the following special road types.
Review the Wiki guidelines for non-drivable roads to ensure compliance with the general guidelines.
Forest Service Roads
When editing Forest Service Roads be sure to read the Waze wiki page first in order to follow naming convention. Listed below are references that are a good starting point
Montana follows the following functional classification for Gravel and Dirt Road /4x4 trails.
Gravel Roads
Functional Classification
Minor Arterial Minor Highway
Minor Collector Primary Street
Local/Not Mapped Street
Off-road / Not maintained
Functional Classification
Minor Arterial Off-road / Not maintained
Minor Collector Off-road / Not maintained
Local/Not Mapped Off-road / Not maintained
Images demonstrated above can not cover all scenarios for mapping maintenance level to Waze road type. These types of roads may undergo variation in quality over seasons additionally depending on the climate (rain/snow). Particularly, some gravel roads may have qualities that are closer to Dirt Road / 4x4 Trail than street. Editors with local experience or potential Street View images may help in this determination.
Driveways / Private Roads
Please follow the following guidelines for Private Driveways. Wiki standard can be found here. Driveways
Mapping rural diveways
50 to 399m (164 to 1309ft): If an address/location cannot be reasonably guided to without a private driveway, as might be the case with the residence being closer to an adjacent street, it can be added.
400m (1312ft) or more: Map it. Do not delete existing driveways already meeting this criterion.
Discussion can be found in the Montana section of the forums.
Closures
When managing a section of roadway under construction or being closed for a major event, follow the Wiki guidelines on construction zones and Real time closures.
Road Closures
You can follow MDT Road Report on Twitter to stay up to date on the latest traffic conditions and road closures.
This section contains details about road closures, mainly MT and State Hwy's but can contain City, Urban and Rural streets in the state of Montana. If you perform a road closure at any time please use the Waze Closures form and report all closures here. A list of all Montana State and Secondary Hwy closing are on MDOT travel information webpage.
Road Name
Editor
Closed Date
Est Open Date
Links and comments
US-212 (Beartooth Pass)
*
October 2017
Spring 2018
Closed for season
Rest Area closures
As of this righting 02/2016 there are currently no guidelines in the wiki stating how to close a ramp. This was brought to the attention of our RC, discussion ensued and a final conclusion has been made. Listed below are the following state guidelines for Montana only and should not be considered accurate for any other state outside of Montana unless agreed upon by said states RC and SM.
The choice to implement a RTC (Real time closure) was based on multiple parts. Turn directions: Using a TBTR (time based turn restriction) Waze will still route to the rest area, TBTR merely suggests a suggestion/penalty. There's no other way to get there, so it will route that way. Hard turn restriction only prevents routes through that turn. A closure or RTC (Real Time Closure) will make the segments invisible to the routing server and therefore will never direct the driver onto the ramp thus avoiding the closed rest area. The second to last step is Updating the Rest area it's self.
Final step: After completing the closure of the ramps and rest area please log it into the form below. This way we can keep track of all closures and time frames.
In order to understand how to close a rest area, we first have to identify which rest area it is. We can find this information on MDT Construction and Maintenance site. MDT will have closures planned for the future, current closures and completed closures. For this scenario we will be using
Colmbus eastbound and westbound rest areas, parking lots, on and off ramps.
With the provided resource we can now start to construct our Real Time Closure.(RTC)
Closure date: 2-29-16
Ending date: Until further notice
Reason: Under construction
We can then take this information and fill out a RTC on the ramp entering into the rest area to be closed.
Closure
To begin closing the rest area we first edit the rest are fields. You can do this simply by clicking on the area it's self and pressing the E key on your keyboard.
Within in the NAME field place CLOSED in bold letters in the square brackets.
Under the DESCRIPTION field, enter the closing description found on the MDT Construction and Maintenance website. We also will want to un-check any amenity that is checked in the More Information tab for the purpose of visually representing no amenities are available. When everything is entered in, click save.
Ramp Closure
Selecting the ramp to be closed. In this case it's "to Rest Area" as in most cases, although some ramps are named differently depending on how the exit is labeled.
RTC on Ramp
Collecting the data from earlier we can now enter it into the closure.
Location - This field will auto-populate to name of affected street. If multiple streets are selected, add a general description of the area (name of the road, the interchange, or the area if several roads in a known area are being closed). This section is NOT view-able in the client app, it is only seen in the WME.
Reason - This section will be view-able in both the client app and the LiveMap. Write a description of closure / event here. Once supported, #hashtags will go here.
Direction - Closure direction should be noted carefully (using the A and B nodes for reference). Close one way direction on a two way road here.
Event - This field is not currently active, please ignore.
Start/End Date & Time - Enter date/time the closure will remain active (the start date can be a date in the past). Enter local time for area of map you are editing. Format is 24-hour clock and YYYY-MM-DD. NOTE: End date can not be more than 183 days after the start date.
In the event that you are unable to use the RTC feature you can do 1 of 2 things:
Montana follows the USA standard for Places. Do not deviate from the guidelines without first obtaining consensus to do so via the state forum linked on this page.
Places/Parking Lot
As the new Parking features are being rolled out, PLAs are being imported to the map by Waze. This guidance should be used to fix up those imported PLAs. However while we wait for additional features to be released, currently any PLA will be displayed as a visible area on the client map creating clutter. Current guidance is therefore not to add any new PLAs until the client is updated (soon™) to not display PLAs. Places/Parking Lot
See Montana/Places for guidance in Montana that may not be universal to all other states and territories.
Cameras
Not every camera-looking device at an intersection is a speed or red light camera. Generally speaking:
a speed camera takes a photograph of a vehicle when it passes by the camera at too high a speed.
a red light camera takes a photograph of a vehicle that enters an intersection after the light is red. In some areas, it takes the photograph when a vehicle is not clear of the intersection some period after the light turns red.
When adding a camera, be sure to review the camera placement recommendations.
Laws regarding speed and red light cameras vary between the states and territories, so be sure to understand the details of camera legality in Montana.
All localities prohibited from using red light cameras; rail crossings excepted.
To do list
Many states and territories keep an active list of pending or closed actions that need to be done in the state by the editors. All editors are welcome to contribute to the list of activities.
Want to help out with the map in Montana? Below is a list of projects that need to be done. Please see Map Editing & Editing Best Practices for a starting point on how to edit the map.
See Montana/To do for guidance in To Do List Montana
Area Managers
The table below identifies the editors also designated as Area Managers or higher who are editing in Montana. If you have any questions, please consider contacting them directly as needed. If you are an Area Manager that covers Montana, or a USA Country Manager that does a lot of work in Montana, please add yourself to this list (alphabetical by username) in the correct rank section.
The editor who also serves as the Regional Coordinator for Montana is automatically listed at the top of the table. That editor may not be highly active in this state and therefore may not be listed separately in the table.
Montana — Area, State, Country Managers, and Regional Coordinators
The following editors are also editing in the state and may be working towards an Area Manager position. Feel free to contact them for assistance in their respective areas.
