Waze implements Throttling of edits when mass editing occurs.
If you mass edit:
Please think quality not quantity. |
Welcome to the Wiki for the South African MapRaid. The raid is scheduled to run from 30th April to 8th May 2016. Sign up for the raid at http://bit.ly/MMR_SouthAfrica
Focus
Our primary focus is verifying and Updating Speed Limits (SL). If you find other issues while working on SLs that need attention, feel free to give it. Remember, the main goal is Speed Limits.
Areas and Groups
South Africa has nine provinces - each of these provinces will be a raid area. As some provinces are less developed than others you will have access to some of the others. Please keep to your province until you are satisfied there is nothing more to do there. Lesotho and Swaziland are not part of South Africa. Please do not edit there.
- Western Cape
- Eastern Cape
- Northern Cape
- Free State
- Kwa-Zulu Natal
- North West
- Gauteng
- Mpumalanga
- Limpopo
Changing to ROW Server
For our US and Canadian visitors, South Africa falls under the World Server. In the upper right hand corner of the editor, where it says US & Canada, you can click it for a dropdown menu. To edit in South Africa, change to the World server, commonly known as the ROW (Rest of the World) server. The US & Canada server is commonly known as the NA Server.
Note: This option is not visible if you are in fullscreen.
Make sure you are set to Metric units under settings.
Local Hosts
| Editor | Timezone |
|---|---|
| elphix (PM) | SAST (GMT +2) |
| LeighGr (PM) | SAST (GMT +2) |
| Kuhlkatz (PM) | SAST (GMT +2) |
Speed Limits
South Africa uses the metric system (km/h), we drive on the left hand side of the road. The following is a general breakdown of what to expect with regards to speed limits in South Africa. These are by no means definitive - limits should be verified by streetview.
- Freeways - 120km/h
- Major Highways - 100km/h, sometimes 120km/h
- Minor Highways - 80km/h or 100km/h
- Primary Streets - 60km/h or 80km/h
- Streets - 60km/h
Sometimes the municipal authorities try to get creative and have a speed limit in between the norm, 70km/h for example. We do not use 5 in our limits, they are extremely rare (i.e. 65km/h). Don’t trust average speeds for segments - South Africans like to speed.
Road Signs
Waze currently only allows the verification of maximum speed limits. Minimum speed limit signs have been included here to show the difference between the two.
Maximum Speed limit signs are a red circle with the limitation in black, minimum speed limit signs are a white circle with the limitation in white with a blue background.
South Africa does not use a "return to usual speed" sign. Temporary road signage is amber in colour. Do not use these when setting speed limits.
Possible confusion signs
| Sign | Meaning |
|---|---|
| https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/4f/SADC_road_sign_R532.svg/120px-SADC_road_sign_R532.svg.png | Vehicles exceeding 16 tonnes GVM prohibited |
| https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/1b/SADC_road_sign_R540.svg/120px-SADC_road_sign_R540.svg.png | Maximum number of spaces in a parking reservation |
| https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e7/SADC_road_sign_R202.svg/120px-SADC_road_sign_R202.svg.png | Vehicles exceeding 12 tonnes GVM prohibited |
Languages
South Africa has eleven official languages. Within Waze we keep it to English but you may get a response to a UR in another language. If this happens please try steer the conversation to English or ask elphix, LeighGr or Kuhlkatz to step in. All abbreviations are in English - please see the Acceptable suffix abbreviations in the South African Waze Wiki and change as required. I.e. change “Mahlomola Street” to “Mahlomola St”. Not many of the existing suffixes should be non-english, but if they are, the correct one can easily be looked up in the Acceptable suffix abbreviations table.
Locking Policy
Anything locked at L5 - please consult with a local champ before changing restrictions or geometry.
| Road Type | Lock Level |
|---|---|
| Freeway | 5 |
| Major Highway | 4 |
| Minor Highway | 3 |
| Primary Street | 2 |
| Streets | 1 |
Communication
The preferred method of communication for the MapRaid is via Slack. If you aren't already a member of the Waze Map Raid Slack then please submit your information on this form: http://bit.ly/Slack_invite
Scripts and Addons
The normals scripts and addons used in other countries work in South Africa. Some notable examples inclue WME Toolbox and WME Color Highlights.
As the main focus for this raid is speedlimits we suggest you add the following:
- WME Speedhelper
- Has the most common speed limits
- WME Speeds
- WME Toolbox
- South Africa specific validator
- Made by our very own LeighGr
- Install via Tampermonkey on Chrome
Other Things
- In an effort to standardise our road names please change hyphens, commas and other to parentheses.
- The standard is ROAD NAME (ROAD NUMBER CARDINAL DIRECTION)
- “Curie Ave - R706” should be “Curie Ave (R706)”,
- “M5 Southbound, Kromboom Pkwy” should be "Kromboom Pkwy (M5 S)"
- Gas Station are to be locked at L4 or higher. If you’re not yet at L4, lock it as high as you can.
- We find that sometimes junior editors add duplicate gas stations as points on an area place, this is incorrect. The point should be removed or converted to an area.
- We are still in the process of changing our cardinal directions - if you see any please abbreviate them
- E.g “N1 South” should be “N1 S”.
- Many highway exits are missing their exit numbers, add them if you see them.
- E.g “Exit 34: Harrismith”
- Please do NOT edit the coastlines.
- Our traffic lights are called “robots” - I don’t know why.
Do's and Don'ts
- Don’t mass edit
- Do change to ROW server and metric system
- Do read the wiki
- Don't use temporary (amber) or minimum (blue) signs for the speed limits.
- Don’t edit the coastline
- Don’t stress about all the missing townships – add them if you’re feeling adventurous.
- Do contact the local champs if you’re unsure of something.
- Do edit the road names to match local standards.
- Don't edit in the neighbouring countries - this includes Lesotho and Swaziland.
- Do have fun!
Reference Links
- South Africa Waze Wiki
- Information and guidelines on local editing
- Local Freeway and Major / Minor Highway naming conventions
- Local Road Naming suffixes
- Only the English convention is acceptable
- If a suffix is non-English, you can look it up and change it e.g. "Str" or "Straat" (Afrikaans) should be changed to "St" for Street.
- Waze MapRaid Wiki
- General information about MapRaids
- Creating and editing road segments
- How to add speed limits