User:SunnyRaynbows/Updates

Welcome to the Plains Region (PLN) Wazeopedia. Below you will find information related to editing for Waze in the Plains Region, which includes the states of Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, and South Dakota. All editors in the region are required to have a non usa_username, have their private messaging turned on, and turn live users on in the layers menu. Do not edit in Invisible mode if you are a rank 3 or below.

Getting Started as an editor in the Plains Region

Want to help out with the map in the Plains Region? Add missing streets, solve Update Requests (URs), improve place details, etc - ask questions to anyone listed at the bottom of the page, and seek out advice when/where needed. Before you get started, though, please review the rest of this page and ensure you follow the rules for editing.

Key Wazeopedia Links

If you haven't already done so, please be sure to review the following links before and as you begin editing (we recommend bookmarking them!):

• This Plains Region page you are currently on
• The Waze map editor welcome page
• The map editing quick start page
• Edits to avoid
• The Waze glossary
• The WME interface and controls
• How to create a PermaLink (you will need to know how to do this when working with others)

There are additional links at the bottom of this page that will be of interest once you are editing on an on-going basis.

Editing Rank and Permissions

As you advance in rank, new editing abilities will become available and you will have permission to do new things. Editors at all ranks are encouraged to provide level unlocks in their editing area and to informally mentor other local editors. The following table lists editing permissions added at each rank divided into permissions inherent to the WME editor and permissions based on our Plains Region-specific lock levels.

Rank	WME Permissions	PLN Locks: Roads	PLN Locks: Places
1	Places, PLAs, HNs, RPPs, Start MTEs	Local Streets, Parking Lot Roads, Private Roads
2	Force HNs, Link Places to Google	Primary Streets, Railroads
3	Set Road Closures, Lock Harmonized Places/Area	Minor Highways, Major Highways	Most Places, Gas Stations, Government Buildings, Schools, City & Local Parks, RPPs
4	Set Routing Preference	Freeways, Ramps	Hospitals/Urgent Care, Police/Fire, National & State Parks, Military
5		Tollways, Ferries
6

While rank is marginally tied to the number of edits you have, that is by no means the only factor taken into consideration. After the initial advancement from R1 to R2, additional advancement will occur at the discretion of the regional leadership team. Questions about your rank and advancement can be directed to your state managers, found in the table below.

More information about your editor rank and points in the Waze app (and the difference between the two) can be found here.

Navigating the Waze Environment

Finding Your Waze Profile Information

To find your editor profile, which lists your rank, points, number of edits, recent edits, and shows your editing area, go to https://www.waze.com/user/editor/<your user name>.

To find your overall Waze dashboard, which shows your edit count, but also your total points, miles driven, etc., go to http://www.waze.com/dashboard and it will redirect you. You can learn more about the dashboard here.

To learn more about how you earn points in both the client application and as an editor, go to Your Rank and Points.

Working in the Waze Map Editor

Language Settings

When first working in the Waze Map Editor (WME), make sure you are set to use US English. To do so, click on the Gear icon on the tab on the left side, the choose US English from the dropdown menu. This will ensure you are working with the correct set of category names for our country.

Working on User Reports (URs)

Update Requests in Waze Map Editor

Response Timeline

(NOTE: all day values are relative to the date the FIRST editor response is sent to the reporter)

Day 1

We typically want to answer a report within 24 hours, but this should be at least attempted within the first 3 days.

The first thing to do is to look at the UR and try to figure out the issue that happened. It is imperative to look at everything before ultimately deciding that you don't get it. If you click on More Information you may be able to look at the Waze provided route and what the user took to determine this issues. Check the area roads for any restrictions, incorrect elevation, incorrect street names, bad geometry, etc.

If you can figure out the issue, Fix it or submit an Unlock Request in Discord [INSERT LINK]!

Example:

"Volunteer editor here… thanks for your report! I made a few edits here to improve future routing. It should be available in the app within about a week. Feel free to report any other issue you find along your travels. Thanks!"

If you don't have enough information to solve the issue, ask the reporter for more information.

Example

"Volunteer editor here - unfortunately Waze did not give us much information about your issue. Could you tell us more about what went wrong? What was your final destination? Thanks!"

Day 4

If the reporter has not responded 4 days after the initial comment, post a reminder like the one below. Sometimes a reporter simply misses the initial comment, and a reminder might come at just the right time to trigger a response with more detail.

Example

Just checking in - if there's still an issue we should look into, please reply using the app (Waze can't handle email responses). Otherwise, we'll assume all is well and close this out in a few days. Thanks!

Day 7

If there is not enough information to solve the issue, and the reporter has not responded within 7 days of initial editor comment (or day 3 after a reminder message), a message should be sent telling the reported that we were unable to fix the problem. The Update Request then needs to be closed as Not Identified.

Example

"Volunteers received no response and can’t find anything wrong with the current map. Please feel free to submit a new report if you encounter any issues in the future. Thanks!

Stale URs / Rural Areas

Sometimes URs turn up in areas of SunnyRaynbows with few active editors. In these cases, the 1/4/7 rule still applies, with "Day 1" being the first day an editor requests more info from the user. Messages like the example below have often succeeded in getting information from 6+ month-old reports.

Example:

Volunteer editor here - thanks for your patience as we've been extra busy with reports lately. Waze did not send much information about your issue. Can you by any chance remember what went wrong out here near [general location]? What was your final destination? Thanks!

Shared Ownership

All editors are considered to have equal ownership of and responsibility for all URs within their editing area. All editors, regardless if they have worked the UR previously, may send either of the responses described above, provided they adhere to the minimum time spacing guidance between responses and make their best effort to work the UR correctly. All editors are explicitly encouraged to attempt to resolve URs at any point during their lifecycle, however if someone else appears to be actively working it, you are encouraged to reach out to them to avoid duplicating effort.

You are encouraged to reach out to higher-level editors for mentoring when working on advanced URs.

Notes

The script URComments streamlines the process of responding to a UR and provides comments based on the UR type and can be edited prior to sending to fit your needs. Highly recommend you install this script if you will be responding to URs.

Communicating with other editors

Discord

We encourage you to join Discord as this is the best way to chat with PLN and state-specific editors, as well as the state managers (SM) and regional coordinator (RC), request unlocks, get help, etc. Once you join the PLN Server, there are several different channels you can join.

• general - This channel is for all editors who are interested in editing anywhere in the South Central Region
• unlocks-approvals - Channel for requesting an unlock for further editing. Follow the format in the channel description.
• off-topic: - Channel for casual conversation with your fellow editors.

As you continue to edit in the PLN, you may be invited to private channels now and then for different activities such as map raids and other projects. You may also use Discord to direct message one or more users if you wish to talk directly with someone. We highly recommend posting editing questions in your corresponding state channel, however, as we are all constantly learning, and your question may help someone else too.

Click to join:

PLN Discord Server (region-specific channels)

Main Waze Discord Server (Community-wide channels)

Waze Global Server + MapRaid (Global channels + MapRaid specific channels)

WME chat window

Please pay attention to the chat window in the lower left-hand part the map editor (and introduce yourself if you're a first-time editor). You can find useful info there and ask questions.

Waze Forum

You can also find useful information in the US South Central forum or the various state forums.

States, Counties and Municipalities

States in the Plains Region

Iowa

Iowa is divided into 99 counties and contains 947 incorporated municipalities consisting of cities and towns. See Cities and Towns in Iowa for the proper names to use.

Kansas

Kansas is divided into 105 counties, which are equivalent to counties, and contains 627 incorporated municipalities consisting of cities and towns. See Cities and Towns in Kansas for the proper names to use.

Minnesota

Minnesota is divided into 87 counties and contains 853 incorporated municipalities consisting of cities and towns. See Cities in Minnesota for the proper names to use.

Missouri

Missouri is divided into 114 counties and contains 597 incorporated municipalities consisting of 955 municipalities, towns, and villages. See Municipalities in Missouri for the proper names to use.

Nebraska

Nebraska is divided into 93 counties and contains 530 cities and villages.

North Dakota

North Dakota is divided into 53 counties and contains 353 cities and towns. See Cities in North Dakota for proper names to use.

South Dakota

South Dakota is divided into 66 counties and contains 310 cities and towns. See Cities in South Dakota for proper names to use.

How to use city names in Waze Map Editor

City limits are clearly defined by roadside signs. Use of Google Maps to find where a city is highly discouraged. Be sure to have the Cities layer enabled in WME to see what Waze currently has as the incorporated city limits when working with city limits. See City Names for complete information, but a quick summary of how cities names are used is shown below:

Road segments

When creating or editing road segments, the primary segment should include the official city name as defined by roadside signs (or official GIS, if available and needed). If the road segment is in an unincorporated area, check None to indicate no city. Alternate segment names should be added with common city names to aid in searches. Use the USPS zip code lookup tool to find the correct alternate city name for the area. Road segments should be cut at the city limits so each segment accurately reflects the correct city value.

Roads in Places

When creating or editing places, the location should include the name of the city as listed on the place website or advertisement since this is what the users are most likely to recognize when searching for the correct location among a list of search results. Cities listed in places do not have any effect on city boundaries in the Waze application.

Roads in the Plains Region

Interstates in the region

Iowa / Kansas / Minnesota / Missouri / Nebraska / North Dakota / South Dakota

Road naming

Use the following designations when creating or editing numbered roads in the Plains Region.

	IA	KS	MN	MO	NE	ND	SD
Interstates	I-XX
US Highway	US-XX
State Highway	IA-XX	K-XX	MN-XXX	MO-##    SH-XX	N-###	ND-XX	SD-XX
State Spur					S-##X    L-##X
State Rec Road					R-##X
County Road	CR-XXX	CR-XX	CH-XX   CR-XX	CR-XX	CR-XX	CR-XX	CR-XX
Farm/Ranch				Farm Rd ###
Private Road				Pvt Rd

Business Roads All business roads should be suffixed with BUS:

• Business Interstate = I-XX BUS
• Business US Highway = US-XX BUS
  

Other road names

The Plains Region conforms to the USA Standards for TTS abbreviations for prefixes and suffixes. Please see the Road Naming Abbreviations & Suffixes page for more details.

Non-drivable roads

Pedestrian Path

In the Plains Region, we do not map Pedestrian Paths except in certain circumstances:

• If there is a Place (PP) located in area where the only way to get to said place is by walking from a drivable segment. For example, a trailhead located some distance from the parking lot of a state park.
  
• To address an issue with a non-movable Google Maps pin that causes an error in routing. For example, at airports, Google Maps may place the pin in the middle of the airport parcel which may be a runway. A pedestrian path can be used to connect to a Waze segment to redirect the stop point for the location.
  

Railroads mapped in the Plains Region should follow the current standard of editing. All crossings should be connected to drivable segments accordingly. If no crossing exists, elevate the segment accordingly.
At-grade crossings should also have a Railroad Crossing <--- Insert Wiki Link

Special roads

• When not to divide a two-way road
• Divided Roads
• Carpool, HOV, Transit lanes
• Roundabouts and Traffic Circles
• Cul-de-sacs
• Dirt Roads. In the Plains Region ALL roads that are less than chip & tar are considered dirt roads. These roads should be deleted when going through farm land, ranch land, or mountainous areas throughout the state, as they are most likely base import roads and not real roads. For roads which are labeled with names and are actually dirt on satellite imagery, please keep these and make them dirt roads. To do so, select the  Local Street  or  Private Road  type (as appropriate), then check the Unpaved box.
• Parking Lot Roads. Map parking lot roads (PLRs) that will allow proper navigation in to and out of a parking lot. A primary routing purpose for PLRs is to connect a parking lot that has entrances along two or more different named roads, to enable shorter / faster routing to a destination. The PLN standard for PLRs is to enable U-turns at the ends of each PLR segment. In the Waze app, U-turn-enabled PLR segments will support drivers that need to double-back on a segment. This will allow Waze to quickly route drivers who need to exit any parking lot the same way that they came in. This PLN guidance is true for gas stations, strip malls, shopping areas, and other PLAs where a PLR is appropriate. Remember that a parking lot area (PLA) does not substitute roads needed for actual navigation. While it is important to map appropriate PLRs, please follow guidance and do not add PLRs which are not necessary.
• Driveways are generally mapped in rural areas to aide in navigation along long stretches without other geography. In the PLN region, these should be mapped as PLR type. See Driveways for more information.
• Alleys can be mapped as Parking Lot Roads (PLRs) in subdivisions and where appropriate to aid in navigation for residents. Ensure house numbers and residential place points have a proper stop point to guide Wazers to the front door and not the alley. Enable the u-turns at both ends.