Private Installations

This page covers the mapping techniques to use for private installations and for neighborhoods that have restricted access of some kind.

Introduction

Problem Definition

Military Bases

Gated Community

Gated Community

A Private Installation or Community is a small to large restricted-access set of regularly navigable roads connected at one or more points to a public road network. The smallest example may be a single private community street protected by a gate. The largest USA installation is White Sands Missile Range at 3,200 square miles, larger than the USA’s smallest state, which includes dirt roads, primary streets and highways. Waze should be able to provide the best route for everyone. We wish to address such locations because many "resident" people work and live within private installations. Some "visitors" may be handled differently. We must also prevent erroneous routes through private installations for those who do not have or need access.

Actual access restriction in these installations or communities is usually implemented by automated gates or guards that only allow entry by authorized individuals or vehicles. An unmanned means of preventing one-way access could be tire puncture strip that would deflate tires of vehicles going in one direction. In some cases access may be unrestricted by physical means, but may be implemented through patrols, cameras, or other means that would lead to a response to apprehend an unauthorized visitor.

A private installation, particularly larger government facilities, may have nested levels of access control. A particular region of the installation may be excluded to those who have general access to the larger installation. Larger examples may have all types of roads such as primary streets and highways. Smaller examples would only have roads and dirt roads.

Terminology

Access Point - Any entry or exit (usually both together) that connects the Private Installation road network with the public road network. See Gate.

Gate - A specific type of "Access Point" that connects the Private Installation road network with the public road network. There are multiple types of gate structures that can be edited for any access point.

Public - The set of drivers who have no business entering the Private Installation. They should remain on the public road network.

Resident - A driver who lives, works, or has some other regular and authorized access to the private installation. This may include public transportation.

Visitor - A driver who has some business accessing the private installation, but not on a regular basis. These people may need to use special entrances to the private installation.

Editing Objectives

Consider a couple simplified objectives you have as a map editor for private installations.

1. Routing Around, On, Off, But Never Through

Figure 1. General Concept

Waze should not automatically route onto or through a private installation unless the source or destination point is within the installation. Figure 1 shows the general concept of a private installation which is embedded in a public road network. In this case there are two access points. Waze should route around the private installation from A to B even though a shorter or faster route might exist through the installation. Waze should also be able to route from A to C or C to A, where C is located within the private installation.

Figure 2. Nested access on Private Installations.

Figure 2 shows that some, usually larger, private installations may have nested levels of access. Waze should be able to route on or off of a private installation at any level of nested access without entering a separate access area of a deeper level. Route A to B illustrates this concept. Additionally, Waze should be able to navigate from a deeper level of nested access to any other point including off the private installation. Routes between points C and D illustrates routing onto or off of the private installation. Routes between points E to F shows navigation between nested levels. Waze should also be able to navigate well within a larger installation that has multiple road types.

2. Consider Resident & Visitors

This is a more advanced concept. If you do not understand these issues or cannot identify how your Private Installation deals with Visitors differently from Residents, you may wish to seek help from others with more experience.

The purpose of a Private Installation is to always prevent unauthorized vehicles from entering their perimeter. Residents are always allowed entry into a Private Installation, usually through every gate. Visitors are usually allowed access, but only through specific gates. A private installation with only visitor gates or only resident gates is usually easy to edit. When you mix visitor and resident gates, the editing can be more complex to achieve proper routing. To illustrate, here are a few examples:

• Smaller private communities may use only unnamed automated gates that require entry of a code, the swipe of a badge, or a proximity tag to open the gate. Visitors can only access the Private Installation if they have the code or, if the feature exists, use the gate to call their resident point-of-contact.

• Some moderate-size private communities may have a guard on duty at a gate that allows residents to quickly enter but stops visitors and only allows them to enter upon certain rules or after recording their identity. These types of gates can accommodate both Residents and Visitors. We call these gates "Visitor Gates" because they allow visitors, even though they also serve residents.

• Larger private communities have multiple gates. To save money, only one of these gates may be staffed with a guard. Other gates are unmanned and only service residents. They may not even allow a visitor to call their resident point-of-contact. When a Private Installation has both resident gates and visitor gates, editors have the problem of creating preference of which gates to route visitors through while maintaining optimal routing for residents.

• Military bases may be similar to a private community when they are small. Larger military bases usually have a mix of resident-only and visitor gates. In addition, larger military facilities may have "Contractor Gates" through which a very few special visitors enter.

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Underlying logic

Waze uses a routing penalty system to control traffic flow. This approach for controlling traffic into and through private installations depends upon that routing logic. When a Private or Parking Lot segment is used on the map, the Waze routing server places a routing penalty when transitioning from a Private or Parking Lot segment to and non-private or non-parking lot segment. When a destination is a parking lot, there is no penalty to reach the parking lot. However if the destination is on the far side of a parking lot on a standard street, Waze will try to avoid driving through the parking lot to get to the street on the other side. The same is true for private segment types.

Places / City Names for Private Installations

Should a private installation be marked over it's entire area as a Place Area (old landmark)? Not always. Very small private installations are usually marked by a Area Place over their entire area. This does not make sense for larger private installations that might have other Places within them or that are actually cities. For these larger installations, use the city field of all street names to name the private installation.

In general here is specific guidance about Private Installations use of Places or City Names:

• Does the state DOT consider it a city? If so, then use City Names in each street to identify the installation.
• Does the US Post Office consider it a city with it's own zip code? If so, then use City Names.
• Does the local community consider it a city like entity? Then maybe it should have a City Name if it is large, or an Area Place if it is small.
• Is it large enough that an overall Area Place on the Private Installation would obscure finer detail Area Places below? If so, use City Names. If not, use an Area Place to denote the Private Installation.

What smaller Place should be included within a larger private installation? We should generally follow the rules that are set for Places in cities and areas. In addition to these, you might also consider marking the following as Places because they are critical navigation and destination points:

• Entry/Exit gates (Place Area)
• Visitor Centers (Place Area)
• Museums and other similar destinations the installation may maintain
• Memorials
• Parade Fields
• Items locally useful for navigation

You should avoid mapping Places that are specific to private or military uses on a private installation. See the Places Wiki Page for specifics about using an Area or Point for these items.

Testing Your Private Installation

Significant testing of these suggestions have been tested on actual private installations of various types and discussed in the Waze Forum. You may wish to test your edits. Here are some suggestions of how you may accomplish this after you make edits.

• Monitor that area for User Reports.
• Test drive.
  • Navigate between two distant points outside the private installation to ensure no through-routing.
  • Navigate from outside to inside the private installation, drive around the outside of the private installation and ensure rerouting occurs to the logical nearest gate.
  • If you have access to the private installation, repeat the above, by by driving around inside the installation.
• Test routes in Live Map to ensure no through-routing and good on/off installation routing.
• Test routes in client by setting various "from" and "to" destinations without having to drive.

Gate Editing Options

This section explains options about how to edit different types of gates. This is the first thing you need to understand about how access points are represented in Private Installations.

These gate editing options will be used separately or combined in following sections that describe how they are applied for SIMPLE and COMPLEX Private Installations.

Gate Option: SIMPLE Gate

Access Point detail - Alternate Treatment

A "SIMPLE Gate" is an access point represented by a single short two-way private road segment.

SIMPLE Gates are often useful for smaller Private Installations, particularly those with just one or a few access points with simple road structures that would make a STANDARD Gate burdensome to map. Examples include smaller private residential areas with automated gates.

Benefit of this type of gate is that it is more structurally simple than the STANDARD Gate. Detriments of this type of gate is that it does not allow any road type but "private" to be used and it cannot represent more complex gate structures often seen at larger Private Installations.

A SIMPLE Gate effectively isolates the entire installation from the public road network unless a route begins or ends within the installation. The private road segments and surrounding roads should be locked with a high enough level lock to prevent novice editors from deleting or changing this control.

Alternate Treatment for Larger Installations

Warning. Do not mix SIMPLE and STANDARD gates in the same Private Installation. Doing so will cause incorrect exit routing preferred through the STANDARD gates.

Gate Option: STANDARD Gate

Access Point detail - STANDARD Gate

A "STANDARD Gate" is an access point represented by a one-way split road entering and exiting the installation. The entering one-way road will include one private road segment. The exiting one-way road will be of one segment using the appropriate type of that road (usually street, primary street, or minor highway). This structure often mimics the actual lanes for such installations. In addition, exit lanes from private installations are usually not restricted. That is, anyone within the private installation can exit through a gate without credentials or a code to open the gate.

STANDARD Gates are useful for moderate to large-sized Private Installations. This is particularly true where the access points have guard booths, turn around streets, and other structures that would make it hard to use SIMPLE Gates.

A primary benefit of this type of gate is that it can accommodate complex gate road structures such as turn-arounds and wider areas between the entering and exiting roadways. It can also allow the exiting segment to be of the same type as the road network on either side, for example, a primary street. A detriment of this type of gate is that it is more complicated than the SIMPLE Gate.

A STANDARD Gate effectively isolates the entire installation from the public road network unless a route begins or ends within the installation. All the gate road segments and surrounding roads should be locked with a high enough level lock to prevent novice editors from deleting or changing this control.

STANDARD Gate treatment example. Note that this road is of a "primary" type but the private segment used for the inbound lane is used to prevent through-routing.

STANDARD Gate treatment example. Note that this road is of a regular "street" type. The private road segment is used for the inbound lane.

Warning. Do not mix SIMPLE and STANDARD gates in the same Private Installation. Doing so will cause incorrect exit routing preferred through the STANDARD gates.

Gate Option: SPECIALTY Gates

Information for this section is pending. Check back soon.

Editing Approach - SIMPLE/COMPLEX

Because there are so many different types and variations of Private Installations, we organize them here in two categories - how they might be approached by editors. The two categories and their characteristics are:

• SIMPLE Private Installations
  • Contain one type of gate at one or more access points.
  • Primary editing focus is to prevent the public from routing through the Private Installation.
  • Are fairly easy to edit.
• COMPLEX Private Installations
  • Contain two or more types of gates at multiple access points.
    • Resident-only gate
    • Visitor/Resident gate
    • Special-purpose gate (such as contractor gate)
  • Strong potential for innacurate routing if gates are not configured properly.
  • Likely no perfect solution for all types of drivers (Resident, Visitor, Special-purpose)

<editing in progress>

Common Best Practices

• Do not disconnect roads to alter routing into Private Installations because this does not reflect reality in the road system, impacts residents that can enter any gate, and stops people from routing out of the Private Installation.

• Do not make all roads within a Private Installation "private roads." This does not reflect reality, has been found to cause routing errors in Waze, prevents use of a diverse set of gate types, and prevents nested Private Installations.

• All the segments used in a gate must be at least 5 m (16 feet) long. Check the house numbers. If they are supposed to be inside the installation, make sure they are not on any of the gate segments.

• Test your Private Installation. Test in Live Map. If possible, drive-test your Private Installation or seek help from a local resident. Information about testing your editing is contained elsewhere on this page. Such testing can help you find rogue connections and errors in gate treatment on the map.

SIMPLE Private Installations

This section explains how to edit SIMPLE Private Installations.

Definition - Simple Installations

Simple installations are those private communities, military bases, and other installations with one and only one type of gate treatment for one or more access points.

Typically these attributes might indicate an installation is Simple: (a) only one access point, (b) for multiple access points all gates are the same.

The editor's primary focus is to prevent the public from routing through the Private Installation.

Examples

• Small gated/private community
• Gated country club with smaller area
• Private school
• Small closed commercial campus
• Very Small Military sites (e.g., National Guard armories)
• Smaller Government sites

This does not include paid parking lots and other parking facilities. These are to be mapped with parking lot roads. See the Special Rules section below.

Preferred Approach: SIMPLE Installations

Every gate must be of the same type.

<editing>

COMPLEX Private Installations

This section explains how to edit COMPLEX Private Installations.

Definition: COMPLEX Private Installations

Complex Installations are those private communities, military bases, or other installations that have more than one gate treatment for multiple access points. Gate treatments may include:

• Visitor gates (that usually also accommodate residents)
• Resident-only gates
• Special-purpose gates (such as a contractor gate)

Complex Installations may have other key attributes. They large enough that there is some reason to have primary streets or highways. They are also more likely to have multiple levels of access control (installations within installations). Specifying exact size is not effective because of significant variation in these installations.

Typically these attributes might indicate an installation is large: (a) more than 20-30 roads, (b) secondary roads or highway streets needed.

Moderate sized installations between "smaller" and "larger" will exist and discretion of the local editor should be considered.

The editor's focus is (A) to prevent the public from routing through the Private Installation, (B) ensure basic accurate routing for all drivers, and (C) decide how to handle different routing for residents, visitors, and special-purpose drivers.

Examples:

• Larger Military base
• Larger Government sites
• Huge hunting lodge and hunting grounds, ranches, etc.
• Large closed commercial campus
• Large country club or private communities with multiple entrances

Private installations covered by this article do not include airports or theme parks. See the bottom of this article for special rules concerning roads in airports and theme parks.

Special Topics: Larger Private Installations

A. Public Roads Across Private Installations

Many larger military bases and perhaps other private installations sometimes have long right-of-way permissions for a publicly accessible road, often times this is a highway or primary street. (e.g., US-70 through White Sands Missile Range.) These highways run across the private installation with no restriction to traffic but provide no access to the installation itself. Editors should not create any access restrictions in these regions. Because these roads are often times fenced off on both sides from the private installation, editors should be on the look out for private installation roads inappropriately connected to the public road. These are usually locked off by gates most of the time, in which case the road can be disconnected or have a gap. Some of these are entry/exit gates with treatments noted above.

B. Preventing Other Editors from Making Mistakes

One method of preventing mistakes from novice editors has already been discussed, locking of the private road segments and surrounding segments. There is another approach that may be valuable.

Larger private installations, such as a military base, that are embedded in a city often have legacy roads that used to connect to the public road network. From the Waze Editor aerial images, it can look like these roads actually connect to the private installation, when upon closer inspection (if possible) there is really a fence that permanently blocks the road. There may also be a fence gate that is closed most of the time, only opened when guards are present. In both these situations, there should be no road connection, or a gap in the road network within the Waze Editor.

Novice editors or experienced editors that are not paying attention, may accidentally connect these roads when they should not be connected. One should lock these segments. One may also put a signpost only available to editors noting this issue. Until Waze implements signposts for editors, one may use Live Map to inert a Problem Report at the location, then go back to that report in the editor and enter a note such as "Do not delete this report.  Fence gate at this location is always closed." This should alert and remind editors that the roads should not be connected.

C. Gate Closures and Restrictions

Many larger installations will have access/entry points or gates that have limited hours or that are closed on certain holidays. Utilize Scheduled Restrictions in the editor to allow Waze to know when to route through a particular gate. These are typically not turn restrictions, but restrictions on traversing a segment. Some gates can be very isolated on larger installations so routing may navigate someone 10 to 30 minutes to a closed gate.

When doing this, enable Scheduled Restrictions for only one segment in each direction to reduce editing errors and maintenance. This segment should be the private road segment on the inbound direction (or the single two-way private segment). For entry points with a one-way outbound regular road type, it should be the segment adjacent to the private inbound segment. Scheduled restrictions would usually be the same on these two segments unless the private installation has differing entry and exit policy.

You can find the hours of gates or entry points through the private installation website or by calling the appropriate private installation authority.

D. Area Places for Access/Entry Points

Entry points for larger Private Installations are typically named such as "North Gate" or "Maxwell Gate." These are Area Places that are useful for those using Waze to understand their location relative to the Access Point. It is suggested an Area Place of type "Professional and public" then "Government" be generated over the larger region of the Access Point and named with the short name of that Access Point. Do not make the Area Place just the size of the guard houses or other features. Make it large enough to encompass the area so that it is easily seen on the Waze client.

If you do not know the name of the Access Point, do not create an Area Place. Names of Access Points may be known locally or found on on a website about the private installation.

Additional information about Places is in the Special Rules section.

Installations with Special Rules

Military Bases and Government Installations

While road treatment is covered in the body of this Wiki page, questions often arise about what items to landmark by adding Area and Point Places on these facilities.  This is particularly important if you have access to these locations as a resident, worker, or visitor and use that access to learn something about the Private Installation.  A general rule is to not mark specific locations with a Place unless the public installation website provides that information via directors or maps.  Specific examples of what not to map include organizational names occupying buildings, building numbers, hangar numbers, etc. when they are not publicly available.  Examples of items to usually map include gates, visitor access points, and frequent destinations like marching fields, parks, museums, on-base schools, etc.

Landmarks (Places) approved for military bases

• Commissary
• PX/BX
• Gas stations
• Parks
• Museums
• School
• College / University

Parking Lots

Paid parking lots and other parking facilities are to be mapped with parking lot roads, and not according to the Private Installation rules defined in this article. See Best map editing practice#Parking Lots.

Theme Parks

Publicly accessible roads in a theme park, even after a pay-station/gate, are to be mapped with parking lot roads, similarly to other paid parking lots. Furthermore, be careful with mapping the "backstage" private roads which are only to be used by employees. It may be wise to not map these roads, similarly to "air-side" airport roads as described below (but to a lesser extent), so that routes are given to the public entrance of the theme park facility.

Airports

Do not map the private, restricted-access roads on airport grounds at all. Map airport roads which are accessible to the public (terminal pick-up/drop-off roads, parking lot access roads, etc.) as public roads, not as private installations.

Airports have "air-side" restricted road networks that allow traffic for baggage carts, service vehicles, airplane fuel tankers, etc. While it may be tempting to map this road network either as an isolated set of roads or with provisions cited elsewhere in this document for Private Installations, this should not be done. Here's why:

• A large number of people use Waze to navigate to airports. The particular search service or function that returns a GPS coordinate to Waze may be in error, placing the destination marker nearer to the air-side private road network of the airport than to the public airport roads. This could lead to an incorrect route or even an impossible-to-reach destination, which would frustrate the traveler.
• The private air-side road network of an airport tends to be both close to and accessible from the public road networks around the airport and therefore is more prone to this navigation error.
• Very few people use the private road network of an airport, relative to the great number that use an airport's public access roads. To those that have requested this function, we apologize. The benefit of doing this for few would likely inconvenience many. We suggest routing to the nearest spot to your destination (i.e., the gate) on the public road network.

In some cases, military bases hold public airports. In such situations, some discretion and creativity may be needed to decide which roads on the airport should not be mapped and which on the military base should be mapped. Usually there is a second perimeter around the airport separating it from the base.