How and When to Mark Parking: The Parking-Lot Place Area
- The decision to map a Parking-Lot Place Area is covered here, and the decision to map a Parking-Lot Road is covered in the Road type article for mapping parking lot roads.
Principles
The Parking-Lot Place Area marks a well-defined area constructed for off-street public parking, including parking structures and garages as well as at-grade lots. Three principles govern whether a given lot, structure or garage warrants a Parking-Lot Place Area:
- General Public Use
- The Waze map must never show a Parking-Lot Place Area where a naive driver could risk towing, ticketing, or violating community norms. All Parking-Lot Place Areas must be legally and locally condoned for at least short-term use by the general public. There are no exceptions.
- General Purpose Use
- Drivers who leave cars in a Parking-Lot Place Area should be entitled to walk or take other transportation to any destination of choice, and this should be a common occurrence. The sole exception is for public waiting lots where drivers are required to remain with their vehicles, such as airport cell-phone lots.
- Distinctive and Significant
- Overuse of Place Areas quickly leads to map clutter. A Parking-Lot Place Area must mark a parking facility that would be distinctive and significant to passing drivers, including those not seeking parking.
Parking that does not satisfy these three principles shall not be marked with the Parking-Lot Place Area.
Implementation
Interpreting 'Distinctive and Significant'
For the purposes of the Parking-Lot Place Area, the 'distinctive and significant' principle means a facility or lot fully dedicated to parking and no other activity. A parking garage that is part of a multi-use structure does not satisfy this principle. However, should the structure warrant a Place Area for other reasons, it is acceptable to add "Parking Lot" to its Type List.
Extent
Parking-Lot Place Areas should be mapped to the property boundaries (the "fence line"). If those are unclear, map to the extent of the lot, structure, or garage.
In situations where an eligible Parking Lot is located within the boundaries of another Place Area, it may be best simply to add "Parking Lot" to the existing Place Area's type list. Eligible parking located within a much larger Place Area, such as an airport, should still receive its own separate Place Area within the larger Place Area.
Naming
If a parking facility or area has a documented identity, such as "Beach Street Garage", "18th Avenue/Geary Lot", "City Lot #7", "Short-Term Parking", "Cell-Phone Lot", etc., its Place Area should reflect that name to facilitate searches. Generic park-and-ride lots should be named consistently according to local custom, for example as "Park & Ride". If the lot is contained within a larger Place Area, do not repeat that Area's full name; for example if the Domestic Garage is contained within the "SFO San Francisco International Airport" Place-Area boundaries, it need not be named "SFO San Francisco International Airport Domestic Garage", "Domestic Garage" is sufficient (unless the neighboring region is littered with Places named "Domestic Garage", in which case "SFO Domestic Garage" would be more appropriate).
Some municipal parking facilities have no separate documented identity; for example, general-purpose public parking adjacent to a hospital may not have its own explicit name. Place Areas for such parking should leave the name field blank unless local Waze convention dictates otherwise. In particular, never use hopelessly generic names for unnamed parking facilities such as "Parking" or "Public Parking". Names such as "St. Mary's Hospital Parking" suggest that the parking is dedicated and should also be avoided in favor of simply leaving the name field blank.
As with all Place Areas, do not use mapping abbreviations for any part of a Parking-Lot Place name.
Free versus Paid Parking
As long as parking satisfies the three principles of general public, general purpose, and distinctive and significant, it is eligible for a Parking-Lot Place Area regardless of whether it is free or paid.
Suppression of Automated Problem Reports
Like the Gas Station Place Area, Parking Lot Place Areas suppress Waze's automated "Map Problem" reports such as for missing roads; thus the Parking Lot Place Area should never be drawn over or attached/snapped to roads bearing through traffic.
Special Cases
Airports
Airports typically distinguish between parking for different terminals, for short or long term, for rental car return, and for cell-phone/waiting. As common navigation destinations, such parking deserves to be marked with Parking-Lot Place Areas and named according to the airport's documented nomenclature, even if it means creating Parking-Lot Place Areas within a larger Airport Place Area.
Bus and Train Stations
Bus and train stations are often located within city centers and may offer convenient public parking. At some stations, such parking may be intended and commonly used for general purposes. At others it may be illegal, inappropriate, or simply pointless and uncommon, to park if one doesn't intend to use the transit facility. Thus whether to mark bus- or train-station parking with a Parking-Lot Place Area depends on the local situation. Regardless, if by local Waze convention the entire station complex itself would be marked with a Place Area (as opposed to a Place Point), the boundaries of the station complex's Place Area should include its associated parking, and rather than locate an additional Parking-Lot Place Area within the complex, the Parking-Lot type may simply be added to the station complex's type list.
Privately-Operated Public Parking
Private businesses often provide public parking in dense urban centers and near airports. Privately-operated parking facilities that support short-term general-purpose parking for the public may receive Parking-Lot Place Areas, subject to the 'distinctive and significant' principle as interpreted above. Private facilities intended only for long-term parking are special-purpose and inappropriate for the Parking-Lot Place Area.
Rental-Car Return
With the availability of the new "Car Rental" Place, rental-car facilities and returns, including at airports, should now be marked with that Place type rather than with a Parking-Lot Place.
Examples
The Parking-Lot Place Area is always appropriate for:
- Generic Park & Ride and similar municipal commuter parking.
- Off-street general-purpose short-term public parking lots, structures or garages dedicated to parking only and independent of any particular mall, complex, campus, or other final destination.
- Named municipal public parking serving an airport.
The Parking-Lot Place Area is NEVER appropriate for:
- Street parking, whether parallel, angled, or right-angled.
- Parking intended to serve a single non-transit-oriented destination such as a business, store, office, church, park, city hall, library, hospital, gym, school, museum, restaurant, campground, etc. Do not mark such parking with the Parking-Lot Place Area even if locals use it as if it were general purpose.
- Unnamed transit-center parking if dedicated for transit-center patrons.
- Employee, student, resident, visitor, or guest parking.
- Parking for attendees of events, fairs, services, or performances.
- Parking associated with campuses, cemeteries, parklands, shopping malls, theme parks, stadiums, private installations, and office parks or complexes of any size or purpose.
Including Noncompliant Parking in Larger Place Areas
Some neighborhoods enjoy abundant but dedicated parking for shopping malls, office parks, theme parks, stadiums and the like. Parking lots for exceptionally large venues may even have distinct, named identities such as "South Lot", "Green Lot", etc. Such parking is typically not intended as general purpose and thus should NOT be marked with a Parking-Lot Place Area. However, if under local Waze conventions the complex itself warrants a Place Area, any associated parking can be included within its boundaries. For example, a Shopping Mall Place Area with dedicated parking could include all stores and parking associated with the mall if local conventions permit.
The Parking-Lot Place Point
As of this writing the client display of Parking-Lot Place Areas versus Place Points remains unclear. In the future, the Parking-Lot Place Point may be useful for identifying parking in certain limited situations that would not be appropriate for the Place Area, for example stadium or theme-park parking zones or privately-operated long-term public parking. However, until more clarity emerges, the Parking-Lot Place Point should not be used.