Road Types
Why are road types required?
There are a dozen reasons for road types;
- Routing purposes
- Higher road types i.e Minor Highway (mH), Major Highway (MH) and Freeway (FWY) are used to route Wazers through a long journey. Lower road types i.e. Street (St), Primary Street (PS) are often not used to route through longer journeys.
- They are helpful in providing alternative routes to Wazers. For example, if in Islamabad a Wazer wants to go from Rawat to Faisal Mosque, he would be given the route through Islamabad Expressway however if it is jammed with traffic, Grand Trunk Rd may be used to provide an alternative faster route which it can determine from historical traffic data and Road Types.
- You may have noticed that when zoomed out in the Waze App you would only see FWY's and MH's. This is to reduce clutter on the screen and make the map easy to interpret.
Types of Roads
In the Waze Map Editor (WME) you see twelve options to choose from for a segment's Road Type i.e. Freeway Ramp Major Highway Minor Highway Primary Street Street Narrow Street Off-road / Not maintained Parking Lot Road Private Road • • • • Ferry • • • • |-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-| Railroad |-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-| ⁃ ⁃ ⁃ ⁃ ⁃ Runway ⁃ ⁃ ⁃ ⁃ ⁃
Freeway
Freeways have the lowest priority after Ramps. The routing server will at most times prefer to use this type for naviagation.
In Pakistan, the following are to be selected as FWY's:
- All Motorway's (M-1, M-2, etc.)
- Signal Free City Highways/Expressways (Srinagar Highway, Islamabad Expressway, Lahore Ring Road to mention a few)
- Limited access fast roads
There may be some exceptions though so please consult a senior editor for more knowledge.
Please note that all Motorways should not have a city name and if there is a Motorway going through a city add the city name with the numerical number (e.g. M-15) in the alternative.
Ramp
Ramps have the no penalty on them meaning the routing server will always use the ramp if needed too.
In Pakistan, the following are to be selected as ramps:
- Exit's and Entry's of Interchanges (e.g. Khanna Interchange on Islamabad Expressway, Islamabad)
In Pakistan, the following are NOT to be selected as ramps:
- U-Turns on any segment
- At-Grade Connections (AGC's)
Major Highway
Major Highways are common in Pakistan due to the dense road network of National Highways throughout the country.
In Pakistan, the following are to be selected as MH's:
- All National Highways (N-5, N-75, N-125 etc.)
- All Strategic Highways (S-1, S-2, S-3)
- All Major Roads of Cities (Jinnah Avenue, Islamabad, Faisal Ave, Islamabad)
There may be some exceptions though so please consult a senior editor for more knowledge.
Please note that all National Highways should not have a city name and if there is a National Highway going through a city add the city name with the numerical number (e.g. N-10) in the alternative.
Minor Highway
Minor Highways are important for the routing server it is the last type it uses for long routes so making a non-mH road selected as mH can be confusing and can route a Wazer through an unreliable/unpreferred route.
In Pakistan, the following are to be selected as mH's:
- All Road's that connect two cities (e.g. Attock-Kamra: Attock Rd)
- All Main Road's in a Sector of Islamabad (mainly four roads) (e.g. Park Road, F-8, Bahria Road, E-8)
- All decently fast-flowing (Average Speed: 60-80 km/h) roads in a city (e.g. Liaquat Road, Rawalpindi)
There may be some exceptions though so please consult a senior editor for more knowledge.