Names in general
It's often not very clear what a road, village or place is called, so either leave it empty, or make a good guess and hope that local editors improve it. Check nearby segments for the correct city name.
You might be able to find names in Waze StreetView by looking for signs, bearing in mind NO other external sources are allowed !
English as standard
English is the basic in all road and place names. The percentage of English speaking people in the UAE is much higher than the percentage of Arabic speaking people. When Arabic is added to names, as a second language, the 2 languages shall be separated by a comma and space. This assures the instructions given in Waze match what drivers are seeing to avoid confusion. The only exception shall be City Names where NO comma is required.
For the english part of names, use the abbreviations as listed here
Emirate names
State name support is awaiting HQ activation. Once activated, the intent is for the name of the Emirate to go into this field : Abu Dhabi, Ajman, Dubai, Fujairah, Ras Al Khaimah, Sharjah, and Umm Al Quwain.
City names
Adding new cities to WME is restricted to L5 Country Managers, to prevent proliferation or alternate spelled city names.
For cities, districts and villages, we adhere to the standard UAE naming convention :
[English name] [#] [Arabic name], for example Umm Suqeim 1 ام سقيم
As standard we try and use the official district names, however in some cases it might be more useful to use the name of the community or area when the district name is not adding any value. For example Arabian Ranches المرابع العربية is situated in the district of Wadi Al Safa 7 وادي الصفا, however in this case the community name will add more value to the map so it takes preference over the district. Again, based on local knowledge.
If no Arabic name is known, do not guess or use any placeholder text, just use the English name.
Roads
Street names
We try to match street names to match local signage when official signs with romanization are available. This assures the instructions given in Waze match what drivers are seeing to avoid confusion that might lead to an accident or missed turn.
- Sources : NO illegal sources are to be used or we risk losing the entire map ! You can use whatever information you can obtain from other Wazer's User Reports (URs) or your own, or whatever you may have seen with your own eyes or registered with e.g. a dashcam whilst driving around. We can also use the satellite and StreetView provided within WME. This does NOT include Google Maps or Google StreetView. For more info visit https://wazeopedia.waze.com/wiki/Global/External_sources. If any government sources are available, without copyright, post them on the forum or send a PM to regional coordinator Arnoniem and we will check if Waze permits us to use them. Use of an illegal source can result in deletion of parts of the map !
- Capitalization : Road and all other names must be properly capitalized. For example : Ibn battuta st → Ibn Battuta St
- Abbreviations : For English names, use the standard abbreviations for Street, Avenue, Boulevard, etc. A full list can be found here.
- Format : Street names will either have a NAME or NUMBER. To improve readability and keep the map clean, different rules will apply to the abbreviations used in their format.
- NAME : the name shall be written in full, however any pre- or suffixes shall be abbreviated. For example Sh Mohammed Bin Zayed Rd, Al Yalayis St, etc. Please note that the correct abbreviation for Street is St and not St., which will be pronounced as Saint by the TTS.
- NUMBER : the number shall be followed by "Street" or "Road", written in full. The number shall be written first, followed by the suffix. For example 11A Street. Please avoid the use of "th" and "rd" (e.g. 4th Street, 23rd Street, etc) in street names, or the use of any unnecessary words or symbols (e.g. Number 3 St, Street n° 4, etc.).
Freeways & Major Highways
All UAE highways are starting with a capital E followed by the highway number, e.g. E11.
In most cases they will also have a name, e.g. Sheikh Zayed Road.
Their full name will be a combination of both, separated by a hyphen and with abbreviations for the pre and suffixes, for example E11 - Sh Zayed Rd.
No city shall be given to a Freeway (FW) or Major Highway (MH).
In some cases the name is a combination of 2 cities. In this case the format will be similar to the above, where both city names will be separated by a dash. For example E22 - Abu Dhabi/Al Ain Rd.
Exits names
Exits and other signs may have a lot of information on them. In order to make it more easy for the user to easily identify the correct sign, we have opted to simplify the naming convention for ramps and exits.
Exits will always have an exit number. In any case this shall be the initial part of the segment name [Exit #], followed by :
- [connected road number] [cardinal direction] > [bottom line on the sign] = e.g. D63 West > Jumeira. In this case the exit number will be followed by a hyphen -, for example Exit 39 - D63 > Jumeira
- [connected road number and name] (bottom line of the sign)= e.g. D69 - Al Meydan St. In this case the exit number will be followed by a > which will be pronounced as "in the direction of" in the app, for example Exit 22 > D69 - Al Meydan St
The information contained in the brown squares on the signs shall not be contained in any segment names, unless if it is the only information present.
Ramps & Wayfinders
Their format will be similar to the exit names but there will be no exit number.
A wayfinder is a segment that instructs users on a certain road how to continue on that same road, in situations where it may be unclear, and there would otherwise be no instruction.
Wayfinders require a "stub" segment to present information on signs along with turn instruction overrides (TIOs) to specify instructions. Each stub segment should be between 5,5m and 5,9m long. This is long enough so it will not cause routing problems (minimum length of any segment >5m), but it is short enough to suppress display of the names (similar to ramps).
Wayfinders will be locked at L5.
For more info refer to https://wazeopedia.waze.com/wiki/USA/Wayfinder