Arkansas/Resources Discussion View history

Below are some approved mapping sources:

• Arkansas GIS Office - Arkansas' Official GIS Platform

• Arkansas GIS Viewer - Besides street data, allows search of individual house addresses and places them on relief map. Useful for rural areas with no HN entries in Waze. Some variation in how road names are entered, may be necessary to retrieve individual addresses.

• ArcGIS Viewer - GIS viewer that includes selectable basemaps (use streets).
• ARDOT Featured Maps - Collection of official GIS maps from The Arkansas Department of Transportation

• AHTD FC Overlay for ArcGIS - The overlay provided by AHTD is of older data. Newer data exists; however, there is not an AHTD-provided overlay for it. To use the overlay, click on the "Modify Map" in the upper right corner of ArcGIS. On the left side an "Add+" tab will pop up. Click on it and select "Add Layer from Web" and paste in the URL for the overlay provided by this link.

• City Maps - Arkansas Highways City Maps

• County Maps - Arkansas Highways County Maps

• Little Rock / Pulaski Area GIS (PAGIS) - Detailed maps (with overhead imagery, if desired) of Little Rock and some surrounding towns

Functional Classification

The Arkansas Functional Class (FC) map is updated by the the Arkansas State Highway and Transportation Department (AHTD). The AR Functional Class map follows the national FC categories; however, AHTD does not produce color-coded maps similar to some other states. Instead, AHTD creates and provides as an overlay layer to the ArcGIS map the FC categories using a numerical system. To determine a roads classification, one simply clicks on the road in question, which opens a pop-up window. This window includes a number of fields but for FC purposes, the three key fields are FUNCCLASS, RURALURBAN and ROUTESIGN. The key / legend for these values is as follows:

• FUNCCLASS

1 - Interstates
2 - Other Freeways & Expressways
3 - Other Principal Arterials
4 - Minor Arterials
5 - Major Collectors
6 - Minor Collectors

• RURALURBAN

1 – Rural (population < 5,000)
2 – Small Urban (population 5,000 to 49,999)
3 – Urbanized (population 50,000 to 199,999)
4 – Large Urbanized (population >= 200,000)

• ROUTESIGN

1 – Interstate Route
2 – US Numbered Route
3 – State Route
4 - County Road
5 – City Street

Using the Functional Classification layer on the ArcGIS map and checking the qualifiers on the road, the Corresponding Waze Road Type is determined via the following two tables. For Arkansas, RURALURBAN value of 1 is considered Rural. Values of 2, 3 or 4 are considered Urban. The editor should check to see if a road is a Controlled-access highway to determine if it qualifies as a  Freeway .

Road type quick reference chart

		Highway Systems
		Interstate	US Hwy	US Hwy BUS, SPUR, LOOP	State Hwy	Locally-maintained
	example	I-40 W	US-63	US-67 BUS	Ste Hwy 77	W Capitol Ave
F u n c t i o n a l C l a s s	Interstate	Fw	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a
	Other Freeways and Expressways	n/a	Fw	Fw	Fw	Fw
	Other Principal Arterial	n/a	Major	Major	Major	Major
	Urban Minor Arterial	n/a	Major	Minor	Minor	Minor
	Rural Minor Arterial	n/a	Major	Major  or  Minor	Major  or  Minor	Major  or  Minor
	Urban Collector	n/a	Major	Minor	Minor	PS
	Rural Major Collector	n/a	Major	Minor	Minor	Minor  or  PS
	Rural Minor Collector	n/a	Major	Minor	Minor	PS
	Local/not mapped	n/a	Major	Minor	Minor	Street

^a This includes ALT, TRUCK, BYP, CONN, and SCENIC US routes.

^b Generally, default to the LOWER of the two choices. However, use the greater of the two choices if the road is between two urban areas and is classified higher in the urban area than in the rural one. If the road does not enter another urban area, then use the lower choice.

For example,

• A US Highway classified as a Minor Arterial is a  Major Highway .
• A US Highway BUS (Business) route classified as a Minor Arterial is a  Minor Highway .
• A State Highway classified as an Other Freeway is a  Freeway .
• A State Highway classified as an Urban Collector is a  Minor Highway .
• A State Highway classified as a Rural Minor Arterial that becomes an Urban Minor Arterial at both ends of the rural area is a  Minor Highway .
• A locally-maintained road classified as an Other Principal Arterial is a  Major Highway .
• A locally-maintained road classified as an Urban Collector is a  Primary Street .

If a road is not shown on the Functional Classification layer, it is deemed as a Local Road with a Waze Road Type of  Street .

Inconsistent switching between road types along a road is not wanted. Consistency is key. Do not change a road type for routing sake or to make it appear on the map at a higher speed.

Sometimes strictly following these functional classification guidelines will generate inconsistent Waze road types at boundaries between urban and rural maps. It is best to use the aerial maps and GPS data to find a logical location where a road should make the change in road type. These types of changes are usually at intersections with other roads (primary street and above) and sometimes incorporate a change in lane count (2-lane road transitions to 4-lane road). Prudent editor discretion is needed at these locations.

Dirt (unpaved/gravel) roads

The USA Standard (matrix table) does not specify how to set unpaved road segments, so we define that here. Unpaved roads may or may not be classified in the states' functional classification system. If they are, set the road type according to the functional classification. If they are not, set the road type to Dirt Road / 4x4 Trail.

To stay aligned with the USA Standard, an AR County Road functionally classified as Local, or a Local street classified as a Collector, is still to be set as a Primary Street. A Local street functionally classified by the DOT as Local, is a Street. Otherwise, dirt is dirt. The majority of dirt roads in Arkansas are not functionally classified.

How to determine when to set a dirt road as type dirt road		Dirt (unpaved or gravel)
		County Road	Street
Functional Class	Collector	PS	PS
	Local	PS	Street
	not classified	Dirt	Dirt

If the users' Waze client options are set to avoid dirt roads, they will still be routed on dirt roads functionally classified as either a Collector or Street. This is necessary to insure beginning-to-end routing should the origin/destination be on an unpaved road however, Waze route pruning will only consider these lower-priority roads (Primary Street, Street, Dirt) near the origin/destination.

Examples:

• An unpaved County Road identified in the AHTD FC system as a Collector is a Primary Street.
• An unpaved street identified in the AHTD FC system as a Local road is a Street.
• Any unpaved road not listed in the AHTD FC system is Dirt.