This page serves as the primary resource for editors of Ohio. Review all the sections to better understand how the guidelines for this state might deviate from the overall USA or worldwide guidelines. If you have any comments or questions about this page or state refer to the community links below.
Introduction
Ohio is a part of the Great Lakes region, which includes the states and/or territories of:
Before editing the maps in Ohio, be sure to fully review and understand the editing manual.
The Waze user community follows the Waze etiquette guidelines discussed in the Wiki. Be sure to familiarize yourself with these guiding principals while editing the maps and this Wiki, as well as when communicating with other Waze users.
The Waze forum is a great place to find answers to previously asked questions and also a place to ask new ones. Below are links to the forums specific to Ohio.
New editors should consider checking into the formal mentoring program available at no charge.
New editors (and editors new to Ohio) should Click Here to get some tips on editing the map, basic Waze Map Editor (WME) settings, scripts to make your editing easier, permalink (PL) and requesting downlocks on segments locked above your Rank/Level.
As of the fall of 2016, the Great Lakes editors have embraced the use of Discord as a replacement to Google Hangouts to stay in touch with each other.
Use this link to join the Great Lakes Region Discord server.
NOTE: by clicking the previous link to join the GLR Discord server, you are acknowledging that you have read, understood, and agree to the Waze Etiquette rules in their entirety.
Cities and towns
One of the most common errors when editing the maps is when an editor creates a road and does not confirm the road by setting the city and road name (or stating it has none).
Some states and territories manage a separate page on cities and towns to identify the specific city names that should be entered, and no others. For states that do not have a separate page to track the names, see this Wikipedia link and find the state or territory in question.
It is served by eight primary (I-70, I-71, I-74, I-75, I-76, I-77, I-80 and I-90) and fifteen auxiliary Interstate highways, as well as numerous US, state, county and township routes. The longest numbered highway in Ohio is SR-7, followed by US-62, US-20, SR-3 and I-71. The only toll road in Ohio is the Ohio Turnpike, which follows portions of I-90, I-80 and I-76 from Indiana to Pennsylvania. Ohio is the only US state that has numbered township routes in Waze. See the highway names table for further guidance on the naming of numbered highways in Ohio.
Locking standard
The following defines a set of minimum locking standards proposed for all roads within Ohio.
Any road of a certain type or category must be locked at least to the level in the chart below. Roads may be locked higher for protection and special situations (tricky design, frequent mistakes, imaging inaccuracies, and the like), but should not be locked lower.
It is understood that more rural or inactive areas may not yet meet this standard: editors are encouraged to recruit and mentor additional editors to build coverage.
A great time to implement these locks is while bringing the road types of an area into compliance with the current US road type standards (FC and highway systems). Lock the roads based on type after they've been set to current US Road Type Standards.
Note: One-way PLRs used outside of parking lots, such as alleys and streets through apartment complexes, should be locked at 2. See the GLR major roads page for additional information on the standards listed here.
Special roads
Drivable roads
Ohio follows the standard USA guidelines for all of the following special road types.
Speed Limits in Ohio change at the sign. This is important when determining where speed limit changes should be marked on the Waze map. USA guidance for states that "change at the sign" is given here.
Where speed limits change is an important decision for clear guidance to drivers. There are many considerations for appropriately marking speed limit changes on the map. Editors, especially new editors, should be familiar with the USA Speed Limits wiki, a link to which is shown above.
For example, if there is an intersection within 200 feet of the speed limit sign, then the speed-change location should be made at that intersection. If the speed-change location is within 200 feet of an existing junction node, not an intersection, then we don't add a new junction node.
Alleys in Ohio - max speed is 15 mph.
Always refer to the USA Speed Limits wiki for guidance, and check with your Area or State Managers for clarification if needed.
NOTE: all day values are relative to the date the FIRST editor response is sent to the reporter.
Response Timeline
Day 0: the first editor who is able to respond to UR should attempt to resolve the UR. If they are successful, they should comment as such in the UR and mark it closed. If more information from the reporter is required to make progress towards closure, a response should be sent to the reporter containing the information needed for resolution
Day 4+: polite reminders should be sent to reporters who have not responded to the initial at any time, provided at least four full days have elapsed since the initial response was sent
Day 8+: URs may be noted as closed due to lack of reporter response at any time, provided at least four full days have elapsed since the followup message was sent
Shared Ownership:
All editors are considered to have equal ownership of and responsibility for all URs in the Great Lakes Region.
All editors, regardless if they have worked the UR previously, may send any of the responses describe above, provided they adhere the minimum time spacing guidance between responses.
All editors are explicitly encouraged to attempt resolving URs at any point during their lifecycle, even if others happen to be actively working it at the same time
Notes:
The ideal timeline for UR response is when responses are sent as early as the minimum required time spacing between messages permits; experience has reliably shown that UR response rates are much higher when editors are able to send responses promptly
While strongly recommended, it is not required to send the followup message.
Process Chart
Closures
When managing a section of roadway under construction or being closed for a major event, follow the Wiki guidelines on construction zones and Real time closures.
Ohio follows the USA standard for Places. Do not deviate from the guidelines without first obtaining consensus to do so via the state forum linked on this page.
See Ohio/Places for guidance in Ohio that may not be universal to all other states and territories.
Cameras
Not every camera-looking device at an intersection is a speed or red light camera. Generally speaking:
a speed camera takes a photograph of a vehicle when it passes by the camera at too high a speed.
a red light camera takes a photograph of a vehicle that enters an intersection after the light is red. In some areas, it takes the photograph when a vehicle is not clear of the intersection some period after the light turns red.
When adding a camera, be sure to review the camera placement recommendations.
Laws regarding speed and red light cameras vary between the states and territories, so be sure to understand the details of camera legality in Ohio.
Based on information researched at the time this page was created, red light and speed cameras are legal statewide in Ohio.
No other camera types should be mapped in Waze.
As of July 2017, the Ohio Supreme Court has struck down Ohio's previous restrictions on speed cameras. Specifically, the following provisions have been struck down:
The law requiring an officer to be present while the speed camera is in operation
The law requiring a traffic study to be completed before the speed camera is placed into operation
The law defining minimum speeds above the posted speed limit
In other words, localities in Ohio are given broad power to issue stiff fines from traffic cameras, and as of mid-2017, they are allowed to run them around the clock (technology permitting) without an officer being present.
The Towns of Linndale and Newburgh Heights are particularly notorious, as are the cities of Dayton and Toledo. If you know where these cameras are, please add them to the map.
Weathersfield Township near Girard operates a camera in a 55mph zone on Interstate 80 at the Salt Springs Road overpass; The officers usually target eastbound traffic. Typical fine is $150 for a speeding violation.
To do list
Many states and territories keep an active list of pending or closed actions that need to be done in the state by the editors. All editors are welcome to contribute to the list of activities.
1) Complete speed limits
2) Complete Functional Classification (FC) implementation for all counties
The FC authority in Ohio is the ODOT TIMS site.
To assist with editing in Ohio several scripts have been created and have been rolled into a single script for ease of maintenance. The below script will load a tab in the left panel labeled "OH Scripts" which has options to enable the 4 scripts that are specific to Ohio and options for opening the current WME location in TIMS (Ohio's GIS system) and Google Map Maker (GMM).
WME OH Scripts
The table below identifies the editors also designated as Area Managers or higher who are editing in Ohio. If you have any questions, please consider contacting them directly as needed. If you are an Area Manager that covers Ohio, or a USA Country Manager that does a lot of work in Ohio, please add yourself to this list (alphabetical by username) in the correct rank section.
The editor who also serves as the Regional Coordinator for Ohio is automatically listed at the top of the table. That editor may not be highly active in this state and therefore may not be listed separately in the table.
Ohio — Area, State, Country Managers, and Regional Coordinators
The following editors are also editing in the state and may be working towards an Area Manager position. Feel free to contact them for assistance in their respective areas.
