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This page serves as the primary resource for editors of the New England region. Review all the sections to better understand how the guidelines for this region might deviate from the overall USA or worldwide guidelines. If you have any comments or questions about this page or region refer to the community links below.
Due to small geographic size of the New England Region (NER) states, many map editors in this region are active in more than one state. This page highlights general particularities for editing in NER, and highlights some of the more notable differences between the states. Please see individual state pages for more localized details of Waze map editing.
This page provides general guidance for editing across the New England Region.
Please also see state-specific pages for localized details.
Introduction
The New England region includes the states and/or territories of:
Each of these pages may have slightly different map guidance recommendations from the others in this region and other regions, so be sure to review the specific editing guidelines from that page before editing in New England.
All editors should have a real username, not a usa_username and are required to have their private messaging turned on.
Refer to the Glossary for common Waze related terms.
Mapping resources
Before editing the maps in the New England region, 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.
A Welcome Message to new map editors can be found here.
Please be aware copyrighted data from external sources generally cannot be used as references for map editing, unless personally verifiable, available within the Waze Map Editor interface (without the use of scripts), or in the public domain. Knowledge gleaned from examining photographs and videos are generally acceptable.
After getting their feet wet and having some experience with map editing, all map editors should review the this list of edits to avoid.
WME Scripts
Scripts are community-supported snippets of code which are loaded in your web browser in conjunction with the Waze Map Editor in order to enhance your map editing experience. Here are a few script which most editors find helpful. Please read the General installation instructions before installing scripts.
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 the New England region.
New editors should consider checking into the formal mentoring program available at no charge.
Formal Mentoring is a great tool to quickly learn the ropes of editing correctly and efficiently. It includes the potential for accelerated rank and role upgrades.
There is a Discord Server for New England editors. This is the primary and official communications link among editors within the region. Fill out this brief form to receive an invitation to join our Discord Server.
Additional state-specific community resources include:
A common question amongst new editors is when editing rank promotions happen. The user's rank rises with experience, proficiency, community involvement, and recognition.
A general description of the promotion process in the USA can be found here.
Editing restrictions related to user rank are described here.
In order to protect the Waze map from inadvertent damage by new editors, it is noted that within the New England Region, promotions are not based solely on edit count, and new editors are monitored to ensure that they reach an appropriate level of mentoring and proficiency before being promoted.
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).
Due to the different municipal organizational structures making up each state, the naming of cities and towns used within Waze are particular to each state. Please see the respective state guidance for additional details:
The New England region follows the general road naming and road type guidelines of the USA.
Naming of the major roadways (state highways/routes) in the New England Region is specific to each state. Please see the respective state pages for details:
We currently use "SR-XXX" ("State Route") for naming of state highways in: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire.
We use state abbreviations for naming of state highways in: Rhode Island ("RI-XXX") and Vermont ("VT-XXX").
Locking Roads
In New England we have a set minimum standard for locking roads based on segment type. Any road of a certain segment type must be locked at least to the rank (level) in the chart below. Roads may be locked higher for protection and special situations (areas with construction, tricky design, frequent mistakes, imaging inaccuracies, and the like), but should not be locked lower.
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.
New England Minimum Locking Rank Standard
Segment Type
CT/MA/ME/NH/RI/VT
Freeway
5
Ramp
Highest rank of connected segment
Major Highway
4
Minor Highway
3
Primary Street
1 (Auto)
Street
1 (Auto)
Private Road
1 (Auto)
• • • • Ferry • • • •
5
|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-| Railroad |-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|
2
Note: Do Not Mass Edit just to update locks to these standards, these can be adjusted as you find them while editing other aspects of the segments such as FC, speed limits, naming, etc.
Some segments still warrant higher locks and care should be taken when setting segment lock to these standards to look for and protect these special setups with higher locks. Some examples; segments which are part of BDP, U-turn prevention, or using micro-doglegs, or other complex intersection setups.
The "Passageway" road type should not be used in the United States without Champ approval for individual use cases.
Special roads
Drivable roads
The New England region follows the standard USA guidelines for all of the following special road types.
Review the Wiki guidelines for non-drivable roads to ensure compliance with the general guidelines.
Alleys
Alleys should always be mapped if they have a name.
Alleys should always be mapped if they are the sole access to a home or business.
Alleys should always be set to "Private"
Alleys are normally mapped if they are acknowledged by the municipality.
If an alley does not meet the above criteria, mapping is optional. Leave the name field blank.
Non-Drivable Roads
Walking Trails, Pedestrian Boardwalks, & Stairways generally should not be mapped. Exceptions should be approved by a State Manager.
It is permitted to map Railroads, and Railroad type can be junctioned with drivable roads when there are at-grade crossings.
State-Specific Details
Please see respective state pages for any applicable state-specific handling of special road types (Dirt Roads, Walking and other multi-use trails, 4x4 Trails, Alleys, Driveways):
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.
The Federal Highway Administration keeps a website indexing all states that can provide highway and construction project information. Go to the page, find your state, and check the links for the desired information.
Places
The New England region follows the USA standard for Places. Do not deviate from the guidelines without first obtaining consensus to do so via the region forum linked on this page.
Minimum Acceptable Information
All Places added to the map must contain the following entries:
Place Name
Proper Category
Address (including address numbers)
Placed in the correct location on the map
This is the minimum acceptable amount of information for inclusion on the map, unless the location intrinsically does not have an address.
Locking Standard
All Places that have complete information are to be locked at Level 2. This is to prevent loss of data due to automatic acceptance of Place Update submissions from Trusted Users, or Place Update Request approvals from other editors without careful examination.
New England Region Place Lock Level Standards
PLACE TYPE
LOCK LEVEL
National & State Parks and Monuments
5
Military Installation / Airport
5
Hospitals / Urgent Care / Police & Fire Dept
4
Gas Stations / Charging Stations
3
Schools / Universities / Colleges
3
Government Buildings / Post Offices / Consulates
3
Subway, Commuter, and Passenger Rail Stations
3
City and Local Parks
2
If you do not have a high enough enough rank to lock the place as indicated, please lock it as high as you can, and notify a higher rank AM, SM, CM, or Champ to lock it higher.
Problem Categories
It is recognized that the available place categories within WME frequently do not provide a clear matching category for some types of venues. The following table provides some regional guidance for the more common questions. Whenever necessary, please confer with the community on additional problem venues.
Click to Expand ---->>>> "Problem" Categories
These types of places have been problems in the New England Region. Suggested categories and other notes are provided.
Place Type
WME Category
Notes
Ambulance / EMS
Fire Department (AP)
Well signed, free standing with 911 services
Ambulance / EMS
Public/Professional (PP)
All others
Arcade
Game Club
Auto Parts Store
Shopping/Service
Add "Garage/Auto" if provides maintenance services
Boat Ramps / Launches
Seaport/Marina/Harbor
Use PP for small boat ramps, AP only if larger Marinas
Bowling Alley
Game Club
Chiropractors
Offices
Equipment Rental
Shopping/Services
Firearm Ranges/Shops
Shopping/Services
Funeral Home
Other
Hair Salons
Personal Care
Learning Center
Other
Liquor Store
Shopping/Services
Long term housing
Other
Named apartment complexes, assisted and senior living facilities, should not be listed as "Lodging" as the Wazer would normally be expecting short term housing options for that category. Use "Other" for the named complex, and "Office" for leasing office if there is a separate one.
Mailing Services (UPS, FedEx, etc)
Shopping/Services
"Post Office" category should only be used for US Post Offices
Mini Golf
Culture/Entertainment
Pawn Shop
Shopping/Services
"Pot Shops"
Shopping/Services
Enter "Marijuana Dispensary" and/or "Medical Marijuana" in the description, as appropriate
Self Storage Facilities
Shopping/Services
Enter Staffed Rental Office Hours; if staffed self-service hours differ, provide in the description
Tattoo Shop
Personal Care
Trade School / Flight School
Other
Truck Weigh Station
Not Mapped
Parking lot roads leading to and from a weigh station may be mapped.
Vape Shop
Shopping/Services
Phone Numbers
If a phone number is entered in the Place information, the following format is preferred: (###) ###-####
Please correct the layout of any phone numbers you encounter while editing.
Area Editing
Area MappingWhen creating an Area, map it to the "fence line" of the area.
For instance, if you are mapping a shopping center, this means that you map the area to cover the shopping center buildings, and the parking lots out to the outer ring road (if applicable). If there is no ring road, or for smaller shopping centers, map to the curb line.
If you are mapping a school, you would map out to the fence line (if visible) or to a reasonable distance from the school.
RHODE ISLAND: The only exception to this in Rhode Island are schools that only have one major building on the property (such as public primary/secondary education schools). In these cases, the area should be drawn to match the general shape of the building, as most of these schools have unique enough shapes to meet the requirements for single structure area places.
Hospital MappingA special Category of Hospital / Urgent Care is used for Hospitals, Medical Centers and Urgent Care facilities. ONLY Hospitals, Emergency Rooms, and places offering Urgent Medical Care should use this category. Clinics and Medical offices which do not offer urgent medical care for Walk-Ins should use the Office, and any other appropriate category, instead.
Set the Stop Point over the Main Entrance to the facility. Additionally, map the Emergency Entrance with the same category name, but place it over the Emergency entrance location. ERs encompassed in a hospital Place Area should be Points, and named in the following fashion: ER - Hospital Name
Layered Areas
Places which are part of a larger encompassing place (i.e. place points for lot in a university area, Separate ER entrances in a hospital area, etc.) should be named with their unique name followed by a hyphen and the name of the larger area they belong to. For example "ER - Generic Medical Center"
Parking Lots
The New England Region follows USA guidance for Parking Lots. In general, Parking Lot Areas (PLAs) should be added for all lots, including businesses with small parking lots (fewer than 10 spaces). Any improvements are helpful, but editors are encouraged to start with popular lots with heavy usage, map problem or update request flags.
In addition to the guidance provided in the USA page for Parking Lots (above), the following description should help clarify the type of lot which should be used. In general, the cost of parking at a lot is independent from the type. Public, Restricted, and Private lots might be free, or may require a parking fee.
Lot Type
Description
Public
This type is used in lots where anybody can legally park regardless of purpose or destination.
*** In addition, certain large lots at major destinations (e.g., shopping centers, ballpark/stadiums, colleges/universities, convention centers, etc.) which would ordinarily be Restricted (below) may be classified instead as "Public" if the ability to see these lots would be important to the Wazer. This is the only type of lot which is currently offered as an alternative destination for place searches in the Waze app.
Restricted
This lot type should generally be chosen at parking lots which are owned by, used for, or associated with specific nearby businesses or place points/areas. The parking lots of almost all small businesses will be "Restricted".
These lots are not offered to the driver as an alternate destination, although they are searchable by parking lot name (similar to other categories of places). They are also used for Waze data gathering.
Private
This lot type should be used for parking lots which require preauthorization for access. In general these are lots which require an access card, parking sticker, or owner approval prior to arriving at the lot.
These lots are not offered to the driver as an alternate destination, although they are searchable by parking lot name (similar to other categories of places). They are also used for Waze data gathering.
Gas Stations
Gas Station
You should familiarize yourself with the Gas Stations wiki - specifically naming, branding, and stop points.
A single gas station area place can be used for both a gas station and its associated convenience store (add an additional category when applicable) if they have the same branding and same hours of accessibility. If the gas branding is different from the branding of the convenience store, or if they have different access hours, create a place area for the gas station and a separate place point for the convenience store.
Also understand that to provide the best navigation instructions for a Wazer, u-turns should be enabled at each end of the PLR drawn through the gas station.
EV Charging / CNG stations
EV charging stations, CNG (compressed natural gas), and other alternative fuel stations should not be mapped with "Gas Station" category. EV charging stations should use the "EV Charging Station" category and follow the national guidance. CNG stations should use the "Others" category and include CNG in the place name.
Fire and Police Departments
Emergency services providing first response such as Police and Fire departments should be mapped using Area Place type (Lock 4). The primary place name should reflect the common local usage for the service ("Police Dept", "Fire Dept", etc) and optionally may include station-specific identifiers.
<Emergency Service Name> - <Municipality>
Alt name may include [station-specific identifier] as well as recognized abbreviations which may be entered as a search term.
Examples:
Primary name: Police Dept - Boston - Alt name: BPD B2 Roxbury
Primary name: Fire Dept - Brattleboro - Alt name: Central Station
Primary name: Fire Dept - Newtown - Alt name: Sandy Hook Vol. Fire & Rescue Co.
Rest Areas
Include "Rest Stop" as an alternative name.
Truck Weigh Stations
Because Waze does not support Truck/Commercial restrictions, highway and freeway weigh stations are not mapped in the New England Region. Parking lot roads leading onto and off of a weigh station may be mapped.
Cemeteries
Inactive, unnamed cemeteries are generally not mapped. Named cemeteries, those with historical significance, or useful as a navigation aid can be mapped. Internal roads should be mapped using the Parking Lot Road type if roads are warranted.
New England Region PNH Table - Click to Expand ---->>>>
Please note the listed spelling of the venue name, as well as the appropriate category. This is necessary for the proper display of any advertising associated with the site.
In an effort to standardize Place Names, the New England Region uses Place Name Harmonization/PNH (expandable table above), a reference table of common businesses and venue names and characteristics.
Helpful Scripts
If you are working on places, a couple scripts can make the editing process a lot more efficient. As always with scripts, be cautious and please reach out to a senior editor with any questions on how they work.
WME Place Harmonizer (WMEPH) uses the PNH table (referenced above) to standardize names, format data, provide an easy interface for adding services, and automatically lock a place once the minimum information has been added. For chains, please submit new chain data for any that are not in the database. Note: WMEPH is now available for all editors, including R1.
WME Place Interface Enhancements (WMEPIE) modifies the interface to provide additional functionality for Places. Options are available to show the size of area Places (configurable to display imperial and/or metric), display lock buttons on RPPs and show crosshairs in the information panel for a place so you can center & zoom on it (zoom level being configurable). (replaces WME Closest Segment)
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 the New England region.
Based on information researched at the time this page was created, neither red light cameras nor speed cameras are legal in Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, or Vermont. Please reach out to regional leadership if you believe they have been deployed and need to be mapped in Waze. Other types of cameras which may be legal, such as traffic monitoring cameras, are not used for ticketing purposes and are not mapped in Waze.
Red light cameras and speed cameras are legal in Rhode Island. Please see the RI Wazeopedia for details.
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.
The New England Region follows the USA standard for Update Requests (URs) outlined HERE. The New England states have the following ASAP/4/7 day lifecycle goal for handling URs:
Update Request Lifecycle
Initial Response:
If the solution is obvious, fix the issue, leave a comment, and close out the report as "Solved".
Otherwise, if there's ANY ambiguity to the problem, leave a comment asking for further clarification. This starts the UR response clock as Day 1.
Reminder:
If the reporter hasn't responded within the reminder interval, leave a reminder comment that additional information is required to resolve the report and it will be closed soon if there is no response.
Close:
If the reporter replies with the sufficient information to resolve the report, the UR is closed as appropriate.
If the reporter does not responded after the close interval (from the time of the Initial Response), leave a comment letting the reporter know the UR is being closed, and save the report as "Not identified".
Notes:
If the Wazer responds, but further clarification is still required, the response clock starts over at Day 1 as the editor awaits new information.
If you find a UR which is older than 7 days which has not been touched by another editor but requires additional information to resolve, apologize for the late response and ask if the reporter still remembers the problem and can clarify. This starts the UR response clock as Day 1.
Update Request Ownership
All editors are considered to have equal ownership and responsibility for all URs.
All editors are encouraged to attempt to resolve URs at any point during their lifecycle, provided the response time guidance is followed, even if other editors happen to be actively working the report.
If an editor has asked for clarification and received a response from the reporter, as a courtesy, please give the initial editor a few days to work on a resolution before taking over the UR.
Things to remember
The main objective is to resolve legitimate map issues, not just to close URs. Take the time to understand the issue and ensure the reporter has the allotted time to respond.
Even though you may be a volunteer editor, you still represent Waze; be professional and objective with your responses.
Keep responses short; some folks might be responding in the Waze app and reading long responses can be a pain!
You should always leave a comment on a UR, even if you're just closing out old reports.
Plugins such as URO+, UR Comments, and UR-MP Tracking can make responding to URs much easier. Check them out!
Keep an eye out for Private Messages (PM) in the Forum, or your linked email account in case there are issue that are addressed to you. Never Be Unreachable!
Area Managers
The table below identifies the editors also designated as Area Managers or higher who are editing in the New England region. If you have any questions, please consider contacting them directly as needed. If you are an Area Manager that covers the New England region, or a USA Country Manager that does a lot of work in the New England region, please add yourself to this list (alphabetical by username) in the correct rank section.
The editor who also serves as the Regional Coordinator for the New England region is automatically listed at the top of the table. That editor may not be highly active in this region and therefore may not be listed separately in the table.
New England — Area, State, Country Managers, and Regional Coordinators
for this region. This region also has the following Assistant Regional Coordinators listed: Banished (PM [Help]) 
