This page serves as the primary resource for editors of the Great Lakes 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.
Introduction
The Great Lakes region includes the states and/or territories of:
Any data here is a placeholder while the Great Lakes Region leadership is working with other regions in order to see if they should become national standards.
The Great Lakes Region follows national standards in every regard. The only exception to national standards will be done at the state level, NOT the regional level.
Before editing the maps in the Great Lakes 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.
The following links can be helpful when editing the maps in the Great Lakes region.
Add some generic USA mapping links while waiting for local editors to populate the page.
Community
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 Great Lakes region.
New editors should consider checking into the formal mentoring program available at no charge.
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.
For a discussion of the formal roles within the Great Lakes Region, see this page.
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.
Major roads
The Great Lakes region follows the general road naming and road type guidelines of the USA.
Locking Standard
The following defines a set of minimum locking standards proposed for all roads within Great Lakes.
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
The Great Lakes 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.
Guidelines that vary by state or territory
The following special roads are managed slightly uniquely in some states and territories. This region uses the following standard guidelines found in the Wiki.
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.
Replace this template message with specific information unique to the state. If the information is more than a screen full, consider moving it to a full subpage. Minimally the following link is required to reach the full subpage from the main page. Exclude this link if all the relevant information is already displayed in this section.
See USA/Great Lakes/Closures for guidance in Great Lakes that may not be universal to all other states and territories.
Update Requests
2015-06-06: The Great Lakes Region has standardized on a UR response system after extended discussion in the forum.
Overview
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 request for information 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 described above, provided they adhere to 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
Places
The Great Lakes 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.
Places and Chain Harmonization Sheet
The Place Harmonizer script found here should be used for all places.
Phone Numbers
Places should use the following phone number format: xxx-xxx-xxxx Note: Running the Place Harmonization script on a place will automatically correct the phone number to this format
Chain Businesses and Missing Chains
If you don't find the business you're looking on the sheet below, please use the built in functionality of the place harmonizer script to add it. There is a sheet maintained for each region.
Some Places are not chains and therefore will not be harmonized but still need the correct category. The below sheet is a mapping for the business type to the correct category, for the Great Lakes Region.
Places should be locked to the below standards, only after all data fields have been filled. At a minimum ensure that Category, Name and Address (street and house number), and Brand (for gas stations) have information. Note for gas stations - DO NOT USE THE BRAND "UNBRANDED". If it is a no brand gas station, just leave the brand field blank.
Any place that has at least a correct category, correct name, and correct address with house number should be locked to 3.
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 Great Lakes region.
Based on information researched at the time this page was created, Waze editors have not determined the legality of red light or speed cameras in the Great Lakes region.
No other camera types should be mapped in Waze.
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.
Region Standard Change Candidates
The following is a list of standards proposals brought forth by the local editing community. They are currently under discussion on the forums, and not considered guidance. Local editors are encouraged to join the forum discussions.
Proposed June 24, 2015. Michigan proposal to remove city name fields from all state highways with limited access.
Proposed July 6, 2015. Michigan proposal to set a minimum length standard for dead-end parking lot roads at 30m.
See USA/Great Lakes/To do for guidance in Great Lakes that may not be universal to all other states and territories.
Area Managers
The table below identifies the editors also designated as Area Managers or higher who are editing in the Great Lakes region. If you have any questions, please consider contacting them directly as needed. If you are an Area Manager that covers the Great Lakes region, or a USA Country Manager that does a lot of work in the Great Lakes 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 Great Lakes 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.
Great Lakes — Area, State, Country Managers, and Regional Coordinators
