Canada

Complete Guide to Waze in the Canada

• Since the USA and Canada share the same Waze server, many of the policies and best practices that have been developed for the US also apply to Canada. This page contains information that is unique to Canada. Because some of it is still being developed, please follow the guidance for the US where it is not in conflict with the information here.
• This page is now in development and available in French.

About Waze

Please see the article About Waze

Getting Started

Please see the article Getting Started

Help Improve Waze

Please see the article Help Improve Waze

Use your language skills

• Waze is strongly committed to supporting the different countries and languages of the world but depends on your help.
• The Waze client app has over 1000 words and phrases to be translated into languages used around the world. Some are nearly finished. Some are halfway done. Some of them haven't even started! If you read and write more than one language, you can help with the translation. Even one phrase helps - you don't have to do it all!
• This Wiki is used by people from countries around the world, speaking different languages. Maybe you'd like to help add and improve pages specific to a country and language

Forums

Please check out the Canada-specific forums here: [1]

Feel free to post questions and ask for advice in your editing. Our region is very different in a number of ways from the United States, so the generic editing guidelines don't always apply.

Area/Country Managers

If you are an Area Manager that covers part of Canada, or a Country Manager that does a lot of work in Canada, please add yourself to this list. See comments via an "Edit" of this section to add yourself.

Username	Primary Areas Managed	Comments	Forum PM
doctorkb	Western Canada (Alberta & BC)	Waze Global Champ, Rank 6 CM for Canada; AM for Edmonton, Prince George, and various places in between	PM
EECGeek	Ontario / Quebec, Canada	Waze Local Champ (Canada), Rank 5 CM for Canada and US; AM for Ottawa, Eastern Ontario and Western Quebec	PM
hmarian	Ontario	Waze Local Champ (Canada), Rank 5 CM for Canada; AM for Greater Toronto Area and the surrounding communities	PM
james8970	Western/Central Canada	Waze Local Champ (Canada), Rank 5 CM for Canada	PM
Webs101	Quebec	Waze Local Champ (Canada), Rank 5 CM for Canada	PM
joe01romano	Eastern Canada	Rank 5 CM / AM for Canada and US	PM
erablian	Alberta	Rank 4 AM for Alberta	PM
invented	Ontario	Rank 4 AM for Ontario	PM
manoeuvre	Ontario	Rank 4 AM for Ontario	PM
SkiDooGuy	Saskatchewan, Ontario	Rank 4 AM for Saskatchewan, Manitoulin Island, North Shore, Bruce Peninsula and surrounding areas	PM

AM / CM Requests

To request Area Manager or Country Manager access, please see this thread: https://www.waze.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=57&t=93406

Unlock Requests

Canada has its own forum area for unlock requests. Please make your requests here.

Closures

Please report road closures via this form.

This form allows for complete (or directional, i.e. A->B only) closures to be reported. Partial closures (i.e. one of two lanes in a direction) should not be reported.

Major Events (e.g. Commonwealth Games, Tour d'Alberta, etc.) should still be dealt with using the Waze Major Events form.

This method is preferred over adding restrictions -- it is nearly immediate (processed several times per day by Waze staff), and does not rely on a tile rebuild. The closure will also be visible in the app and on the livemap, in addition to avoiding routing through the segment.

Problems and Issues

The Montreal Area has unique issues of its own.

U-Turns

Practical application in Waze: restrict all u-turns in Canada unless there is a sign outright permitting them.

British Columbia Statute: Motor Vehicle Act of British Columbia

Alberta Guidelines: A Driver's Guide to Operation, Safety and Licensing: Cars and Light Trucks

Ontario Statute: R.S.O. 1990, c. H.8, s. 143. Highway Traffic Act

Quebec Statute: Highway Safety Code [1]

City Naming

Towns, cities villages etc... To save space just put in the name of the city, example "Toronto" not "City of Toronto", or for smaller places use "Springfield" not "Town of Springfield" or "Village of Springfield".

NEVER include the province in the City field. For example don't put in "Springfield, Qc" or "Springfield, On".

If you find a city that can't save without the province name (perhaps it changes when you save it, or generates other save error), please post a message in the applicable province's forum.

This applies to both primary names and alternate names -- the alternate city is assumed to be in the primary province and country.

Road Naming

Highways

Minor/Major Highways should be named in this format:

Hwy # (H is capitalized, the 'wy' in lower case, followed by a number) e.g. Hwy 16

Not 'Highway #' or 'HWY # (all caps)'.

Where the signage indicates the highway based on a name ("Lougheed Hwy" or "Sooke Rd"), the name should be used.  If, however, the signage refers to it by number primarily, that is to be the primary name, regardless of the local knowledge (e.g. the Sea-to-Sky Highway is signed as Hwy 99).

Abbreviations

Please follow the Canada Post street type abbreviation to reduce map clutter by not using long road type name.

 e.g. John St, Bayview Ave, Don Valley Pky, Slick Dr, Main Blvd
 e.g. SW instead of South-west

See http://www.canadapost.ca/tools/pg/manual/PGaddress-e.asp#1423617 for full details in English and French.

Road Types

Within Metropolitan Areas

In the US, the DOT has a Functional Classification system which had been adopted by Waze Champs as the method for classifying different road types. Overall, this has resulted in use of the highway types for arterial roads in the metropolitan areas, with the Primary Street type being available for collector-type roads.

Unfortunately, we don't have the same standardized government-published maps to adopt here, but we can consider many of the same principles. This was first looked at in Edmonton, and seems to have been met with great success.

With that in mind, we'd like to consider the following criteria for use within metropolitan areas and any city with a population exceeding ~40,000. In the event that the infrastructure of a smaller city has been designed with arterial routes, this may be adopted there, but will typically be less obvious.

If the local government has published maps that define arterial and collector routes, please use those to set the street types.

Changing of Types

As a highway enters a city/town, it often becomes a named street, and sometimes would no longer fit the usual criteria for a "highway".

Due to a number of reasons, including long-distance routing issues, as well as appearance, the highway should remain as the same type it entered the city/town (except if it's a Freeway -- if it no longer fits the Freeway criteria, it may be downgraded to Major Highway until it is again a Freeway).

The road type designation should follow the entire numbered route.

Freeways

In general, Freeways will have:

• Multi-Lane, divided road
• No cross traffic
• No stop lights (except for ramp meters)
• No stop signs
• No parking
• No stopping (except for toll booths, freeway access metering, movable bridges, and traffic congestion)
• Highest speed limits (relative to region)
• Some have minimum speed limits
• Limited access:
  • Access restrictions vary by region but some typical restrictions are:
    • No pedestrians
    • No bicycles
    • No mopeds
    • No Animal-Drawn Vehicles
  • Entrance ramps are typically designed with an acceleration zone so that cars can accelerate up to freeway speeds before merging into freeway traffic
  • Exit ramps are typically designed with a deceleration zone so that traffic can exit the freeway at freeway speeds without obstructing traffic, then have sufficient distance to slow down before any turns

When considering the road type, use the above noted Freeway classification as a guideline, with the idea that a Canadian "Freeway" may lack one of the criteria (e.g. Whitemud Freeway in Edmonton is 80 km/h, but meets all other criteria; Hwy 16 W of Edmonton doesn't have ramps for every junction, but meets all other criteria)

Major Highway

Use for major arterial roads. Often these have 2-3 lanes (or more) in each direction, and may be structured to be turned into freeways eventually. Usually this means relatively few intersections, higher speed limit, and higher capacity.

Additionally, if a road enters an area as a Freeway, but then loses its limited-access situation, it will generally continue on as a Major Highway.

If only one type of arterial is used by the municipality on their maps, the decision between a "major" and a "minor" will be that of relative importance and capacity. Generally, a "major" will have 2+ lanes, whereas a minor may only have one. Local knowledge is also especially useful in determining this.

Minor Highway

Use for arterial roads. They are more direct than using collector roads and sometimes have slightly increased speed limits.

Primary Street

Suitable for collector roads through neighbourhoods and thoroughfares that aren't arterial.

Outside Metropolitan Areas

Trans-Canada Highway

Road type: Freeway
Primary name: Hwy ## (e.g. Hwy 1)
Alternate: Trans-Canada Hwy

There are parts of the TCH that travel through National/Provincial parks with frequent stops, reduced speed and undivided portions. These segments should be reduced to a Major Highway until the speed increases, stops are minimized or the highway is divided again.

Quebec Roads

Autoroutes, or limited access highways, such as the 20/40/55 or any *40 are considered freeways

The big exception to this rule is Autoroute 50 which is still a freeway, even though some small parts of it are not limited access and some are only two lane with no divider.

The official road map of Quebec should be consulted to determine the status of provincial routes. The map is available in French and English.

Major highways on the map are in depicted in red and should be red in Waze.

Minor highways in yellow-orange on the map should be in yellow.

A very general rule of thumb is that 100-series highways are in red while 200 and 300-series highways are in yellow. This is not completely accurate, however, so please consult the official map.

Ontario Roads

All 400 series highways are in blue as they are limited access freeways. Also other highways, for example the 174 just east of Ottawa, are in blue as they are limited access.

Certain Major highways are two lane but are still in red because they collect the minor highways, and many county roads and we need to distinguish them, examples are the 174 east of Ottawa/Orleans, the 17, the 138, 38 the 7 in eastern Ontario.

County roads may be in yellow if they have higher speed limits than most main roads around them. Not all county roads should be designated "Minor Highway" -- grid roads should be addressed like Alberta's Range / Township Roads.

Alberta Roads

Freeways in Canada need to follow a different standard than in the US.

Currently in Alberta, only ring roads (perimeter roads around a city), Hwy 1 (including the highways Hwy 1 splits into), Hwy 2, Hwy 16, and any highways with limited access (e.g. highways with no traffic lights, and access is exclusive to ramps entrances).

When considering the road type, use the above noted Freeway classification as a guideline, with the idea that a Canadian "Freeway" may lack one of the criteria (e.g. Whitemud Freeway in Edmonton is 80 km/h, but meets all other criteria; Hwy 16 W of Edmonton doesn't have ramps for every junction, but meets all other criteria)

Generally highways in the 1–216 series are major highways (except when they are freeways), and highways in the 500–999 series are minor highways. However, a highway with a letter suffix in its number should generally be one type lower than the corresponding highway without the letter suffix. For example Hwy 2A is major highway, one type lower than Hwy 2 (freeway), and Hwy 13A in Camrose is minor highway, one type lower than Hwy 13 (major highway).

Some highways in the 500–999 series are gravel, and this raises a dilemma for Waze editors because Waze lacks a road type for all-weather gravel roads. The consensus is to use "Dirt road / 4X4 Trail" for gravel highways in regions where paved alternative routes are available for many destinations, but to use "Minor Highway" in regions where there are no paved alternatives.

Township and Range Roads

Township and range roads are maintained and signed by the local municipal district (MD). Some MDs have chosen a numbering format with a hyphen before the last digit (e.g. “Township Rd 38-4”) but most have chosen a hyphenless format (e.g. “Range Rd 15”). In WME, the road names should follow the local format as used on the signs. Abbreviate “Rd” but leave “Township” and “Range” unabbreviated.

Township and Range roads are not highways and should be (at highest) Primary Street.

List (incomplete) of MDs that use hyphens: Clearwater County, Lacombe County, Mountain View County, Stettler County

British Columbia Roads

Freeways in Canada need to follow a different standard than in the US.

When considering the road type, use the above noted Freeway classification as a guideline, with the idea that a Canadian "Freeway" may lack one of the criteria (e.g. Whitemud Freeway in Edmonton is 80 km/h, but meets all other criteria; Hwy 16 W of Edmonton doesn't have ramps for every junction, but meets all other criteria)

Highways are defined by the provincial numbering scheme.  Any numbered route will be either a Freeway, Major Highway or Minor Highway, regardless of the use of stop lights or the path it takes through a city/town.

Additionally, streets that are named "Highway" (e.g. Barnet Highway in Burnaby) may also receive a highway classification.

Differentiation between a major and minor highway is largely based on its destination and importance of the route.  Also, a highway with a letter suffix in its number should generally be one type lower than the corresponding highway without the letter suffix. For example Hwy 19A in Courtenay is major highway, one type lower than Hwy 19 (freeway), and Hwy 4A in Coombs is minor highway, one type lower than Hwy 4 (major highway).

Technical information

Please see the article Technical Information.