New Jersey/Map Raid Shore

Welcome to the Jersey Shore!

Characterized by its salty air, cool summer breezes, and endless boardwalk amusements for both the young and old, millions of people from throughout the northeastern region of the United States, as well as a good part of Canada, visit the coastal New Jersey region that New Jerseyans, and even many New Yorkers, simply refer to as "The Shore." Let's raid the map this coming winter and spring to help Wazers visiting the shore this summer (and future summers) find their favorite places and find better ways to get to them!

Raid Areas

Phase 1

Northern Part. Specific Areas TBD.

Phase 2

Southern Part. Specific Areas TBD.

Mission

Our primary mission will be to handle the URs, PURs, validate existing Places, and finally general map verification/route testing in the area.

Local Hosts

PhantomSoul (PM [Help])   Organizer for this Raid, State Manager, and Mentor

More Local Hosts TBD as they become available.

Important!

Road Types

Please do not alter any of the following road types without consulting a local host:

• Freeways
• Ramps
• Major Highways
• Minor Highways
• Primary Streets

New Jersey has a lot of modern highways built over and/or in conjunction with older local neighborhoods, and many road types were carefully selected to maintain road-type continuity and/or otherwise engineered routes based on how connecting paths between main roads have signage posted.

Please Do Not Mass-Edit

Do not perform edits that affect large numbers of segments at once. Specifically, avoid the Select Entire Street button completely. Doing so makes it difficult to tell who fixed what parts of the map to solve different URs. While we recognize that sometimes a solution might involve fixing a road name over an entire section of road or dividing/undividing it, for example, we ask that you defer these updates toward the end of the raid. Please consult the local hosts for further information.

Level 5,6 Locks

Level 5 and 6 locks usually indicate that an unorthodox treatment to the map for those segments was necessary. They are also used for Freeway segments that we believe are accurate and up-to-date with the best information available at the current time. Please check with local editors before making any changes to these segments. Consider use WME Color Highlights or WME Toolbox extensions to highlight L5- and L6-locked segments.

Micro-Doglegs

We utilize these extensively throughout the state to engineer turn- vs. stay/keep/exit instructions based on the driving experience approaching many junctions, regardless of the angle any road might depart at. Be sure to zoom in really close at each junction where there might be a question about its geometry or routing to check for a micro-dogleg.

Local Guidance

Road Types, Names, and Functional Classification (FC)

In New Jersey, we follow the general USA Road Type rules based on the hybrid rule of FC and Route Type, described in further detail here. FC upgrades have been completed to the best of our knowledge, statewide, and there should not be any need for any kind of mass road type changes.

In New Jersey, all roads with a numbered marker of any type are colloquially referred to as Routes, regardless of whether any particular route has been built into something that resembles a true highway or not. We distinguish the 3 different types of routes found in the state as follows:

• Federal: I-195 E, US-9
• State: SR-35 S, SR-72
• County: CR-537, CR-4

Typically, actual names take precedence over any route-marker-based names in the primary street name field.

We observe the following minimum locking table:

•  Freeway  - Level 5
• Ferry - Level 5
•  Major Highway  - Level 4
•  Minor Highway  - Level 3
•  Primary Street  - Level 2
• Railroad - Level 2
• All types  Street  or less - Level 1
•  Ramp  - Ramps are typically locked to the highest level road that the contiguous ramp system touches. Most typically, a  Ramp  will need to be locked to Level 4 or Level 5, depending on if the main road is a  Major Highway  or  Freeway .

As always, before locking a road, be sure it's information is complete and most up to date, including house numbers, if available. If the road is above your editing level, be sure to request an appropriate lock. All roads can be locked to higher levels if need be to protect, say, some obscurity, but these are the minimum levels.

Further information about NJ and USA Road Types ,Naming, and locking can be found here.

Construction

There are various road projects constantly going on all over New Jersey. Many long-term projects on bigger roads can be found on the state website 511-NJ. These projects are typically submitted as road closures for their expected duration and marked with the tagged URs from the LiveMap UR Add-on.

Other projects involve short term closures on more local roads - in the order of hours or days - and without concrete schedule, so we cannot manage those in WME. For such claims, we simply remind the reporter of the Closure reporting functionality of the Waze app.

Cities and Towns

Many city names on many segments are unfortunately incorrect. New Jersey has a complex hierarchy of "city" naming for each street, where the city name could be different depending on the context of asking. Most common are municipal, postal, and CDP names, and the divergences most often happen in townships. We are working with Waze on a better solution than the one currently available, and as a result, we ask that you do not change any city names during this raid.

Of course, if you determine that a city name update is needed to fix a specific UR, please consult a local host first.

Places

• Complex, intricate, or otherwise critical Places, such as airports, hospitals, police/fire departments, or many urban parks should be locked at least to Level 4.
• Gas stations and other types of places fundamental to the functionality of the Waze app should also be locked at least to Level 4, but only after at least all the Brand, Name, and Address have been filled in. Remember to ask locals for help if needed.
• Editors below Level 4 should request a lock when identifying information is completed.

Further information about Places in New Jersey can be found here.

Un-signaled Left Turns

In general, un-signaled left turns into public streets are allowed when there is an opening in the double-yellow line in the middle of the road and no posted signage specifically prohibiting that turn. For driveways and other private parking lots, left turns into and out of them are usually allowed regardless of whether there is an opening in the double-yellow line or not, provided none of the following are present:

• a posted sign prohibiting the left turn
• two double yellow lines (often seen in the form of the "bubble" prior to a dedicated left turn lane)
• a dedicated left turn lane in the main road, not counting a bi-directional "suicide" center turn lane.

Jughandles

On most of New Jersey's major divided roads with at-grade intersections, direct U- and left turns are prohibited. PLEASE DO NOT ENABLE THEM! Instead, a freeway-interchange-style connector, called a jughandle, is provided along the right side of the road, either before or after the intersection, to facilitate right, left, U-turns, or any combination thereof. Even though they appear as AGCs, they can often be Ramp type to suppress from the map the multitude of names often found on the freeway-exit-style BGS at their approaches. Please do not change their road types without first consulting a local host.

Further information about New Jersey's unique jughandle system can be found here.

Toll Roads

On New Jersey's toll roads, only segments where tolls are actually collected should be checked as toll roads. This is especially important on the state's partially-tolled roads, like the Garden State Pkwy or Atlantic City Expy, where it is actually and legitimately possible to travel between certain interchanges in certain directions toll-free.

Roads do not get divided for dedicated electronic (EZ-Pass in New Jersey) toll lanes, unless necessary for some other navigational interest. This is because Waze has no way of telling whether you have an EZ-Pass transponder, and we certainly don't want Waze telling drivers without a transponder to use such toll lanes because traffic is slightly faster there; it is both prohibited and fines can be assessed using automated technology.

High-Occupancy Toll (HOT) lanes are not utilized anywhere in New Jersey.

Cameras

Speed and dummy cameras are neither allowed nor used anywhere in New Jersey. While there may be mobile units that measure and display your speed and/or whether you are speeding, fines/summonses cannot be issued strictly on those machines' observations.

A pilot program recently ended for red light cameras at select intersections throughout the state, as authorized by the state. Current law requires all red light cameras to be turned off and signage indicating their presence to be removed. However, because of several factors, including the uncertainly of their future, we decided to leave all the RLCs from the now-defunct pilot program in place. PLEASE DO NOT REMOVE OR OTHERWISE DISABLE THEM!

Further information about cameras in New Jersey can be found here.

Alleys

In general, alleys are added to the map if they are named or if any Places or House Numbers along an alley are set back far enough from other roads in the area that the alley would be needed for correct navigation into or out of those places. When adding an alley, always use the Parking Lot Road type, and be sure to check and move as necessary all nearby Places and House Numbers so that all are closer to the appropriate road of approach than to any other road, including the new alley.

Further information about alleys can be found here.

Mapping Resources

GIS

New Jersey GIS maps are published as PDFs by county. Below is a list of the counties contained within the Jersey Shore region:

• Middlesex County
• Monmouth County
• Ocean County
• Burlington County
• Atlantic County
• Cape May County

Communication

We will create groups on the following platforms:

• Google Hangouts to support mobile access to conversations
• WME Chat Add-On groups for hands-on collaboration requiring a computer browser
• Waze Forum topic(s) for bulletin-board style contributions.

Reference Links

For Starters

• New Editor Welcome Page
• Waze Map Editor (WME)
• Best Map Editing Practice
• Editing Manual
• Common Editing Mistakes
• How to Make a Permalink
• All About WME Chat
• Community Content

Digging Deeper

• UR Overview Plus
• WME Reference Sheet
• Validator
• WME Chat Add-on

MapRaid Edit Lists

Check back here periodically for lists made available as they are created.

Results

Check back here after the raid is completed to see the results and achievements.

MapRaid Promotions

Some editors really let their bright side out, and let their community skills shine. This is even more evident in a concerted group effort with high-density editing like a MapRaid!. Editors of all ranks working closely with each other and the Champs, really lets us everyone get to know each other, and allows certain editors to be recognized for their skills and effort.

When the Champs see someone consistently editing well, interacting well with the community, and knowledgeable of the various details from the Wiki, they can issue promotions. This can be anything from the size of a managed area, to a rank increase, or even a new role.

Watch here for results of promotions during and after the raid.

Teams

TBD