Pennsylvania/Cities and towns/Main Discussion View history

City names on segments are used for two things:

• to generate the city names you see on the map
• to find a destination when you enter an address into the waze app.

Every segment in Pennsylvania is located within a city, borough, or township, so every segment of every Minor Highway, Primary Street, Street, Private Road, Parking Lot Road, and Dirt Road/4x4 Trail should have a city name applied to it.  Major Highways  should have a city name applied to all segments that also have street addresses. City names are not required on Freeways and Ramps. Railroads should have the "none" box checked for city.

If you think you have found a place that needs an exception to the rules below, please contact a Pennsylvania state manager.

City, borough, or township?

1. If the segment is within a city or borough, use the name of the city or borough
2. If the segment is not within a city or borough, but within a Census Designated Place (CDP) that is used as though it were a town name by the businesses and residents then use the CDP name. This means that the CDP name does not appear only in mailing addresses (many CDP names are identical to post office names), but is used in the names of businesses, schools, religious centers, as in "Exton Square Mall"
3. If the segment does not satisfy the rules above, then use the township name.
4. If the segment runs along the border of two different city names, then use one in the primary city name and one as the alternate. Example: Street Rd, Willistown, with alternate name Street Rd, Thornbury.
5. Where a segment crosses a city boundary, make sure there is a junction at the border, and that each segment gets the correct city name or names.
6. The above rules should take care of all segments in the state. Do NOT use post office names Post Office names that don't match an official township, boro, or CDP (or names of villages, neighborhoods, or other unincorporated places), The Waze app really needs the map to be kept simple.

Names and duplicate names

1. 

   When a borough and a township have the same name, append "Twp" to the township name.

   

   A road that forms the border of two cities

   Whenever possible, just use the name of the city, borough, or township, with nothing added. Example: "East Goshen" for East Goshen Township
2. But if there are a borough and township of the same name, then append "Twp" to the township name. For example: Tionesta township surrounds Tionesta borough. In this case, use "Tionesta" for the borough and "Tionesta Twp" for the township.
3. If the same city name is used in several different counties, avoid a duplicate name problem by using the county name. For example: "Hanover, Northampton" and "Hanover, Lehigh" are two townships right across the county line from each other, and there is a borough named simply "Hanover" in York county.

More Information

You can learn more about what a CDP is, see a list of Census Designated Place names, and read more about Duplicate cities. See Mapping Resources for more information about municipal and CDP maps.