How and When to Mark Parking: The Parking-Lot Place Area
- The decision to map a Parking Lot Place Area is covered here, and the decision to map a Parking Lot Road is covered in the Road type article for mapping parking lot roads.
Principles
The Parking-Lot Place Area marks a well-defined area constructed for off-street public parking, including parking structures and garages as well as at-grade lots. Two principles govern whether a given lot, structure or garage deserves its own Parking-Lot Place Area:
- General Public
- The Waze map must never indicate a "Parking Lot" Place Area where a naive driver could risk towing, ticketing, or violating community norms. All Parking-Lot Place Areas must be legally and locally condoned for at least short-term use by the general public. There are no exceptions.
- General Purpose
- Parking-Lot Place Areas must be general-purpose. Drivers who leave cars in a Parking-Lot Place Area should be entitled to walk or take other transportation to any destination of choice, and this should be a common occurrence. The sole exception is for public waiting lots where drivers are required to remain with their vehicles, such as airport cell-phone lots.
Parking that does not satisfy both general-public and general-purpose principles shall not be marked with the Parking-Lot Place Area.
Implementation
Extent
Parking-Lot Place Areas should be mapped to the property boundaries (the "fence line"), or, if those are unclear, the the extent of the lot, structure, or garage.
Naming
If a parking facility has a documented name, its Place Area should reflect that to aid in searches. Generic park-and-ride lots should be named consistently according to local custom, for example as "Park & Ride", to facilitate searches.
Paid versus Free Parking
As long as parking satisfies both general-public and general-purpose principles, it is eligible for a Parking-Lot Place Area regardless of whether it is free or paid. Paid parking may be more likely to be general-purpose.
Suppression of Automated Map-Problem Reports
Like the Gas Station Place Area, Parking Lot Place Areas suppress Waze's automated "Map Problem" reports such as for missing roads; thus the Parking Lot Place Area should never be drawn over or attached/snapped to roads bearing through traffic.
Special Cases
Airports
Airports typically distinguish between parking for different terminals, for short or long term, for rental car return, and for cell-phone/waiting. As common navigation destinations, such parking deserves to be marked with Parking-Lot Place Areas and named accordingly.
Bus and Train Stations
Bus and train stations are often located within city centers and may offer convenient public parking. At some stations, such parking may be intended and often used for general purposes. At others it may be inappropriate, or simply pointless and uncommon, to park if one doesn't intend to use transit. Thus whether to mark bus- or train-station parking with an explicit Parking-Lot Place Area depends on the local situation. Regardless, if by local Waze convention a given bus or train station itself would be marked with a Place Area, the station's Place Area should include associated parking.
Privately-Operated Public Parking
Privately-operated public parking is often found in dense urban centers as well as near airports. Privately-operated parking facilities that support hourly parking for the general public may receive Parking-Lot Place Areas. Facilities intended for long-term parking only are special-purpose and inappropriate for the Parking-Lot Place Area.
Examples
The Parking Lot Place Area is always appropriate for:
- Generic Park & Ride and similar municipal commuter parking.
- Municipal general-purpose general-public parking, especially parking with a unique and documented identity, such as "Beach Street Garage", "City Lot #7", "Hourly Lot 3", "Domestic Garage", "Long-Term Parking", "South Lot", "Cell-Phone Parking", etc. Be sure to assign the given name. If the lot is contained within a larger Place Area, do not repeat that Area's full name; for example if the Domestic Garage is contained within the "SFO San Francisco International Airport" Place Area boundaries, it can simply be labeled "Domestic Garage" or perhaps "SFO Domestic Garage" but not "SFO San Francisco International Airport Domestic Garage".
- Rental car return located on airport property, provided all on-airport vendors share the same car return area (to avoid having to label separate return areas by commercial vendor), named "Rental Car Return".
The Parking Lot Place Area is NEVER appropriate for:
- Parking dedicated to a single non-transit-oriented destination, whether public or private, such as a business, office, church, park, city hall, library, hospital, gym, school, museum, restaurant, campground, etc. Do not mark dedicated lots with the Parking Lot Place Area even if locals often use them as if they were general purpose.
- Employee, student, resident, or guest parking.
- Parking for attendees of events or services.
- Parking associated with campuses, parklands, shopping malls, theme parks, sports facilities, private installations, and office parks or complexes of any size or purpose.
Including Noncompliant Parking in Larger Place Areas
Some neighborhoods enjoy abundant but dedicated parking for shopping malls, office parks, theme parks, stadiums and the like. Parking lots for stadiums and theme parks may even have distinct, named identities. Regardless, such parking is typically not intended as general purpose and thus should NOT be marked with a Parking-Lot Place Area. However, if under local Waze conventions the complex itself warrants a Place Area, any associated parking can be included within its boundaries. For example, a Shopping Mall Place Area with dedicated parking would include all stores and parking associated with the mall.
The Parking-Lot Place Point
As of this writing the client display of Parking-Lot Place Areas versus Points remains unclear. In the future, the Parking-Lot Place Point may be useful for identifying parking in certain limited situations that would not be appropriate for the Place Area, for example stadium or theme-park parking zones, rental car returns for specific vendors, or privately-operated long-term public parking. However, until more clarity emerges, the Parking-Lot Place Point should not be used.