This page serves as the primary resource for editors of Idaho. Review all the sections to better understand how the guidelines for this state might deviate from the overall USA or worldwide guidelines. If you have any comments or questions about this page or state refer to the community links below.
No general message at this time.
Introduction
Idaho is a part of the Northwest region, which includes the states and/or territories of:
Before editing the maps in Idaho, 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.
Functional Classification
Idaho follows the Functional Classification (FC) system for both state and non-state roads. There are currently 2015 and 2025 classifications available. At this time, we follow the highest FC of the 2015 and 2025 guidelines, except where they don't make sense (e.g. roads that don't yet exist, not-yet-through roads in neighborhoods, etc).
Idaho "2025" Functional Classification Map has both 2015 and 2025 functional classifications available as overlays. Do not map the planned streets on the 2025 layer which are not built yet.
Refer to the Functional Classification Quick Reference Chart to determine the correct Waze road type. Remember that a US Highway or Interstate business route in urban areas where streets are named locally, that an alternate street designation may be key to determining the correct Waze road type.
Please feel free to ask for help if you have questions on any of this!
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 Idaho.
New editors should consider checking into the formal mentoring program available at no charge.
Communications
Our community uses Discord to facilitate communications. Idaho has channel on the Northwest USA Discord server, which is used to chat with local editors and area/state/regional management. If you're a new/existing editor in Idaho or even if you're just visiting and want to relay information to local editors you can do so by clicking the link below to jump into the group. All editors are also encouraged to join the national server. Links are below:
Discord has a free app available for Windows, MacOS, and Linux computer platforms as well as Android and iOS mobile platforms. You may also use the Discord website to access our Discord channels if you prefer.
Visibility
While editing in Idaho, editors must not use Invisible mode. Editors are not required to socialize in chat, but are expected to respond to inquiries about their edits if questions about them arise. If you decide to minimize chat, please consider using the WME Chat Addon so that you can be "pinged" if somebody needs to talk to you.
Coaching
All editors of Idaho need to be willing and able to accept coaching from any area/state/regional management, as well as peers and outside area management, and then use that coaching to make appropriate corrections. We maintain a strong community by being on the same page with how the mapping should be done. The goal in coaching is to help you improve the experience that Wazers will have when using the app. It is not meant to criticize the way you have gone about a solution, but rather refine it to exceed the needs of our Wazers and to meet the standards set for the map.
You may receive inquiries by Personal Message (PM) if you aren't able to be reached in WME Chat or Discord. Please respond ASAP to any messages you receive (the expectation is a response within 48 hours under most circumstances).
Disciplinary Action
Editors that do not respond to inquiries about their edits, choose not to make appropriate corrections after being coached, and/or cause deliberate damage to the map, etc., may, depending on severity, receive consequences including but not limited to: mandatory formal mentoring, temporary suspension of editing privileges, and permanent loss of editing privileges.
Update Requests
We are the face of Waze to the majority of Wazers and we want to be sure our Wazers are getting the best experience they can. Sometimes things don't go well while Wazing and Update Requests (URs) are submitted to bring those issues to our attention.
The general guidance to working URs in Idaho is the same as the national guidance. We really emphasize that editors answering URs need to have strong people skills and a solid knowledge of Waze map editing so the issue can be successfully and promptly resolved in one report. If the issue becomes something above your ability (e.g. skills and/or rank), or the Wazer becomes unprofessional, please bring it to the attention of an area or state manager.
The keys to success and basic flow of processing URs in Idaho include:
Promptly working the UR after it is reported
Doing your best to identify/fix the problem before making contact with the reporter
Cordially asking for more info if needed, requesting response within 7 days.
Remind that replies by e-mail are not received; suggest using the Waze app Inbox
Providing a reminder AT LEAST 24 hours before the close of that window
All requests for more info must allow AT LEAST 7 days to respond. All responses by the reporter restarts the 7 days.
When unable to provide a reminder within the 7 day window, the Wazer must still receive a 24-hour notice before closing their report.
If no replies are received, close the report as "not identified" and send another message reminding the user that they're welcome to submit the report again if they still have an issue but that we may need more detail from them in order to find and resolve their issue.
Wazers often respond better to personal messages and empathy. Please consider using friendlier comments than the canned messaging available in various scripts/wikis. Show that you understand their frustration and/or apologize for the bad experience where appropriate. This increases the satisfaction that Wazers in Idaho will have.
Please be sure to identify yourself as a volunteer, and if you have management area in Idaho, feel free to use a "signature" if you wish, for example:
--SkyviewGuru Volunteer, Idaho State Manager
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).
The status for all interstates, federal, and state highways running through Idaho are documented here. This includes any project status pertaining to those highways, as well as any known changes coming down the pike from ITD and/or other cities as we find out about them.
State highway naming
Idaho Highway
State highways should now use the ID-### convention. Shields have stopped working with the prior SH-xxx format so we should work toward the standard that will be expected when the next release of shields are deployed. There is current TTS support for ID-###.
Ramp names should also use the ID-### format when referencing state highways.
County road naming
Wyoming CountyCounty roads with the name designation of "County Road ##" or "Co Rd ##" are to be named in Waze as CR-##. This shortened version takes up less space on the map screen and is announced correctly as "County Road ##" while navigating with the Waze app.
Locking standard
In Idaho we have a set minimum standard for locking roads based on segment type. Any road of a certain segment type must be locked at least to the rank (level) in the chart below. Roads may be locked higher for protection and special situations (areas with construction, tricky design, frequent mistakes, imaging inaccuracies, and the like), but should not be locked lower.
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.
Idaho Minimum Locking Rank Standard
Segment Type
Statewide
Freeway
5
Ramp
5
Major Highway
3
Minor Highway
3
Primary Street
2
Street
1
• • • • Ferry • • • •
5
|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-| Railroad |-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|
2
Note: Certain roads may be locked higher than the above minimums. Please do not lower locks unless approved by the RC or SM of Idaho.
Roads named N, S, E or W
If you encounter any roads that are named N, S, E, or W, you must add a period (.) to the end of the letter. For example, West N Street is abbreviated as W N. St. County Road W is abbreviated as CR-W., and so on. This ensures the TTS system reads the road name as "County Road W" and not "County Road West."
U-turns are not legal everywhere, so first look for prohibiting signs. When making a U-turn near a hill or curve, the law requires that you be able to see 500 feet in either direction. U-turns are prohibited in no-passing zones. Stop and yield to all traffic before completing a U-turn.
For Waze routing, u-turns should only be enabled where they provide the potential for improved routing, which includes recovering from missed turns. A common example is a median-divided primary street that has homes/businesses with their driveways/entrances directly on it, where reaching them would otherwise require lengthy, multi-turn deviations through side roads in order to end up on the correct side of the median.
Road Elevations
These are the general guidelines for elevation in Idaho:
Drivable and non-drivable segments are handled the same way with elevation.
Set elevation to ground in most cases.
Segment(s) passing over other segment(s), rivers, major waterways, and all bridges shall have higher elevation, relative to ground.
Only elevate/lower the actual bridge/tunnel section of the road.
Elevation of overlapping segments should be set relative to each other, with the lowest segment as Ground (unless a tunnel).
Tunneled segments shall have lower elevation, relative to ground.
Only segments that "cannot see the sky" should have negative elevation (i.e. tunnels).
Only set elevation as low/high as necessary.
If you use the Bridge tool to join segments, be aware that it raises the elevation of the joined segment. Lower the joined segment as appropriate.
"True Elevation" guidelines apply to elevation in Idaho.
Bridges should be cut at the start/end of the bridge.
Tunnels should be cut at least 15m/50ft before and after the tunnel, to allow time for the GPS to regain signal.
Do not cut segments for elevation purposes if the bridge/tunnel starts/stops within 60m/200ft of an existing junction.
Special roads
Drivable roads
Idaho follows the standard USA guidelines for all of the following special road types.
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.
The Federal Highway Administration keeps a website indexing all states that can provide highway and construction project information. Go to the page, find your state, and check the links for the desired information.
Places
Idaho follows the USA standard for Places. Do not deviate from the guidelines without first obtaining consensus to do so via the state forum linked on this page.
We strongly encourage the use of WME Place Harmonization (WMEPH) to standardize place names and maximize completion of places in Idaho.
Do not inappropriately use external sources to complete places! Use the place's official website or personal observations at the location to complete fields.
Locking Standard
Incomplete Places
A place may be incomplete if it's lacking any of these essential components:
Name
Address (minimum of closest street, city, and state; full street address preferred)
Website (where available)
Phone number (where available)
Services (when applicable)
Hours (where available)
Normally, places lacking any of the above will not be locked. However, situations may occur where locking an incomplete place is appropriate*. Please do not lock incomplete places higher than Rank 2 without an Idaho State Manager or higher approval. The goal is to encourage all editors to be empowered to complete places.
*NOTE: When a place is locked at 1, Waze app users (even those that do not edit) are able to make edits without moderation once becoming Trusted Users. You are permitted to lock places at 2 if you have set place data that needs to be protected from changes by these users.
Completed Places
Once Completed (e.g. green in WMEPH, or blue when all available fields are entered accurately), places shall be locked to a minimum of Rank 3. These categories of places shall be locked to a minimum of Rank 4 unless an Idaho State Manager or higher makes exceptions:
Airports
Colleges, Schools, and Universities
Gas Stations
Hospitals
Military
Mapping Water
If water meets the below criteria, it is eligible to be mapped:
Lakes, streams, rivers, and the like which are not already in the built-in Waze water layer (or are mapped inadequately), and
At least one of the following:
The water would be helpful to navigation (e.g. to orient drivers)
The water represents named locations that Wazers are likely to search
In this scenario, please be sure the stop point is set
appropriately.
If water is eligible to be mapped, please lock the "place" to Rank 2 after you have completed mapping it.
Water not meeting the criteria may be deleted without notice. This may include, but is not limited to: golf course water obstacles or unnamed canals, private ponds, private swimming pools, etc.
If you mapped water that was deleted and you disagree with that decision, please send a PM to your area and/or state managers. Do not raise those issues on the forum.
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 Idaho.
At present, Idaho does not have any laws regarding red light or speed cameras. There are no programs in the state in any jurisdiction that is currently using them. As such, none should be added to the map unless this changes.
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.
This state does not currently have an active "to do" list at this time. Check in the Idaho section of the Waze forums to discuss creating one.
Area Managers
The table below identifies the editors also designated as Area Managers or higher who are editing in Idaho. If you have any questions, please consider contacting them directly as needed. If you are an Area Manager that covers Idaho, or a USA Country Manager that does a lot of work in Idaho, please add yourself to this list (alphabetical by username) in the correct rank section.
The editor who also serves as the Regional Coordinator for Idaho is automatically listed at the top of the table. That editor may not be highly active in this state and therefore may not be listed separately in the table.
Idaho — Area, State, Country Managers, and Regional Coordinators
Preston ID area into Utah (Cache County/Logan area)
Utah Resident
The following editors are also editing in the state and may be working towards an Area Manager position. Feel free to contact them for assistance in their respective areas.
