Why do you edit maps?

[rivermedic]

I'm a paramedic in a very rural Texas county; we have correct maps and all GPS systems are wrong. With Waze I can see immediate results and updates. There is much satisfaction in that and getting an ambulance to the scene without any errors. I appreciate all the work of you hard working Texas Wazers out there and all the help you have given me!

[CrackedLCD]

I'm a paramedic in a very rural Texas county; we have correct maps and all GPS systems are wrong. With Waze I can see immediate results and updates. There is much satisfaction in that and getting an ambulance to the scene without any errors. I appreciate all the work of you hard working Texas Wazers out there and all the help you have given me!

Awesome! If anyone knows the intricacies of area roads, it would be the EMTs and public safety personnel.

[ghbrett]

I am new to Waze, but I want to make sure my neighborhood is correctly mapped. Plus there are changes happening and I'd like other Wazers to know about them like the Dunkin Donut shop that just opened up on the corner near here.

[kodi75]

I am new to Waze, but I want to make sure my neighborhood is correctly mapped. Plus there are changes happening and I'd like other Wazers to know about them like the Dunkin Donut shop that just opened up on the corner near here.

Someone else is sure to chime in, but business locations are handled by Bing and the other search providers. We do not map each individual store because (1) they often change and would be extremely difficult to keep track of and update the map every time a moving van shows up, and (2) it would clutter up the map, making the map on your cell phone useless for its primary purpose: to get you from A to B.

See the "Simplicity" and "Landmarks Guidelines" links on my signature line.

But sincere thanks for your interest in helping out the community!

[porubcan]

Why I spend hours by sitting in front of WME and editing?
To have Waze trusthworthy. (New) users are evaluating the "product" and comparing it to other (commercial) products (like Garmin, TomTom, Navigon, Sygic, etc.). If they find product unreliable they will quit easily, and map quality is one of most important criteria, together with quality of routing algorithm for sure. so high quality maps allows community to grow quickly and everyone would benefit from growing community (more data for reports, jams, average speeds, etc.) and also bringing more new editors on board.

I countries like ours, without basemap, so it was just blank space here, after short time first enthusiastic editors were able to put main road network and consequently improve map. so the product was ready to be used, but far away from quality of competitors, but with online traffic information. at this time many new users were confused by insufficient quality of map and left... by time passing more and more editors get involved and map quality was improving (and is still)... and resulted into community growing faster and faster.

[CrackedLCD]

Since being granted level 5 access a while ago, I've found the reasons why I edit maps have changed a little. Most of the roads have gotten "up to date" in the areas I'm familiar with, so I'm mostly trying to fix user and system errors these days. I'm also interested in the landmarks debate in the US and have been pre-emptively trying to get my region's landmarks into some sort of compliance with what will probably be the new rules at some point. I'm also trying to add more parks to the map as I've gotten very positive feedback from Wazers in my area on having them displayed, since it adds great context to what we're looking at while studying the roads.

Unfortunately I just found out that someone has come along and deleted a good two dozen of the parks I created in a nearby larger city, so I've had to take the time to re-research them and add them back. This time they're being locked. I hate to do that (and used to hate anything locked when I was but an egg at this) but it's too much work to go around re-creating all this over and over.

[Olorin17]

In terms of personality typing, I'm an Idealist (NF) rather than a Rational (NT). So although I too am a software engineer by profession, I'm less motivated by the technology per se, and more so by a sense that this is a worthwhile project in human terms. I contribute to Waze because I like the concept of crowdsourcing, and collaborative efforts to make systems work.

Well said.

[vickimachado]

I love the community aspect of Waze; I warn drivers about a car on the shoulder of the highway at dusk, and a few minutes later, I get a thank you! (Of course, there's the satisfaction of tipping people off about the police, too!)

I got into editing because I noticed problems in the map and wanted to fix them. The reality was, I would need to do a whole lot of work before gaining enough access, but it was an interesting learning curve!

I realize that there's a business aspect to this, but I also love that it's a global project, with very practical goals. Not many of those.