Illinois

Information related to using Waze in the State of Illinois.

Cities and Towns

There are 1299 Cities and Towns in the state. See Illinois Cities and Towns for proper naming information.

Major Roads

See Road Naming (USA), Road Types (USA) and Illinois Roads By Type (work in progress)

Landmarks

A set of guidelines for dealing with landmarks in Illinois has been based on the work done by the Waze editing community in the state of Connecticut. As always, the world-wide rule of "don't map individual businesses" still applies.

• Guidelines for Landmarks in Illinois
• Illinois Landmarks To Do List

Please do not forget that a recent update to WME has enabled the Address properties for Landmarks (City, State & Country) and ensure this information is filled out & correct.

Major Construction Projects

See Illinois Construction for a list of LONG TERM Road Closures & Changes to Traffic Flow that impact the Waze Map.

Special Roads

• Divided Highways
• Carpool, HOV, Transit lanes
• Roundabouts/Traffic Circles
• Cul-de-sac's
• Parking Lot Roads
• Toll Roads

Alleys

As a general rule, alleys should not be mapped. They clutter the map and can cause routing issues. If alleys are mapped (e.g. Chicago area), the road type should be set as Parking Lot Road and given a name of "Alley". Other attributes (city, direction, turn restrictions) should be set as if it were any other drivable road.

Waze will route to the closest segment for a set of destination coordinates. This may result in the destination being in they alley. Refer to the FAQ for additional information.

Non-Driveable Roads

Generally, if a road can't be driven on (e.g. Walking Trail, Pedestrain Boardwalk, Stairway, Railroad, Runway/Taxiway) then it should not be mapped in Waze. This is due to the way the routing engine works, as Waze WILL route users to drive on these "Non-Driveable" road types.

Note: There are several Railroads mapped in Illinois, these are due to users incorrectly running Waze while on the train & contributing false data to the system. This false data has been known to effect drivers on adjacent roads. These railroads are mapped in a VERY particular manner by Senior Area Managers and Country Managers to prevent Waze from routing on them.

Time Restricted Turns

Waze does not currently support time-based turn restrictions or direction of travel (i.e. reversible lanes). The general practice is to set turn restrictions based on a majority rules standpoint. If the turn is restricted for most of the time, it should be disabled. If the turn is only restricted for a few hours in the morning and/or a few hours in the evening, it should be enabled.

Reversible travel roads such as the express lanes on the Kennedy Expressway in Chicago are mapped as a 2-way Freeway road with turns disabled at all entrance ramps in both directions. This will prevent Waze from routing traffic onto the express lane but will provide normal routing (dependent on GPS accuracy) once someone chooses to enter the reversible lane.

As a method of providing feedback to other editors, it is recommended to create a small landmark of type Junction/Interchange near the intersection with details of the restriction. Since many people turn off the landmark layer unless working specifically on landmarks, creating a small railroad segment (not attached to any other segments) either with the restriction information or a note to refer to a landmark is an alternative.

Speed / Red Light Cameras

Both Speed and Red Light Cameras are legal in the State of Illinois.

Speed Cameras

• Illinois has a small number of mobile Speed Cameras that can be deployed in construction zones. Given their mobile nature, these devices should not be mapped.

• At present, Chicago is the only municipality in the state permitted to implement Speed Cameras. Four locations in Chicago had speed cameras installed for a trial period between December 3, 2012 and January 3, 2013. No tickets were issued during this time and these cameras will be removed. Speed Cameras are not mapped at this time.

Red Light Cameras

Several municipalities throughout the state have implemented Red Light Cameras. Refer to the Illinois Reference Information page for a list.

Other Camera Types

These are cameras or signs that either provide driver feedback or are used for traffic control. These devices CAN NOT issue tickets and should not be mapped.

• Non-camera "driver feedback signs" are a radar/laser equipped sign that measures speed and displays the speed back to the driver. These can be fixed or trailer mounted with the later being much more prevalent.

• There are also cameras mounted on traffic signals that are used as part of the signal control. These compare sequential images of the intersection approach to determine if there is a vehicle (car, truck, motorcycle, bicycle, etc) waiting and will trigger the sequence.

• There are traditional traffic monitoring cameras covering most of the major highways in the state. These send live video to IDOT & local media and serve ONLY as a traffic monitoring system.

How to Identify Cameras.

To Do List

Want to help out with the map in Illinois? Check out the To Do List.

Mapping Utilities

Illinois Reference Information

Forum

USA section of Waze Forum

Illinois section of Waze Forum

Area Managers

If you are an Area Manager that covers the State of Illinois, or a USA Country Manager that does a lot of work in Illinois, please add yourself to this list (alphabetical by username).