Simple dimple questions. I live in Scotland Rural where every house rarely has a number. Usually its down a wee private road that doesn’t most likely have a name.
I’ve been adding the private roads, sometimes with the farm / house name as the road name instead of leaving it blank (these roads tend to be a good mile or so long and I worry people are going to think they are going to the back of beyond).
So first question - Is that okay to do? Par example, my Dad lives on a farm that had a stream of traffic using the road recently. Waze thought that road was a street and it does have a slightly faster route to another road! Changed it to private road, changed the name of the road to say East Farm instead of “unknown” and added the town it’s attributed to. Would it be better just to leave it as “Unknown, Unknown, Angus, United Kingdom”?
Second question - House names. I’ve been numbering, casually, a small village in my area that is notorious for wonky numbering. We have overlapping numbers, odd and even numbers, missing numbers. The whole kit and kaboodle. I did the census in the area so I still have a map with the “real numbers”. However there is some that are like “Seaview Cottage” or “Piddlers Creek”. I feel a touch iffy marking it as a place / other as then its going to show up on maps etc isnt it? Should I just abandon these and when people search for it google will take over? They don’t have numbers.
A good couple of questions there, which I’m sure will keep you busy with loads of rural edits!
Generally, all roads that are able to be used by the general car driver for through routing should be set to Street, however big or small. If you have a reasonable idea that the upkeep and maintenance of the road is paid for from the public purse, then it’s a public road. We use Private Road (with some exceptions) for roads that are inaccessible to the general public. More info on Road Types at the Wazeo here. We generally don’t name private roads, unless they do have a specific name. Giving them the name of the property or farm etc, may lead to slight navigation issues, with Waze taking you to the road instead of the place etc.
Regarding house names, a place point is exactly the right thing to do. Place AREAS show up in the app, however a place POINT does not show up, but is searchable. A very basic outline is here at the Wazeo, you also should add the road name in the place point.
Happy to take a look at some specific areas you’re looking at alongside you to answer specifics if you like?
Indeed, there’s no such thing! We all had the same questions at one point, so there’s probably nothing you can think of that we haven’t been asked or asked ourselves at some point
So this is the farm in question (sorry Dad for doxxing you). The two roads running North and West are private roads. They were set to street but Dad has explained to me in the past that the farm owner maintains these roads, so I think I’m correct to set as this? Also the farm is consisting of 2 cottages and one larger farmhouse.
The main farmhouse I’ll name separately as its “West Braikie Farm House”. Dad’s cottage and his neighbour is 2 and 3. The cottages at the end of the road are derelict.
With Dad’s address (I’ll make it vague so you don’t know if hes at 2 or 3 incase you ever want to pop in for a drink) is X West Braikie Farm, Arbroath, Angus so putting a private road this way would make it work easier instead of individual places? Or should I unname the road, then place the named cottages seperate? As its not on a street and lots of farms in Scotland are this way. “Cow Farm” and it has “Cow Farm Farmhouse” “1 Cow Farm” “2 Cow Farm” “3 Cow Farm” etc.
I wouldn’t worry so much about ownership and who maintains the road, as the effect we want to have: do we want wazers to be directed that way or not? How can we give clear directions that the wazer can be confident in following?
For a longish road leading up to a farm, you could name the roads like “Mains Farm Rd” so they’re distinct from the “Mains Farm” place. Waze would say “turn left onto Mains Farm Road” which seems useful.
I’d un-name the “West Braikie Farm” road and use that as a place name so that wazers are directed to the place, not the street. The road is short enough that a name isn’t needed.
You could add a short segment in front of the houses named “West Braikie Farm Cottages”, and add house numbers 2 and 3 there. Or just add point places.
Public roads don’t usually go through farms (sometimes, but not often). When they do, waze might use them as a short-cut. I’ve had reports where Waze has misdirected wazers through a farm, thinking it’s a 60mph road which is better than a nearby A-road with a lower average speed.
Farm tracks can be poorly maintained and often have gates across the road, whether temporarily (milking barns) or permanently. Wazers have reported reversing after getting stuck miles up a farm track.
So we definitely don’t want them heading that direction. It is very potholey and we have a rather aggressive farm owner that will shout at anyone heading that direction
I’ve renamed it to West Braikie Farm Rd. Hopefully that deters a few from coming that direction thinking they have an easy route over the hills.
I’ve unnamed that segment and used it as a place name.
I’ve added a pedestrian segment and added numbers to that as the bit before the house is quite narrow. Do you think this would be adequate?
Also I’ve renamed the farmhouse. That was a brainfart moment on my behalf. It wasn’t until I read this back I was like… yep. That was a bit of a weird naming I did there!
So I’ve changed the speed limit to 20mph and set it as a private road. Do you think that is enough of a deterrent?
Most of the farms I’m editing, I know personally from either the census or going to them. There is definitely some routes that google maps / apple believe that there is a proper street that really isn’t a street. I’ve had to fix that on my Auntie’s farm, my Dad’s farm, my Cousin’s farm… I think it sees them as streets and thinks you can just wing on through at 60mph, but its like a 10 - 15mph track that really isn’t a good idea to drive your new tesla down.
I’ve added a pedestrian segment and added numbers to that
It doesn’t have to be pedestrianised, unless you don’t want wazers to drive there.
So I’ve changed the speed limit to 20mph and set it as a private road. Do you think that is enough of a deterrent?
I read somewhere that waze routing doesn’t consider the speed limit, but the average speed garnered from wazers driving along the segment. If nobody has driven there yet, then waze might think a high speed is possible, and so recommend unsuitable routes (eg farm / forestry roads).
Waze only directs along a private road if it’s the only route to the destination. Or if the wazer is already on the private road, assuming they have permission to continue. So if someone drives into an estate of private roads, waze will route them through the estate.
I think it sees them as streets and thinks you can just wing on through at 60mph, but its like a 10 - 15mph track that really isn’t a good idea to drive your new tesla down.
I see that a lot - roads through farms or forests which waze recommends as shortcuts, but which turn out to be 10mph tracks that take a lot longer. I change these to private, off road / not maintained, or unpaved. (The app has an option to avoid unpaved roads.)
Sorry to re-open an almost 2 year old discussion but can I just check - is it still advised to use a place point to add house names?
I’ve been numbering a local town recently and where there were only one or two houses with only names I added them as a place point (see https://waze.com/en-GB/editor?env=row&lat=55.64516&lon=-3.19797&zoomLevel=19) but I then moved to an area of the town where almost all of the houses are named rather than numbered and decided that it would be too much work and clutter to have that many place points so just left it. This morning though, I decided to go back and just try adding the house names into the ‘Add house numbers’ text box, expecting it to throw an error but to my surprise it worked! (see https://waze.com/en-GB/editor?env=row&lat=55.64780&lon=-3.19567&zoomLevel=19)
I know there were recent updates to the ‘House Numbers’ section of WME but can’t see anything in the release notes that would suggest naming houses is now a feature and would’ve thought that would be big news given the number of times it has been suggested!
So, does anyone know if this is just a fluke or is it a new feature I’ve not seen announced? Should I keep going or am I going to break something?
Although no error is now thrown, after 2-3 days, (and appearing on 'previous build), the saved names are not searchable in the same way as numbered properties unfortunately.
Thanks, I was just about to update the post to say just that. Shame - that could’ve been a big improvement but I’ll keep my hopes up that one day this might work.
