NOTE: State landmark guidance has been superseded by the national guidance for the new Places system. Please familarize yourself with that guidance and edit the map accordingly.
– 28 March 2014 --[/b]
I’d like to suggest that we set up a Wiki for landmarks similar to what Connecticut has. It is basically the same as what we tell people, but it provides far more detail over what is or isn’t allowed and how to mark things than any of the national landmark articles. I’d like to see if there needs to be any discussion over what is on the Connecticut page. Does anyone disagree with anything on that page with regards to mapping the items in MI? Or is it correct as-is? After discussion, we can get a page set up with the information and then I think it would be valuable to have a link to that page stickied (and perhaps other important MI pages that we may create or that are already created).
One quick note regarding the page is that the information on gas station landmarks isn’t correct. They don’t suppress traffic problems at this time. The same for parking lot landmarks. Also, I think I’ve seen more consensus to naming the station based on the most prominent signage rather than the brand. They mention both methods on their Wiki page and it isn’t perhaps as clear as it should be. But that could be discussed as needed. And I think any public parking (paid or not) that is not tied to an individual business (or mall) should get landmarked. CT says only free ones get landmarked. Ones tied to a business shouldn’t be landmarked, of course.
Any thoughts or opinions?
As a side note, I’m also suggesting this for North Carolina as these are the two areas I’m most interested in.
Yeah, same idea. I just linked the Wiki page as it would give us a good starting point to create our own Wiki page. There are differences as you mentioned and I’ve included a few issues as well in my post. I think there is leeway to adjust some things to best benefit each state individually as needed. For example, CT notes that there are no toll roads in the state. That is helpful information that varies from other states. It requires some consideration and discussion to have different rules, which is why I wanted to bring it up. Topics aren’t always kept up-to-date and as someone pointed out to me here, it’s better to link to a Wiki than to the forum because each thread won’t likely be updated once it’s old, but the Wiki should be. The current USA Landmark Wiki isn’t filled in at all yet and would give guidelines for the entire country, which although good as a general guide isn’t necessarily perfect for all states. Anyhow, if it isn’t thought to be a good option, then we can drop it. I just thought I would suggest it. CT has made some nice Wiki pages and doing similar for Michigan can only benefit our editors as well. More than likely, the CT page was based on the USA thread with whatever differences they felt were needed in CT.
Parking lots at places like airports that are numbered, or sporting arenas/stadiums that are numbered, park and ride lots should be mapped. I might have missed one or two there, but all other lots should be deleted. I have had an issue here in my area where parking lots were added left and right for strip malls and convenience stores. I might have missed something there or so but that is my basic thoughts late in the night on it there.
Why not? You aren’t heading to a business that has a lot where there is no need to mark it because you expect the lot to be there. Instead, the lot could be virtually anywhere around the city. They are not all very easy to find if you don’t know where they are. Any lot that allows parking throughout the day regardless where you go from there should be marked, imo. It provides people who need to go to many locations to find parking lots where they are allowed to leave their car without it being towed away.
the1who: I agree. Numbered lots have value so you can find the right lot. And parking lot landmarks should never be used for businesses and strip malls and the like.
Eventually some (maybe all?) landmarks will be searchable, so it would be helpful to include park & ride lots to assist with the app’s primary goal of assisting commuters.
For the record, I worked with Hy-Vee to coordinate the triathlon event this weekend. I created a so called temporary parking lot with Hy-Vee triathlon parking in the name. It so far has been searchable across livemap and the client, give it a try if you like. I also created the numbered economy parking lot at Des Moines and KC international. The lots are searchable and for here in KC most know where to go park for the one of three terminals. I navigates you right to it for the regular traveler. I have used it twice this year, really handy. So when it comes that all become searchable, someone wanting to find the nearest park and ride would benefit.
The national proposal (based on the Connecticut guidelines) for landmarks is no being followed in MI https://www.waze.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=129&t=38934 I have been deleting landmarks which do not meet the guideline with the exception of bodies of water and Religious Sites (most don’t meet the criteria of “Major”). Going forward, I am going to start following the National Guidelines and delete religious sights and bodies of water unless there is a separate MI guidance/consensus to the contrary.
Those are actually two of the points in the national proposed guidelines that I have arguments against–not that I disagree entirely, but I can see it going both ways.
The water layer handles most bodies of water just fine, but they are all unnamed. I think it’s nice to have named bodies of water in the landmarks layer.
Churches seem like the type of thing which merit landmarking.
Also, one exception I would make with universities: I would want to see, at least, college football stadiums landmarked separately.
Otherwise, I generally agree with the landmark guidelines proposed for the US. I do think it might look a little better --and navigation might work a little better-- if things like hospitals were mapped at the edge of the building rather than at the parking lot.
With things like naming all the police stations ‘Police Dept’ and all post offices ‘Post Office’, the benefit to this, I believe, is search. Landmark search does work, it just doesn’t work well. If you search ‘Post Office’, you’re more likely to get a landmark five hundred miles away called ‘Post Office’ than you are to get every single nearer post office named with a scheme like “New Orleans Post Office - 70117”. We learned this with rest areas – if you search “rest area”, you’ll get landmarks 800 miles away called “Rest Area” before you get any of the dozens of landmarks named by the scheme “I-65 N mile 84 Rest Area”.
I also have issue with the much of the water. In many areas of MI lakes provide a point of reference. Without the names, the value is much diminished. I have run across some areas where every mud hole is mapped. I have eliminated the mud holes and left the larger named bodies of water. I think I am going to continue with this method. I am not going to add any water nor am I going to complain if someone deletes it.
I really don’t have issue with the national guidelines on religious sites. I think I may delete them as I come across them.
I also think that it is beneficial to have lakes labeled with the name. It’s not a priority right now for me to add lakes, but if they make this DNR list, it’s probably worth adding them in the future for the label, or keeping them if they already exist.
As for the mud holes and mill ponds, I always try to appreciate the time and effort that some editor has put in making sure that every geo node matches up exactly with the shoreline during the half second that it takes to delete it. In that regard, some bodies of water are works of art.
I’m also down for keeping (and eventually possibly adding) lakes. I was driving near Greenville the other day, and someone has taken quite a lot of time to add in most of the lakes around there.
I tried to fight it, but it was regrettably enjoyable.
First, there is coverage of mapping water landmarks here: https://www.waze.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=47438&p=429312&hilit=mapping+water#p426017
I admire the time people take to map lakes to the shoreline, but that actual process is inconsequential, since most lakes of any size are already displayed on the client - albeit without a name. If people are really interested in seeing a name for a lake - a simple (large enough) rectangle with the name may actually suffice. As I understood from the thread cited, there ARE names in the water layer, they’re just not now currently displayed.
I added those in as landmarks a few months ago because they serve as important navigational landmark for people here. The map just doesn’t look right without them.
Maybe it’s not so important for small lakes or reservoirs far from roads, but any time there’s a road crossing a body of water and it isn’t on the map, I feel there’s a problem.
In case there is a very small chance that newer editors see this thread prior to learning about “Places”, all guidance is available on the wiki here at the national level. Due to the benefits of standardizing nationally as well as the numerous new categories, I believe that any separate discussion at the state level is moot at this point.