Hi Editors,
I’m a Level 1 editor and resident of Franklin Street in Swedesboro, NJ. I’m reaching out to request that Franklin Street — specifically the segment from Kings Hwy to Lake Avenue — be downgraded from Primary Street to Street, and deprioritized in routing if possible. (I’m specifically referring to the segment of Franklin Street between Kings Highway and Lake Avenue, encompassing addresses such as 19, 24, and 42 Franklin Street. Segment ID 71180808)
Franklin is a quiet residential block with multiple families and children. In recent months, it has increasingly become a cut-through route for drivers trying to avoid the traffic light at Kings Highway, especially during peak hours. This has resulted in unsafe driving, frequent speeding, and a clear disruption to residential quality of life.
There are two existing speed bumps on the street, and residents are actively working with the borough to add traffic calming and potentially restrict turn access from Kings Hwy. We’re also working with City Council in regards to the potential for the street to be formally marked “Local Traffic Only”.
If a full routing restriction isn’t possible at this time, I’d be grateful for the following:
- Downgrade the road type to “Street”
- Reduce routing priority wherever possible
- Consider future turn restrictions if signage or borough decisions are updated
Thank you for your time and any support you can offer. I’m happy to provide follow-up if needed.
1 Like
Good morning.
It looks like you’ve already made the change from Primary Street to Street yourself as well as updating the speed limit. (FYI - speed limits in Waze are only advisory and do not affect routing. It’s actual transit times of the segments that does.)
As Waze users and volunteer editors we map what’s legal. We also follow the functional classification maps published by the DOT when choosing a road type in Waze. You can find NJ’s here. A Major Collector gets mapped as a Primary Street and those have a routing preference just slightly higher than Streets (the ‘Highway’ group has an even higher preference).
In this case I believe the DOT’s FC map predates the speed limit decrease and the speed bumps, so I agree with decreasing this segment to Street.
Please bear in mind that the Waze routing servers use much more than road type to determine the fastest route somewhere and this change may not decrease routing via Franklin St during times of extreme traffic. Furthermore, Waze isn’t the only navigation system. And, in this case, if someone were sitting in traffic waiting to make a left turn … Franklin St is visually an obvious workaround.
Should the township legislate no left turns or local traffic only we can (should and will) disable turns or change the road type to ‘private’.
We have a robust editors community in NJ. If you’d like further information about editing or to be connected with our region’s Discord chat just let us know!
-Greg
2 Likes
Thank you so much for your informative and understanding response. I petitioned to the borough last night and they agreed to create an ordinance that our street will be “no through traffic/local traffic only.” They will also be posting signs etc. It will take a month for their processes of instating the ordinance. What will be the procedure after that as far as having it changed through Waze? Thanks so much!
Once the ordinance is passed and signs are installed we would simply change the road type in Waze to “Private Street”. That road type functions similar to parking lot roads in that it’s only used at the start or end of a route so there won’t be any through-routing.
You’re welcome to make the change yourself once the signs are up, but please leave a map comment next to the segment explaining why it’s a PR instead of an LS.
(Also, any of us would be happy to make the change for you.)
1 Like
Hi! This ordinance was signed at our last city council meeting. As I am not as familiar with Waze, would you still be willing to change the map? I am linking the page from our borough with the new ordinance, and also trying to upload the document as an image. Thank you so much for any feedback! https://ecode360.com/SW0669/laws/LF2387287.pdf
