Type of Road for M1/N1/N3 etc

Map Editors Community South Africa: Gauteng
1

Hi All

I just thought i should check, we are making the N1/M1/N3 all “Freeways” because they blue, as opposed to Major Highway.
I think this is because most of South African maps depict these roads in blue as well?

Just thought we should standardise it…

Thanks!

2

Have a look at http://www.waze.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=141&t=3466&start=10#p26947 (The promotion section might make sense…)

I tried summing it up here as well: http://www.waze.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=141&t=5655 (Mostly somewhat different ordering, but the first link is what is currently considered the standard)

3

Thanks for that mohag. I was feeling guilty for changing some else’s work from a Major freeway to Freeway.

Allthough I notice that you said in your own post that you weren’t sure if all of the M1 should be free way, and maybe be just Major Freeway.

Thanks for the post though!

4

The M1 should be freeway… (based on the actual type of road in existence, not the route number)

The N1 between Buccleuch and Pta, as well as the N14 was marked as Major highway at a time…

(M roads that might make sense to classify as some kind of highway: M57 between Olifantsfontein and Elardus Park.I currently have it as a Primary street. Parts of the M10 in Centurion / Pretoria (Trichard Rd / Wierda Rd / Hans Strijdom Rd). Parts of the M18 (South of Irene) between the Eeufees Offramp and Olifantsfontein, etc.)

5

Agreed. I converted most of the M1 to freeway yesterday

6

The one Road I have serious doubts about is “Proes street (N4)” in the Pretoria CBD, it has so many Traffic Lights and Taxis that its difficult to think of it as any kind of Freeway. My personal opinion is that it should probably be marked as a Primary Street, but I would be happy to go with the majority opinion.

7

If it has traffic lights make it a primary road, in my opinion. Once it leaves the city and becomes a real freeway mark it as such.

8

That was one of the things that I was trying to get figured ou on the “Naming standards” thread.

Currently the rule is that a N-road is always to be tagged as freeway (probably to keep the cities from showing up as huge gaps when zooming out to a level where primary streets are hidden)

9

Other problem with thew N4 in Pta, is that there is 2 N4’s to the West. The “Magalies Toll route” (parts of this one is sometime marked as M4 as well, depending on the sign that you look at, just to add MORE confusion…) terminating at Pelindaba and the road going through to Rustenburg. (exiting further north)

10

I would prefer to go with the conventions outlined in the other thread; any N-road should be a freeway even where it goes through urban stretches. As far as correct routing goes, Waze should still theoretically be able to get things right based on the recorded travel speeds; I’m not sure if the routing algorithm takes freeway/major highway/minor highway/etc. into account at all.

11

Good day Everyone

In terms of naming conventions:

  1. I sometimes see there is a “N1 North” and a “N1 South” - sometimes its just “N1”… Which is correct, which should I stick too? I also see this on the N12 where sometimes its also “N12 Southern Bypass”
  2. Should it be road number + name or the other way around, so “M38 Columbine Ave” or “Columbine Ave M38”

Sincerely,

ZAMedic

12

Look at the linked naming standards thread… It is basically number first for freeways (And mostly I don’t see the the use for names on freeways, except maybe in a alternate name field…) and name first for smaller roads (which are mostly recognizable by their names)

Freeways should have directions, but ensure that all other fields are filled in properly before changing that, an incorrect name is a nice reminder that it still needs to be edited properly… (The directions are useful in traffic reports, since few problems affect both directions)

A separate name and route number field would be ideal, since the route numbers seem to be usable for putting nice icons on roads, as in the US (Search somewhere in New York / Washington here: http://www.waze.com/livemap/You can then switch to cartouche to see how it is filled in on the road (you shouldn’t have permissions to save anything though…)) (Multiple number fields are needed though, since roads sometime run together (N3 / N12), part of N4 between Southern and Northern N4 i Pretoria / N1)

Long names on freeways make it impossible to see roads near the freeway on Cartouche. (And possibly add little value, since no one actually know the road names) - In a secondary field, where they are sometimes used with traffic reports, it should be useful… (I considered naming the R101 just R101, but that might be pushing it…)