State Hwy 1 South Island using city field "South Island"

[pcp192]

I'd done a little bit of work in Taupo after visiting last month but didn't have time to do a lot. It looks so much better now - great job finshona.

[pcp192]

We're pedants ??

Absolutely! I'm trying to make the map as accurate as possible so that it becomes a reliable resource for navigation. Having the naming correct is important and the alignment while to some degree cosmetic, does look much better on the client when closely mapped to the actual road, following curves etc rather than a coarse layout in close proximity to the road.

Clearly the biggest problem with naming is finding a reliable source of information - if the council itself has multiple sources with differing data then I'm not sure where to look!

I do have contacts in a few local/regional Councils around the country and am asking around to see if anyone can help with data/maps for us to use as a reliable source.

Not everyone who uses Waze is going to be interested in map editing and if the maps are not accurate they will not use it. There are other free (or very cheap) alternatives with good maps and reliable routing - they may not have realtime traffic data and intelligent routing, but they will get you where you want to go.

So, let's make Waze the best it can be, not just mediocre.

[pcp192]

That's the general consensus

I'm still unsure how to handle rural areas at street/primary level

Rural areas at Highway level im clear that they should not be entered in the primary.

Use this as an example

https://world.waze.com/editor/?zoom=1&l ... TTTTTTTTFT

I still do not agree with leaving the city name blank in rural areas for any road. Looking at the example above, what map do you use as a reference for the area names? I've tried looking for Gumtown in both google and AA maps but neither list it at all. The intersection at the top of Gumtown Rd need to have the turn restrictions fixed and the general road alignment in the area needs some work - in many places the roads are way off both the satellite and GPS tracks.
https://world.waze.com/editor/?zoom=4&lat=-35.68529&lon=174.23179&layers=BFTTFTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTFT&segments=151575478

Not sure how, but I seem to have lost a whole lot of editing rights in the north. I've been to Whangarei a number of times over the past year but haven't done any editing up that way for ages. Having a look now, I have no rights north of Puwera/Otaika where I went a few weeks ago. Anyone else been losing editing rights around the country?

Suburb names in Auckland are all over the place so I'm working on parts of the city to make sure all roads in a suburb are correctly named using both the suburb name in one field and the City (Auckland) in the other to facilitate searching. It's too early to see the results yet but I'll let you know once a big enough area is finished to see how it looks on the map.

[pcp192]

I was thinking the other way round - Suburb in the primary and City in the secondary.
Especially in the bigger cities that would look great with the suburbs showing on the map.

It's great being able to add secondary names so easily!

[pcp192]

However this conversation seems to be focused on having a City against the primary field, ive already mentioned a number of times of using the alternative names, which would mean having No City against the primary, and then an alternative name with the city (or suburb for when City was used in a suburb)? IN this case:
- Client will find it, and will be able to navigate to it.
- Client will also display city names and built up areas correctly.
- Zoomed out levels also wont look over complicated.

So in major cities we would put the suburb in the primary city field and the city name in the secondary city field. This as you say would ensure a search for either will find the street.

Driving around Auckland at the moment the map looks quite good with the Suburb names appearing in more or less the correct places - except where people have labelled streets incorrectly. If the correct suburb name is put in the primary city field it will work.

If I understand you correctly, your suggestion in rural areas is to leave the city field blank and put the correct name in the secondary field to aid searching - is that correct?

[pcp192]

However the real question that needs to be asked is, is Waze a replacement for a navigation system like Google maps in that you can navigate from Auckland to somewhere you dont know. Or is it a user based traffic assessment app that you use in your local area to get around current problem spots?

Both.

But it doesn't do the first very well. Having said that its getting better.

I Agree. Finding the fastest way between two known points is great for day to day commuting and it's essential that a good navigation app be able to search and find addresses (or at least streets), and provide the fastest route to get there.

would you suggest that drivers should use an alternative navigation app if they need to 'find' an address or street rather than Waze?

Why limit the capabilities of Waze when it can be so much more than just a tool for daily commuting?

[pcp192]

I've just tried out my theory on searching using Ormonde Rd in Remuera.
It's named Ormonde Rd, Remuera (City) and here's the results based on varying search strings:
1. 'Ormonde Rd' - results include the correct road along with many other Auckland roads
2. 'Ormonde Rd, Remuera' - results include the correct road and may other roads with Remuera in either the road name or the City.
3. 'Ormonde Rd, Auckland' - results include a number of Auckland Roads none of them being Ormonde Rd.

I was sure option 3 had worked in the past so either I am mistaken or the search has changed since then.

Searching for roads in Taranaki has mixed results when there is no City field in the road name. for example Upland Rd in Egmont Village is impossible to find in a search. Entering 'Upland Rd' alone provides a number of Upland Rd's around the country not one of them in Taranaki. There is one in the results labelled 'Upland Rd, , New Zealand' (with the city field blank) but that is in Kelburn, Wellington.

There are two issues that need to be resolved regarding the City field
1. what to use in larger cities - 'City' vs 'Suburb' vs 'City,Suburb'
2. how to name roads in rural areas and small towns - 'no name' vs 'town/area'

What we want to achieve in both cases is
1. appropriate naming on the map visually
2. data that provides accurate results in searches

The search-ability should have a higher priority than the visual appearance of names on the map.

I still believe it is best to use a city value in the rural areas and name them correctly. The challenge perhaps is finding the correct name. The Wiki talks about not being able to use Google imagery for copyright reasons (http://www.waze.com/wiki/index.php/Map_Editing_(new_Editor)#Using_External_sources_.28such_as_Google_Imagery.29) - does that include the actual map data as well? It's very easy to see the boundaries on the map by searching for the town/area name. E.g. searching for 'Inglewood, Taranaki' will show the boundary. If the City name is displayed in the middle of an area where it is used, and the roads are named in this way, then where it's displayed should be appropriate.

[pcp192]

I know it used to work, but that may have changed.
I'll find some roads around auckland again where I can try it out.

[pcp192]

My view is that the city field should be used in all roads to reflect the area that the road is actually in. If its done properly I don't see why it's an issue. When zooming out the area/town names across the country is what you will see.
In bigger cities the field can show the suburb and in smaller towns or rural areas just use the name of the town etc.
motorways in the city should just have the city name.

Where this has been done in Auckland looks good on the map with suburb names being displayed in the correct places. I'll have to try again but in the past I did an experiment with searching and found that a road with the suburb in the city field can be searched using either the suburb or the city name. Waze knows the greater city name even when the suburb is put in the city field.

[nzhook]

If I understand you correctly, your suggestion in rural areas is to leave the city field blank and put the correct name in the secondary field to aid searching - is that correct?

Yes to the rural, No City for the primary entry and the city in the alt.

...

I still do not agree with leaving the city name blank in rural areas for any road.

Wasnt the discussion around you couldn't search on the rural roads, but then putting it in the primary field had the city displayed in an unfriendly way in the client. Hence the solution was to use an alternative name with the correct city for searching purposes and have no city for primary so that the client puts the city overlay in the correct place.

Not sure how, but I seem to have lost a whole lot of editing rights in the north. I've been to Whangarei a number of times over the past year but haven't done any editing up that way for ages. Having a look now, I have no rights north of Puwera/Otaika where I went a few weeks ago. Anyone else been losing editing rights around the country?

Apparently Waze only let you edit areas which you have driven within the last three months, it appears there is some script that runs (possibly manually) which clears these out as the last time they ran it it dropped off a lot of recent areas as well see: https://world.waze.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=31184
It was a pain as I had just mapped out a whole bunch of roads in an area I had driven that day, and the following day I lost editing rights and havnt got them back (so if you come across roads that seem unfinished toward the north which I last edited/created; I apologise, im hoping to drive back up there to fix them at some stage).