Ramp naming proposal
Okay, I wasn't actually going to write this up now, but I decided to go ahead while I was on a roll. This is just prose, but I'll try to dig up pictures to illustrate different types of signage etc. if this makes it onto the wiki.
Commentary on this would be much appreciated, even if it's just to say that you're happy with the proposal.The idea behind ramp naming is that the name displayed in the Waze client should match the signage the driver will see on the road. We don't need to replicate the signage exactly, but it should be close enough that it is recognizable to the driver.
There are basically three types of ramp segment:
Highway entrance: a ramp connecting a regular road to a highway, providing access onto the highway.
Highway exit: a ramp connecting a highway to a regular road, allowing one to exit the highway.
Connector: a ramp connecting a highway to another highway, allowing one to transfer between the two highways.
The signs for highway entrances and connectors basically look the same; some type of visual diagram of the road structure, and a label identifying the destination, eg. "N1 Pretoria" which indicates that the ramp leads to the road designated "N1", heading towards the destination "Pretoria".
Highway exits are slightly more interesting, however. On a freeway these are usually specially designated with a number (and sometimes a letter suffix when an exit is split up eg. "105A" and "105B") that appears on all (or almost all) of the signs describing the exit. In addition to this exit number, the area closest to the exit (eg. "Sandton") will also appear on the exit sign.
My proposed naming convention for entrances / connectors is simple: the ramp should be named like "to N1 Pretoria" where the destination is represented as it is written on the ramp signs. In cases where multiple destinations are listed, these can be separated by slashes, like "to N1 Pretoria / (M1) Johannesburg". Note that parentheses on these signs indicate that a road is indirectly reached. For example, you might see an indication like "N1 (M1) Johannesburg" which shows that the highway you are entering now is the N1, but following this sign's direction will let you connect to the M1 which leads towards Johannesburg.
Exit naming is similar, but instead of the simple "to" prefix, we now include the exit number like: "Exit 95: R511 William Nicol Dr". The area ("Sandton") is left out, as this adds too much clutter to the exit name and does not provide much additional benefit.
Blank ramp names can be used to great effect in order to reduce the length of ramp names in cases where the signage lists multiple destinations. For example, often going left from the offramp will lead to one destination, while going right will lead to another, and both of these are mentioned on the initial offramp sign. Instead of labelling this ramp like "Exit 113: R24 Johannesburg / R24 OR Tambo Int", leave the name blank; then label the ramp to the left as "Exit 113: R24 Johannesburg" and the ramp to the right as "Exit 113: R24 OR Tambo Int". This way, the name of the final ramp will propagate backwards to the blank ramp as per standard Waze rules, and the driver will only be presented with the information for the route they are travelling.
Make sure that the ramp name is recognizable on the initial exit sign, however; for example, if one of the destinations is not listed on the initial sign, then it is important to name the initial ramp so as to avoid confusing by presenting a ramp name that looks nothing like the exit sign the driver will see. See the Junction Style Guide for more detail on this subject: http://www.waze.com/wiki/index.php/Junc ... e#Naming_3
Re: Ramp naming proposal