[PAGE UPDATE] City names (in Road name, Road name/city name)
The "City names on segments" section of the USA Road names article and the Introduction of the USA Road names / city names article both state that the primary name field should be set to a given city name only "within the boundaries of the city polygon".
This guidance is problematic for four reasons:
This guidance is problematic for four reasons:
- It can be recursive. In my experience, the city polygon can (at least sometimes) be generated automatically based on the primary-name settings of segments. We can't derive the primary city name from the polygon if the polygon is derived from the primary city name.
- It does not allow for situations where the city polygon may be incorrect.
- It may exclude developed but unincorporated portions of a city that visiting drivers as well as the Post Office would consider part of that city.
- Read literally, it prohibits use of the city field for populated places for which Waze, for whatever reason, does not have a city polygon.
In "Road names / city names":To keep city names from sprawling over too wide an area in the Waze app, in WME and LiveMap, a city name should only be used as a primary name onfor segments details within the boundaries of the city polygon located in incorporated areas of the city, or in unincorporated but developed zones that visiting drivers would likely associate with the city. That means many addresses on the map are in these “no city” areas, particularly in rural regions.
This guidance improvement may appear to encourage city smudging, but I don't think this is a serious concern, for two reasons: (1) there are plenty of unincorporated towns already shown on the Waze map with boundaries established by the census bureau that may already be somewhat arbitrary, and there is no reason for us to be chained strictly to whatever the bureau thinks; and (2) the language "developed zones that visiting drivers would likely associate with the city" is anti-smudging by definition.To keep city names from sprawling over too wide an area in the Waze app, WME, and Live Map, editors follow standards of placing the city name on segment details only within the boundaries of the city polygon incorporated city and/or developed zones that visiting drivers would likely associate with the city (provided the city name is corroborated by US Postal Service addressing). That means many addresses on the map are in these “no city” areas, particularly in rural regions.
Re: [PAGE UPDATE] City names (in Road name, Road name/city n