CBenson wrote:

nzahn1 wrote:If we use USPS names for the Waze City names, then almost all rural areas will be shaded as "urban" in the client (under the current map color schemes), as only "No City" cities are unshaded.

I guess this depends on which color scheme you use.

I hadn't realized this. I thought I was seeing city shading in the default scheme, but I just ran thru my schemes, and apparently only the editor scheme has city shading. Color me

So I know it's been some time since the original post, But i'm trying to figure out what to do with the City Ilchester, As I've never heard of it.

After Reading through the Posts and looking at the USPS zip-code for that area 21043. I see that the post office recognizes it BUT says "Please use the default city whenever possible. -> ELLICOTT CITY MD". Howard County Zip Code map

Soo.. Should we use the Zip Codes borders as city borders to avoid rural areas? And sticking with the preferred city makes for less confusion.

As I wonder around and look at business on google maps there seems to be a grey line between Elkridge and Ellicott, with no business using the Census data and Ilchester. It seems any business off of Montgomery Rd clams to be in Elkridge, as any business off of Ilchester Rd clams to be in Ellicott (On the business's website)

Well the Town Ilchester dose not exist except in census records. When looking at business in the area and seeing what they post on their company websites they ether come back as Elkridge or Ellicott.

Some examples:
Belmont Manor & Historic Park census: Ilchester actual: Elkridge
Our Lady of Perpetual Help Catholic Church census: Ilchester actual: Ellicott
Trinity School census: Ilchester actual: Ellicott
Mayfield Woods Middle School census: Ilchester actual: Elkridge

I Really just want to remove Ilchester totally.

John,

We discussed this at length in this thread last year. At that time, we established that the census tract maps published by the US Census Bureau were to be used in determining what city name to use. Waze has changed a lot since then, and I've seen some mentions of changes to the way addresses are searchable, so it's worthwhile to discuss this again. To those who are more familiar with these coming changes, is there any information on it, and what should we do? I'd suggest just leaving the city names as they are for now, until we determine whether to continue using the Census Bureau or switch to the US Postal Service for city names.

A few discussion points:

• Users are often unfamiliar with and confused by unusual CDP names (such as this one).
• Addresses use the USPS-assigned city name, not the Census Bureau (though they are often the same).
• The boundaries of incorporated towns and cities, especially in rural areas surrounded by "no city", wouldn't be accurate under a USPS format since their use of a city name often covers a much larger area (for example, using Annapolis at the end of the Broadneck peninsula).
• There are frequently multiple city names associated with a ZIP code.
• Changing to USPS city names would require a much more substantial effort than updating to the 2010 CDPs (the 2009 base map used 2000 CDPs).

mdswbkq, I agree on your second point. One thing I think we should all be able to agree on is that segments within the boundary of an incorporated place should bear that place's name, and that name should take precedence over any USPS name. The census tract maps I posted before distinguish incorporated places from CDPs.

Perhaps this should be approached by county? Howard County, for example, only has a few CDPs on the eastern half. This means that the western half doesn't show names like Clarksville and West Friendship, which should be familiar to most in the metro area.