Den_in_USA wrote:

BlazeTool wrote:

jasonh300 wrote:I've been asking the developers to make the parking lot roads much less visible in the client, so that they won't clutter up the map as much. I've also asked them to make them gray in the editor so they'll be visibly different from streets and not clutter the editor screen.

Here's hoping they do it. Personally, I'd like to see PL roads not display at all in the client and be their own layer in the editor that can be turned off. Visual clutter goes away, problem reports for parking lots can go away. Only drawbacks would be it's still data to be transferred to the client and the extra nodes could effect routing times. Not sure if there are ways to avoid that.

I agree with everything you say. Either display parking lot roads as a ligher color, narrower line or at least allow the driver to "hide" those roads if he wants to.

+1

AndyPoms wrote:

daknife wrote:Similarly in this thread it was mentioned and not contested (and thus accepted in my understanding) that bodies of water that are common driver navigation landmarks and are NOT found in the water layer are allowed. The river running the length of the Salt Lake Valley, the Jordan River, is not in the water layer for most of it's length so I've just authorized the editor who has been begging to add it, to do so.

That is something we're still looking into - we're currently having issues figuring out what's in the water layer and what's not. We wanted to get the basics out first (so we had something to point users towards) and would continue working on these things later...

Out of curiosity, what's the major issue with mapping water bodies? Redundancy? Server load?
Also, there was an editor out by me who landmarked some water just so the name had the potential to show up on the client. (ex. Mansur Bay, Ricker Bay, Lake Winnebago) What are the thoughts on that?

Also for PLots, wouldn't you want to map parking garages with public access, whether paid or unpaid, as a parking lot?

I think it is a great idea to add the cumulative information from the forums into a single Wiki page as you mentioned.

I think we can cover an outline something like the following:

1. What is the purpose of a Waze landmark
1.1. Preventing false traffic flow reports on roads adjacent parking lots
1.2. Marking Gas stations (where enabled)
1.3. Aiding navigation searches
1.4 (Others?)
2. How to create a landmark - Discuss proper layout etiquette
3. How to edit a landmark - Discuss basic geometry node movement, add, delete
4. Landmark types - Discuss how important it may or may not be to pick the right type (beyond gas station and parking lot)
4.1. We should add info on how previously created landmarks used a default category which has changed causing some landmarks to be listed as gas stations in the most recent client update.

Any other things we should cover here? Once we get some feedback, one of us can post here that they started to create it so we don't replicate the work. Then we can update the page as necessary if more changes come up.

That was the idea behind section 1.1 and 1.2, but do any of the other landmarks help navigation? I can certainly see them on my client app when using the map to find a location nearby some point of reference I do know. I have not been able to navigate to a landmark (besides gas stations) using the Waze results under navigate search results, so I assume that is not operational. I have not searched for any prior discussion on that capability if someone wants to chime in if they know. Therefore if you know the general area you can use the map to scroll to a spot and then say navigate to this point on the map. I have used that and it did work.

Definitely add something about which landmarks are necessary, which ones are useful in certain circumstances, and which ones are nothing but useless clutter.

The general understanding (and AFAIK that's the only knowledge on this topic) is that Waze does not route to POIs in the database. It used to, but this functionality was removed at some point in the last few months. Gas stations are part of a separate database, but I don't know if those landmarks are used for routing purposes either.

Parking lots and gas stations are still the only ones Waze has identified as having special properties (suppressing traffic reports).

Some larger landmarks are useful since they appear in the client and are often destinations or identifiable features: large water bodies, parks, stadiums, significant shopping centers, universities, etc. Adding individual stores would be a waste of time since they would not likely show up at all (or worse, their name would show up floating over the general area around their location).

I personally don't like the idea of editors maintaining landmarks. When Starbucks moves, then the map is out of date. And when Starbucks shows up but Dunkin Donuts does not, then it looks like favoritism.

Thanks for taking the lead here, Andy.

I agree with most of what you've included. AFAIK the inaccessible water layer exists only in the USA, so anywhere else (including Canada) water features do need to be mapped. Some features are missing in the USA also, so there's nothing wrong with adding some more where useful.

Regarding parks, what do you mean by "as long as it's not too big where it interferes with other landmarks/roads"? Every park will have some roads in it. National Parks absolutely should be mapped, regardless of size. They're destinations. Parking lot landmarks suppress traffic, and possibly gas stations, but I don't think any others do.

Some of the others you say should be mapped (police station, clinic) may be so small that they will never show up, so it may not matter whether or not they're mapped.

I don't think bridges (or tunnels) should be mapped as landmarks. Instead, the street name should be switched from the highway number to the name of the bridge.

CrackedLCD wrote:

jasonh300 wrote:9. Gas stations suppress traffic. That's never been in question.

Do you name gas station landmarks? I've been naming the ones that were put in to suppress traffic, but I think after a certain number of them are drawn it starts to clutter the map too much.

In the USA, we're not supposed to be adding gas station landmarks. They imported a special uneditable layer for those.

Jpere wrote:Do you have a link where they make that announcement?

No, because I don't think Waze ever made that announcement. They told everyone worldwide to add gas stations. Then people started adding them and editing them in the USA in response to URs and someone said wait, that won't help, will it, and asked for clarification from on high. If clarification ever appeared I am not aware of it. Waze doesn't answer a lot of questions.

jasonh300 wrote:

mapcat wrote:In the USA, we're not supposed to be adding gas station landmarks. They imported a special uneditable layer for those.

Which neither shows the gas station, nor does it suppress traffic. The uneditable layer and the landmark layer are two different things and I really don't think one has anything to do with the other.

From what I've seen, the gas stations layer that we can't edit just has a gps point that shows the gas station, and doesn't cover any area that would suppress traffic.

I don't know if having two sets of gas station landmarks will affect anything at all. "I really don't think" and "From what I've seen" is all you can offer here, because you don't know. You should, and I should, but we don't. Nobody knows. The only people with the capability to know don't talk. Maybe they don't know either.

I think items that should be mapped are places they are associated primarily with driving/travel. That would include train stations, bus stations, airports, public parking lots (not business parking lots), hotels, car repair locations, amusement parks & sports/concert venues, gas stations, schools/universities, car rental locations, ALL 24hr hospitals and EMS/Fire/Police stations. As for mapping businesses, I would map businesses that are in large buildings. IE: Lowes, Home Depot, Walmart, Target... Pretty much any grocery store & big shopping malls like Mall of America for example.