Waze forum

I would love to see a standard way of of mapping landmarks developed via the wiki. I have searched through the forum and I have found a few mentions of them (parking lot traffic jam suppression, gas stations, etc.). However, what is the BEST way to map them?

If there's a strip mall with several shops along a highway, what should be mapped? Only the parking lot to suppress a jam? The shopping center in general, also? Individual shops? I've seen it done a number of ways, but which is the best?

I'm not much of a wiki page developer, and would leave it to someone who has that talent. I would like to open up a discussion about this. What do you think of this idea?

kentsmith9 wrote: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.

mapcat wrote: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.

Great info that I didn't know. I didn't realize that the categories were so limited. It looks like the infrastructure is there to use landmarks in the future, and I have not found any other current uses also. Maybe the page wouldn't be as involved as I previously thought, but would be good to have for the apparent future development with future client updates.

mtlgab wrote:4- For bigger shopping malls, parking lot roads make sense for main entrance/exits, but the parking lot roads close to the streets need to be at specific distance in the map otherwise user gets "snapped" to the street.

On the other hand if someone is in a parking lot close to the street, you want Waze to know that traveling there is legitimate or he will get snapped to the main road and instructions will make no sense.

Personally I do not create landmarks including parking lots, but I do create the major parking lot roads out of the big ones, so that Waze can say "proceed to the marked route" and the user will have an easy time of doing so. I also add the perimeter road of a parking lot if and only if it's heavily used.

AndyPoms wrote:

• 1.10 Bridge - Bridges can have names other than the name of the road, so maybe, leaning towards yes for major ones - certainly not every bridge. (i.e. George Washington Bridge in NYC - yes, Golden Gate Bridge in CA - yes, the bridge that takes Main St over the Railroad Tracks - no)
  1.11 Tunnel - Tunnels can have names other than the name of the road, so maybe, leaning towards yes for major ones - certainly not every tunnel.

Would these show up when navigating? I enjoy being a tourist and learning I'm going over the Koscziusko bridge, or the Pulaski bridge, but most of the time wouldn't most navigators just want clear directions to their destination? Do these help with navigation? Would they be seen as clutter?

WeeeZer14 wrote:For bridges, at first I was thinking I liked the landmark idea, BUT then I thought about traffic/accident reports. Seeing something pop up saying there is a jam on the George Washington Bridge is probably more useful than seeing I-95 as the location.

Would the traffic report appear on the landmark, not the road name?

I never bother with Plot landmarks anyway, but what about gas stations? I never did real testing but when I'm filling up I see no traffic reports generated.

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It was meant to be a joke on HQ for their infamous soon/working on it/etc.

But seriously, it might be a good idea to put CT as is in the general wiki for the time being. It is better than nothing. Much better actually.

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AndyPoms wrote:... Expect to see something in the next few months.

Lool. That's the true Waze spirit.

I've marked malls as a single MALL landmark that covers the mall's parking lot to. In addition, I mapped the roads surrounding store fronts and the ones surrounding the parking lot and adjacent to the main roads, and marked them as parking lot roads.

I believe this should improve traffic detection, look great on the client and live map and support navigation into and out of the malls. However, I don't have enough wazers where I am to see if this really works.

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I agree people should use the search but occasionally it might be nice to free roam on the map to see whats nearby, at least that is my opinion (which doesn't really account to much) but otherwise I agree with you.

bgodette wrote:Public Parking is already covered directly in the app without need of a landmark. Hotels, repair, rental, Lowes, Home Depot, Walmart, Target, grocery stores, etc are all revenue streams and just add clutter.

I'll agree all revenue streamed businesses shouldn't be mapped per say but I think hotels would still be good to see on a map. I can't tell you the countless times I've had people ask "hey do you know how I can get to ****** hotel" Seeing it on a map could potentially help some either find a hotel nearby or navigate to it a little easier.