Waze forum

Have they been putting "MS-xx" on signs now?

I drive the I-59 corridor a lot, usually every few months, and I recall seeing "SR xx" on signs, typically the little green ones on overpasses.

Yeah, it's hard to find a sign with it spelled out, since shields are used for almost every purpose out in the world. The little green signs on interstate overpasses—which tell you the road carried by the overpass and often what mile of the interstate you're on—don't use shields on the other hand, presumably because of the potential for confusion from people thinking it means they're ON state route whatever.

Different states do it differently, and that got me thinking about a potential source for state highway name standards. The ones in Mississippi use "SR", and in Alabama they say "AL". Interestingly, Mississippi uses a generic oval state route shield, while Alabama uses a shield shaped like Alabama.

DOT literature and the news and things like that can provide guidance, too, but they can sometimes mislead. I've heard "LA 48" and also "Highway xx" on the news here. I've actually seen "SR-xx" on the La. DOTD website! But the shields themselves say LA and that's how we say it, so of course that's what it's gonna be.




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It seems the general sentiment is that whatever it is, it should be an abbreviation rather than some words spelled out, and I agree with that. It saves space and time in the client and the editor, and IMO it looks better.

Whether to choose SR- or MS-, I don't know. I'm leaning towards SR- personally, based on what I know, but you're certainly more familiar with Mississippi in general (I'm pretty much an expert at I-59, but that's about it).

I do think that signage should be considered with far more weight than a departmental website, since drivers are going to see signs, not websites, while they're using Waze. What the bulk of signage actually says, though, is a factual inquiry.

Generally, if it's likely "Emm Ess" will cause confusion where "State Route" won't, I would suggest "SR-" as the standard.

Eh, I wouldn't say so. I consider it an advantage Waze has, or can have, over other map providers in certain markets—especially places like Michigan, where "M-25" and the like are part of the local parlance, or Louisiana, where "LA 48" and "Highway 48" are used interchangeably, but "LA 48" is on the signs.

Where it's just "highway" or "route", leave it at "SR-". But there's a certain value in saying things in a way that's more agreeable to users in certain places.

bart99gt wrote:Let me ask this then, is there any way to get it to pronounce "MS" as Mississippi and to have shields for roads named "MS-xx?"

As to the first, effectively, no. At least not easily or anytime soon. Staff has been largely unresponsive on changing TTS behavior. I can't remember anything changing since the "pause for slashes" was added forever ago.

As to the second, yes. When I have a little free time, I'm planning to get a list together of state standards so I can submit a long list of shield formulas to Waze. Similar things have been done in Australia recently.


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bart99gt wrote:It appears that Waze's TTS has been updated so that now MS-xx is pronounced "Mississippi xx" instead of "M S xx". I noticed it for the first time this morning checking a route around the house.

A step in the right direction.

Does it include a pause between "Mississippi" and "xx"? The addition of state highway names to TTS was done a couple weeks ago, but a pause managed to sneak in there somehow.

Possibly. Regardless, we're trying to get the pause removed. It may be acceptable when, say, "turn[ing] left on Mississippi, 63", but it really messes up the flow of, say, an exit ramp ("Exit right at Exit 4. Louisiana. 3021. Elysian Fields Avenue.") The pauses imply that "Louisiana" and "3021" are different things, when really it's an exit for LA-3021.