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Post by PhantomSoul
I've noticed in New Jersey for the iPhone client, we get shields for some of the US routes that are labelled "US Hwy." Most of the state routes I've seen on the map do not produce shields as they seem to be labelled "State Rte" (instead of "State Hwy," maybe?). This is a problem because all numbered roads in New Jersey are referred to as "Routes" and not "Highways" and really should be reflected as such in any regionally savvy navigation system. This is because many of these routes are simply marked out over old, local urban roads and calling them highways misleadingly implies that they're some kind of fast way to get somewhere.

It seems also that, with divided roads, when we put the N, S, E, or W suffix in the name to indicate direction, the iPhone client does not produce a shield. Also, dual-signed roads: "I-95 / NJ Turnpike" does not produce a shield in the iPhone client as well.
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Post by PhantomSoul
You know, the infamously decrepit Apple maps have state-specific shields. Also, internationally, they show route symbols that reflect the look of the actual marker used along the roadway. Just sayin'...

Traditional US cartography conventions suggest that the Interstate and US Highway shields are used for those routes, circle/oval shields are used for state routes, and rectangular shields are used for secondary local routes, such as county routes. In most places, this won't match up directly with the shape of the shields actually used by states on route markers, but the point is to make it clear that its a state route or local route.
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Post by PhantomSoul
We have state route shields in the US right now, but only in limited form, requiring you to code the primary name of the segments using the specific phrase State Hwy followed by a word consisting of only numeric characters (such as 9, 27, or 184, but not 9w, for example).

The state route shields do not appear to work at all, for now, in states whose guidelines say state routes should be coded in any other way, such as the phrase State Rte, SR, or the 2-letter abbreviations for states. I am not sure if the alternate street names are searched at all for a shield-recognition pattern, but last I tested it a few months ago, the phrase State Hwy 27 encoded into an alternate name field did not result in a 27 being drawn with an oval shield.

Hopefully Waze will expand its shield pattern recognition to include these in the near future.
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Post by PhantomSoul
Sounds like in the US, because of the different ways state roads are colloquially referred to in different regions, we would need to match any of State Hwy XXXX, SR-XXXX, or YY-XXXX, where XXXX is 1-4 alphanumeric characters (some state roads have letter suffixes, particularly in New York) and YY is 2 alphabetic characters matching the 2-letter abbreviations of any of the states or American territories, since many prefer to go by that.

What do other American editors think?
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Post by PhantomSoul
sketch wrote:we get ambitious and give Waze blank shields for each state, and submit 48 states' yy-x, yy-xx, etc. with their state shields, M-x etc. and K-x etc. for those states which use a one-letter route prefix, and SR-x etc. for the generic oval so we have a shield for those segments which are not changed over. We'd also have to ask Waze to run scripts or whatever to change every instance of "State Rte" and "State Hwy" and "SR-" and "SH-", by state, to fit the state abbreviation or initial (where applicable).
This is good, actually, if we can get it. Not only will it reflect the actual road markers used and putting us on par with iPhone's Apple Maps, but the TTS would actually read them correctly as well, which is something that iPhone's Apple Maps currently cannot handle in places like Michigan and Kansas, with the their M- and K- notation.
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Post by PhantomSoul
Off topic, how about the blue and gold pentagon-shaped shields for county roads for the states that use them? I would think that a potential hurdle here is that many states make county roads as "CR-XXXX" where XXXX is a 1-4 character alphanumeric word. However many likely use a shield different from the blue and gold pentagon seen here in NJ and many other states.
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Post by PhantomSoul
CR is read as county road. It would make sense that PR is read as parish road. The only other state I know of that doesn't have counties is Alaska, which I believe is divided into Boroughs. I am not sure, however, if Alaska has borough roads akin to county roads elsewhere or whether an official BR acronym read as borough road would even make sense.
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Post by PhantomSoul
I think what makes the United States extra complicated is that each state, which the exception of the 5 (?) states with a basic circle, uses its own graphic for state routes/highways, making them difficult to tell apart when we insist on using SR, for example, across multiple states. Perhaps the key is to use a unique prefix for each state's roads, such as a state's 2-letter abbreviation. Michigan and Kansas could continue to use their M and K prefixes because the important part is that it is unique from any other state.

Worse are the county and other local roads with shield-style route markers. Many places use the blue and yellow pentagon, but what about the places that use something else? The only convention I've seen for county roads is a CR prefix, in all states, regardless of the actual appearance of the marker used.

In other words, it looks like Waze needs to be able to determine exactly what shield to use from only the information in the street name(s) and country name fields.
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Post by ps_au
"SH-" is one of those abbreviations that hasn't been loaded into Waze which is why some States refuse to change. I've encountered the same problem in New Zealand when I was testing things out there. I have put in a request to Waze Staff to consider this on the next update. Shouldn't' be to hard and will make a lot of countries happy.

The other thing you have to keep in the back of your head when labeling roads is uniformity, and this is perhaps where the CM's & GS's of each state need to come together and agree to a naming format which will work in all states, otherwise it's programming hell for Waze and for editors alike.
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https://s11.postimg.org/ccr6928vn/Wazel ... 150115.png
[url=https:///14I9WW]AU [img]https:///sr3V9X[/img][/url] [url=https:///FsYzmv][img]https:///2es1M6[/img][/url] • [url=https:///q9wiEJ]NZ [img]https:///sr3V9X[/img][/url]

Post by razor2k
Don't get too excited yet... I noticed a shield yesterday and then no more. Marked it and checked it out in the editor when I got home. Found out it was ONE segment that was named State Hwy,.. the others were named State Rd.

This is our constant headache here in Florida. Hopefully, having the ability to assign shields in WME is a feature coming sooner rather than later :|
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Area Manager: Pinellas, Pasco & Hillsborough Counties FL
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