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Wiki update for Illinois

Post by ArlenBystander
bigbear3764 mentioned both here in the forums and in PMs we've been exchanging about wanting to up flesh out the Illinois mapping/editing wiki section. Having a bit of spare time and desire to dig into wiki construction, I got the ball rolling.

Here is the result. Take a look and let's discuss how to make it better.

Most of the layout and content ideas were gleaned from the Connecticut wiki. I did preserve much of the original page as a new page called Illinois Reference Information. It has redundant info on other pages so needs a bit of work but I didn't want to toss it all out just yet.

The following sections/pages contain mainly placeholder information (or 1-2 real examples) so still need a fair bit of work:
  • Illinois Roads by Type
    Illinois Construction
    Illinois To Do
The Connecticut folks did a great job detailing guidelines for each landmark type. I made a few changes to reflect differences between states (e.g. we have tollways so need to decide what to do about toll booths, our DMV is the Secretary of State, etc.) but we need to discuss further.
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Post by AndyPoms
dmiller1984 wrote:Love it! This will be a great place to send new editors as opposed to just linking to the Wiki.

One thing I've been doing is mapping parking lots of commercial areas that are next to major roads. I was noticing a lot of false traffic reports and realized they were being caused by cars parked in the lots next to those major roads. I don't snap the parking lots to the roads, but it serves the purpose of suppressing the error if someone is in the parking lot.

According to the CT guidelines I shouldn't be doing this, but I feel like it serves a useful purpose. Let me know what you think.
Those parking lots are probably also having a navigation problem (the pin being closer to the major road than the road the building is actually on) & parking lot roads would be a solution to that problem as well as the false jams.

Which kind of "false traffic report"? Traffic Pins or Color Coded roads?
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Post by AndyPoms
ArlenBystander wrote:
AndyPoms wrote:
dmiller1984 wrote:Love it! This will be a great place to send new editors as opposed to just linking to the Wiki.

One thing I've been doing is mapping parking lots of commercial areas that are next to major roads. I was noticing a lot of false traffic reports and realized they were being caused by cars parked in the lots next to those major roads. I don't snap the parking lots to the roads, but it serves the purpose of suppressing the error if someone is in the parking lot.

According to the CT guidelines I shouldn't be doing this, but I feel like it serves a useful purpose. Let me know what you think.
Those parking lots are probably also having a navigation problem (the pin being closer to the major road than the road the building is actually on) & parking lot roads would be a solution to that problem as well as the false jams.
Don't go too crazy on the Parking Lot Roads... Just having the main roads will suppress all those jams (and automatic missing road too).

I personally would prefer to see parking lot roads used (per the Best Practice) instead of the Parking Lot landmark. Driving around in (sub)urban environments leads to a sea of grey in the client with all of the strip mall, office building, etc. parking lots I've been seeing. I know they suppress taffic jams but a judicious set of PLot roads can do the same and keep the client view cleaner.
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Post by ArlenBystander
I have updated the freeway road type section with the list of Interstates shown on the IDOT site. I followed it up with data from the respective Wikipedia pages regarding toll/non-toll and naming info. Let me know if you see anything wrong or can provide more info.

Also, info regarding mapping of Toll Booth and Train Station landmarks along with a section about Time Restricted Turns (including reversible roads) has been added/updated.
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Post by ArlenBystander
AndyPoms wrote:
dmiller1984 wrote:Love it! This will be a great place to send new editors as opposed to just linking to the Wiki.

One thing I've been doing is mapping parking lots of commercial areas that are next to major roads. I was noticing a lot of false traffic reports and realized they were being caused by cars parked in the lots next to those major roads. I don't snap the parking lots to the roads, but it serves the purpose of suppressing the error if someone is in the parking lot.

According to the CT guidelines I shouldn't be doing this, but I feel like it serves a useful purpose. Let me know what you think.
Those parking lots are probably also having a navigation problem (the pin being closer to the major road than the road the building is actually on) & parking lot roads would be a solution to that problem as well as the false jams.
I personally would prefer to see parking lot roads used (per the Best Practice) instead of the Parking Lot landmark. Driving around in (sub)urban environments leads to a sea of grey in the client with all of the strip mall, office building, etc. parking lots I've been seeing. I know they suppress taffic jams but a judicious set of PLot roads can do the same and keep the client view cleaner.
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Post by ArlenBystander
sbelekevich wrote:
ArlenBystander wrote:Let me know if you see anything wrong or can provide more info.

Also, info regarding mapping of Toll Booth and Train Station landmarks along with a section about Time Restricted Turns (including reversible roads) has been added/updated.
You have this:
Illlinois page wrote:Reversible travel roads such as the express lanes on the Kennedy Expressway in Chicago are mapped as a 2-way Freeway road with turns disabled at all entrance ramps in both directions. This will prevent Waze from routing traffic onto the express lane but will provide normal routing (dependent on GPS accuracy) once someone chooses to enter the reversible lane.
But Best editing practice says this:
Handling_Restricted_Lanes wrote:The best partial solution the community has come up with so far is to leave these segments' directionality as whatever their native would be. If it's a set of lanes which switch directionality at times, set it to 2-way. If it is always a 1-way, set it as such. In order to make it less likely that Waze will route anyone onto these express lanes, HOV lanes, etc., any ramps connecting these segments to regular freeway or street segments should be set as Parking Lot road type and turns onto the parking lot road segments and the freeway or highway segments are Disallowed.
Don't the disallowed turns cause automatic problem reports with the new problem report scripts? I.e. "waze said to go here, but most users went this other way" (I realize both your page and BEP say to do that - maybe something to keep an eye on?) I noticed that you still have the road types set as ramps, not p-lot roads though. (I was going to ask bigbear about that a while ago, but I forgot.)

Also, any plans of mentioning mapping/not mapping Metra lines? I've seen a couple forum posts about this topic. This isn't the one I was thinking of, but...
There will be automatic and user reports no matter what we do regarding the reversible lanes and the time restricted turns around the area. If we disable them to prevent people who can't read signs (for the turns, not the reversibles since it's pretty obvious when those are closed), we get people complaining that Waze takes them another way. If we enable the turns, we get people complaining they can't just follow the purple line. A no-win situations so we just have to compromise. If we could only provide a reply to the URs.

We'll have to discuss whether any changes are needed to the road types of the reversible lanes. I believe they are locked at L5 so any changes will need to be made by bigbear, mapcat, or other senior editors.

Re: Metra lines - I thought that was covered under the non-drivable roads section. I have mapped a few sections of Metra rails to deal with auto reports but haven't done much to do them all yet. I wouldn't be opposed to people mapping them as long as they get done correctly and are then reviewed (and eventually locked) by a high level editor. We need to make sure the rail segments don't connect to regular roads. Perhaps it's something to add to the To Do section.

Bear in mind that (I believe) railroads don't show up on the client so people can still complain they can't see them.
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Post by ArlenBystander
bigbear3764 wrote:I haven't seen that many system URs' for people using the express lanes. Maybe because by the time Waze figures out you are in the express lanes, you are past the restriction. I don't know, but it is better than it was a year ago.
I haven't seen many auto reports about the reversibles but have cleared out a few URs where people weren't routed onto an open express lane. The last 2 times I drove the express lanes, Waze didn't even realize I was on it. GPS accuracy can't always differentiate that small of a distance from the left local lane.
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Post by ArlenBystander
bigbear3764 wrote:
sbelekevich wrote:
Also, any plans of mentioning mapping/not mapping Metra lines? I've seen a couple forum posts about this topic. This isn't the one I was thinking of, but...
http://www.waze.com/forum/viewtopic.php ... ns#p178964

Here's one of them. Leaving the Metra tracks has cut down on the Wazing on trains error reports. Problem becomes someone sees the Metra tracks and decides to map the El and freight lines.
The reason I've added railroads was to deal with the "roads are too far apart" errors along the railways.

We can specifically mention the freight and El lines (and stations) as not mapped if we want. As I said in my other post, railroads don't show up in the client anyway (confirmed on my phone). We will inevitably keep getting URs about missing railroads regardless.
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Post by ArlenBystander
jmp316 wrote:Hey All,

A few questions. Been looking in the wiki for some clarity on how to define a street as a Minor Highway vs. Primary Street. Couldn't find anything specific. There are a lot of roads marked Minor Highway near me that I feel have no business being labeled as such. Best practices?
My understanding is that the road type (Maj/Min Hwy, Primary Street, Street) is based on the Functional Classification maps published by IDOT. I haven't gotten into them in depth yet so can't say which road type on the maps relate to which Waze road type. I plan on checking them out when I have time so I can grab a few examples for the Wiki pages but don't have anything ready yet.

I will offer the following and hopefully someone else can confirm or correct me if I get it wrong:

Minor Hwys should be State or US Highways that don't qualify for Major Highway status. I would think most county roads/highways should be Primary Roads since they tend to connect multiple communities and/or are the major road from one end of town to the other. Some areas may have streets that aren't county roads but do handle a majority of traffic for the area so would be primary streets. In some areas, a county road/highway may qualify for elevation to Minor Hwy.
jmp316 wrote: Second, I've started to map a lot of parking lots lately to avoid false traffic jams. I like to make them nice, so they up nicely in the client. I am noticing a lot of existing lots are done sloppy and don't follow the wiki guidelines. Am I being too picky on mapping mine so nicely?
I don't see a problem with making things look good even if they are parking lot roads. I try to clean things up if I come across something that doesn't look right/good but haven't been seeking them out. Post a Permalink to a couple of examples and we can take a look.
jmp316 wrote: Finally, my biggest pet peeve in the client is cities labeled in the wrong location. I try to clean them up, but it is so hard to find all the incorrect segments without spending hours looking. Any tips? I recently added the Safari plugin Wazebar, and that's helped a ton, but it still a slow process...
The highlighter script helps with this but I think it only works with Chrome or Greasemonkey. I haven't checked to see if there's a GM extension for Safari or whether people have reported success using it other than in Chrome.
jmp316 wrote: Thanks everyone! BTW, I'd be willing to help out on some of the "to-do" list of Illinois projects to be completed, but don't have editing rights in some of the areas. If I'm willing, can I get temporary editing rights in these areas?
I'm not aware of any way to get temporary editing permissions other than driving the area. If you already have a bit of experience editing in the areas you've driven, you can request Area Manager status for an area. Here is info on how to become an AM. If you're starting out, don't request too large an area at once though or Waze may deny it.
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Post by Bigbear3764
Great work! I'm going to PM a few others I have PM'd with to make sure they see it and add themselves to the editor list.
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