The PM to Ohio AMs wrote: Ohio Segment Naming Normalization Vote & Google Hangouts Invitation

Hello Ohio Area Managers, and neighboring AMs who extend into Ohio.


Ohio Segment Naming Normalization Vote

There is a national goal to normalize the Waze street naming conventions.

Part of this process is to eliminate the use use of “State Hwy ###” and “State Rte ###” as street names for “Highway” road types, in favor of the shorter “SR-###” and “SH-###” abbreviations as previously used usually only on “Ramp” road types.

Ohio is one of only a few states who have not adopted the shorter format of “SR-###”. (See the Wiki - Highway Naming link below.)

Rather than making a unilateral decision, the State Managers of Ohio and the Great Lakes Regional Coordinator, have decided to ask for a vote by the Area Managers, Country Managers, and Champs active in Ohio.

This vote is to adopt the use of the following shortened formats for all road types:
“SR-###” for “State Rte ###” (Note that “SH-###” and “State Highway ###” are not used in Ohio.)
“CH-###” for “County Highway ###” (Used only as necessary in some counties)
“CR-###” for “County Road ###”
“TH-###” for “Township Highway ###” (Used only as necessary in some counties)
“TR-###” for “Township Road ###”

Important!
Please do NOT use these abbreviations until the voting process is complete.
If this change passes, we have special scripts to use with WME that will assist in the re-naming. Also a couple of the abbreviations have not yet been implemented by Waze for Text-To-Speech.

Once the naming conventions are normalized in the U.S.,we will be in a better position to petition Waze to add highway shields to the maps.

A list of the all the active AMs editing in Ohio was recently compiled from data provided by Waze. To date 13 AMs have already voted, and we are asking for more votes to equitably complete this process.

To limit voting to only those AMs who edit in Ohio, this vote will not be announced in the forum. Results of the vote will, however, be announced in the Ohio forum and the Ohio AM Chat Hangout Group.

To track voting and to limit it to one vote per AM, a Google Gmail account login is required.

While a Gmail account is not required as a prerequisite to become a Waze AM, the necessity is rapidly approaching with all the various Google products used by Waze requiring a Gmail login.

It is therefore highly recommended that all AMs create a Gmail account, and preferably one exclusively for use with Waze communications.

Google Hangouts
Google Hangouts has become a major means of communication for Waze throughout the world. After the March 2014 North American Meet-up of US Champs with Waze staff in Las Vegas, the use of Google Hangouts online has proved to be an important media to exchange information in real time.

In the short time since the Meet-Up, the use of Hangouts has provided a number of benefits, including a multitude of important decisions, rapid contributions to improve the Wiki, more connected Wazers, and better sense of community.