Places/en

Places

Places are searchable destinations on the Waze map, just like the "Points of Interest" found on certain popular GPS devices. They can be added from the app, but also in the Waze Map Editor. Here you will find instructions for creating a place in the editor. For a description of the different types of places, see the Place categories page. Places can only be defined when the Places Map Layer is activated.

A place can be defined as a point or an area place. Above a certain size, Area places become visible in the app. A Point place is never visible, but both types can be searched, selected, and navigated to. There is also a third type of place called Residential places, these are private addresses. These are always point places.

Creating a Place

Place Options

Click the icon at the top of the Waze Map Editor to add a Place and then choose one of the displayed place categories from the list. Finally, a choice must be made between a point and an area place.

For some place categories, an additional submenu is displayed.

Points

Points are not displayed in the app. They are only used to help Wazers find locations, especially when they are not listed or are listed incorrectly in other search engines. Because the places can be looked up/selected from the app, the accurate positioning of a point and providing a full address (including street number) are both extremely important.

In the editor, a point is displayed as a small circle, with the exception of a residential place, which is shown as a small triangle.
Default point place

Selected point place

Changed point place

Modified point location, awaiting approval

The Waze routing server navigates the Wazer to the segment that is physically closest to where the Point Location is placed.
The point marker is the stopping point. If the place is located inside a building, the marker should usually be placed at or near the main entrance of the location. Try to imagine where you would stop to drop someone off at this location.

Icons and dot markers

Icons and dot markers are colored by category.
For better visibility, icons and dot markers are now displayed according to the zoom level, namely:

• Zoom level 18-22: icon
• Zoom level 17: dot marker; icon with mouse pointer over the location
• Zoom level 16 and lower: nothing.

Area Places

Area Places (area places) are shown in the Waze app when they are large enough (> 500 m²). Too many area places can make the map cluttered, creating large gray zones that do not help Wazers find their way. Therefore, it is important to use Area Places only if they are distinctive and important enough to orient drivers. Ensure that you do not place the place nodes on road segment nodes. This makes it more difficult to edit the place and/or segments later.

Parking Lot Place and Gas Stations must be drawn as area places, regardless of their size. All other places are generally drawn as point places, except when they are large and distinctive enough to aid orientation while driving. See also the section on Choosing between point and area location.

Generally, an Area Location only covers what a Wazer sees when driving to the actual location. It follows that the Area Location indicates the visible building, not the territory. However, an Area Location does not need to be as detailed as the building itself.
Natural elements such as forests, parks, and lakes are drawn into the visible contours.

Some types of Area Locations are displayed in specific colors in the app. Generally, natural features are green (e.g., Park) or blue (e.g., River).

Each area location has an entry point that is centered by default. The arrow in the accompanying image. This point can be moved to your destination or where you need to park: Try to imagine where you would stop to drop someone off at this destination.
If an entry point is linked to a Walking trail (WT), place it on top of the WT. Otherwise, it may happen that you are directed to a nearby drivable segment instead.

For more information, see the Entry point logic page.

Each Area Place also has a move handle that allows you to shift the place. If the area itself needs to be changed, click on the place to select it. Use the geometrie knooppunten to adjust the shape. To move an area place without changing the shape, drag the place using the move handle icon.

Residential places / Private places

Upon arrival, Waze suggests taking a photo of your destination. In this way, many private places are uploaded to editor. The category residential place is used for these private places. Private Places cannot be searched, and the identity of the person who created them or added photos is not revealed. Private Places contain only photos and an exact address, without any other properties of a Place. The photos are only shown to people driving explicitly to that address. Waze editors can use the photos and exact locations to improve the house number database.

Public places can be converted into private places and vice versa. Use the button Convert to residential or the button Convert to public to change between public and private.
For more on this topic, see the Residential Place page.

Combined Places

Point Places within an Area Place

Point Places within an Area Place is permitted and is usually used for shops in a shopping mall, faculties within a university campus, etc. Avoid Areas within Areas, as this can become confusing on the app screen.

How to determine area or point

Parking lots and Petrol stations are always drawn as Area Place. Most other places are generally drawn as a point place, except when they are large and distinctive enough to aid in orientation while driving, which will often be the case at an event center, factory, hospital, office, campground, shopping centers, museums (e.g. Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam), major monuments, schools, tourist site, attraction, sports field or stadium, and natural features. They are mapped as areas on the (building) perimeter and usually do not cover streets.

The category table provides a guideline for choosing between point and area locations, based on their category, subcategory, and probable area size.

Location details

Each location - point or area - must contain as much information as possible.

General Tab

The general tab: here you enter all basic information: categories, name, description, petrol brand, residential/public, opening hours, country, state, city, street, and house number.

Category: Places require at least one category to be assigned, but can belong to multiple others. Always select the main category first. For example, a petrol station can also be "Convenience store", "Car wash", or "Charging station". For a more detailed explanation of categories, see the Place categories page.

Name and address: If possible, provide name and address. Use the official name of the place. Optionally add an alternative name. :Place addresses - other than residential houses - are not used when searching by address. They are purely for informational purposes.

If a Google link is provided in the External provider field (see below), please also add the Google name as an alternative name.

The address is particularly useful for directing Wazers to the location.

Under the Map layer Places, you can specify whether the place name should be displayed on the editor screen. Place names are displayed starting from a certain zoom level.

Description: The Description field is visible in the Waze app and is intended for useful and objective information regarding the place itself. Keep it concise.

Some places require payment: do not change the description unless it is clearly incorrect.

Do not use the description field for your own notes or comments to other editors.

Access Points: Add Access Points when necessary so that Waze can navigate you to the correct side of the place. Use one place per destination. The navigation selects the nearest entry point.

If a hospital has different destinations for the general entrance and for emergency/first aid on the other side of the building - create an area location for the hospital with its own entry point and a point location for emergency/first aid access.

Do not place entry points on top of road segments, but slightly to the side to get the best left/right directions. Each entry point must have a name; the name is displayed in the Waze app ETA screen. It is important to keep the name short so that it matches the map and ensure it is easy to understand.

External providers

With Waze, with L3 and higher, you can add directions with POIs from external providers. One of the external providers is Google Maps.

When a place is linked, drivers can select any destination from the search results in the app; whether the result is from Waze or Google, it will always lead you to the Waze navigation stop.

When linking a Google POI, add the Google name as an alternative name. Then—if a Google search result is selected in the Waze app—the navigation will lead you to the Waze location.

Searching for a place results in duplicate results (the same name) if more than one Waze Place is linked to the same Google POI.

When access to a place is on a different road, it is useful to also include the address as an additional link, using a Google address pin. This way, the place is also found when searching by address.

If more than one place is defined for a single POI, link the external provider to the main one. Example: Metro station with more than one entrance defined, use the main entrance.

Only link an External provider to a Parking Lot Place when it explicitly refers to the parking lot itself. Never link a Google Place that refers to the POI location (building) to a Parking Lot place.

In the photo below, you can see an example from the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam..

More Info Tab

You can enter the website address and phone number in the "More Info" tab, where you can also select optional services such as Wi-Fi, Restrooms, Terrace, or Customer Parking (do not sign separately!). Information on this tab is displayed in the search results. From there, you can click on the website address or phone number to activate your browser or phone function. Therefore, they must be in a usable format:

Website

It is recommended to use the full and direct link to the website, including https:// when available. If the website is multilingual and a choice needs to be made, choose English if possible. : Examples: https://domainname.nl, https://subdomain.domainname.nl

Telephone

Telephone numbers are best written in international format: Generally, the number consists of the country code, followed by the area code (without 0), and then the subscriber number, all without hyphens, forward slashes, parentheses, and the like. Formatting spaces are allowed, but not necessary. An exception: do not precede 0800 and 0900 numbers with the country code.

+31 AA BBBBBBBB, or +31 AAA BBBBBBB for landline numbers,

+31 6 CBBBBBBB for mobile numbers

0800 BBBBBB or 0900 BBBBBB for 0800 and 0900 numbers

Opening hours

Add the opening hours if possible.

Photos Tab

The photos added to a place are displayed on the "Photos" tab. In editor, we can add and remove photos (starting from L4). Wazers can upload photos via the Waze app, via a PUR.

• Add: Ensure that you only add images that you own and have the right to use, and that comply with Waze's Terms of Use.
• Remove: Make a well-considered decision about discarding a photo. Once a photo is removed, it cannot be recovered. Remove only if the photo is truly unclear, unhelpful, and/or inappropriate.
• Photos must not display human faces, car license plates, or other information that could refer to a person. Photos used must be a recognizable illustration of the relevant location. For more guidelines on accepting or discarding photos, see the general Wiki page section Place Updates (Moderation).

Lock levels

Please note that places essential for Waze's functionality, such as Parking lots, must be locked at least at level 2 (or higher) to prevent data loss, for example due to automatic acceptance of submissions. See also the page on Place categories.

Trusted editor

Beginner editors require approval from a level 2 or higher editor for the posts they create until they reach the trusted status after a number of approved post edits.

Aspects

• Place update request (PUR)
• Flagged place
• Misplaced ad pins form is intended for reporting issues with advertised places that are incorrectly placed on the map. Requests from L4 editors are automatically approved by Waze.

Read more

See also the global page Places.

Hoofdpagina | Index