User Guide: Roads

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Roads Edit is covered by Wikimapia Guidelines section 2.1:

Road edit tool should be used for editing roads. Roads should be named, if possible, but at least should be drawn carefully.

This article describes road editing in Wikimapia Beta. Road editing in Wikimapia Classic is no longer available.

Note that feature available in User Guide: Addresses is usually referred to as "streets" and that the feature described on this page is usually referred to as roads. Note that the two features are slightly integrated (see below).

Roads is a WikiMapia feature wherein you can mark out roads in WikiMapia, just like you mark places. However unlike marking places which are done by adding rectangles, you can mark roads by adding points. These successive points are joined (automatically as you go on marking them) by road segments.

You can then select a set of successive road segments marking a road, and give the road a name. Roads can be marked to be of different types like Highways, High traffic roads, Low traffic roads and Courtyard road. Railways should be marked with the proper tool to tag railways. You can see instructions to add railways.

Starting a road

Firstly zoom into the map, so that you are at zoom level 13 or more. You can check your browser address bar for "z=13" (or "z=14" or "z=15" or ... "z=20"), this indicates your zoom level. Note, however, that even though Wikimapia will allow you to draw roads at zoom 13, this is not a good idea, you need to zoom in more, much more! From the Wikimapia-BETA "Edit map" menu, select 'Road' mode. Click first where you want to start marking your road, and then choose "Start new" option. You will be prompted to choose the kind of road you want to make: "Dirt road," "Courtyard road," "Street, low traffic," "Road, high traffic," or "Highway" (as described in 'Properties' below). Select one of these options, and a bright blue road segment will appear that will follow your mouse cursor.

Every next click that you do will place an additional point and a road segment will be created between your current point and your previous point. Once done with marking the road, click on "Save" in the bottom centre of your screen. Clicking on "Cancel" will erase all your work since your last save.

If you need to start a road from another road already marked, you can click on the location where you want to start your new road. If there is already a road "point" at this location you will have the option "Start new road" and then you can follow the above instructions. If there is no existing road point where you want to start your new road, you should click on the segment of the existing road and choose the "Insert point" option. Then you can continue as above.

Making your road accurate

How can you tell if your road drawing is accurate enough? Zoom in to the highest zoom level available. If your drawn road is shown always on top of the roadway in the image then it is "good enough". If, however, your drawn road strays outside the roadway (into the ditches or houses at the sides of the road), then you can make it fit better. Note that it is always preferred to follow the center of the roadway or a particular traffic lane if the image shows this amount of detail.

Crossing roads

When you are marking a road and you have to cross a pre-existing road, you will be prompted to choose between 3 options:

Make a crossroad: the roads are in the same level.
Selected segment under: the road you are marking passes under the existing road.
Selected segment above: the road you are marking passes above the existing road.

You can cross only one road with each new segment, so you won't be allowed to create a segment if it crosses 2 (or more) roads. You have to make it in 2 (or more) steps. Firstly, cross the first road, choosing one of the above options. Then click on the final point you have just added and click "start a new road" to continue marking the road. So you can cross another existing road, following the same steps.

Ending a road

When you have finished drawing a road, you can click on the last point and choose "stop line draw". If the road ends at a pre-existing road, you can click directly on this road; a new point will be created, and it should be inserted into this existing road segment also. You can check it by moving it with the mouse (drag it on the map and return it to the same place) and verifying that all the segments that are supposed to be connected to it all move together.

Sometimes, when you do it, the pre-existing road moves a little bit to accept your new point. This can be avoided by creating the point just beside the pre-existing road. Then you can drag and drop it above the existing road. If there is a point next to the connection, you will have an option to "Join points", so that the point you are dropping and the existing point will merge into an unique one, assuring you the connection has been made correctly. If there is no pre-existing point next to the place you are making the connection, you should choose the option "Attach point" to be sure the roads are connected. Doing this way, you should check directions of both new segments in pre-existing road, because sometimes their directions are changed inadvertently, due to a system bug.

After marking a road, you can set its properties (see below). In general, it's better to set the properties correctly before naming a road.

Naming a road

The best time to name a road is as you create it, and carefully set its properties. After you have laid down all of the points you can, you should "save changes". Wikimapia will not allow you to enter a name if there is an unsaved drawing change ("You must save changes before naming!"). Immediately after the [Save], left or right click on the road (your browser menu may be dismissed with a click): a set of nearby segments should change color to bright blue (if road is short, every segment will be highlighted). If not all segments you want to name are blue, you should choose "Start to select" option and choose them properly. With all segments selected, choose 'Set new name', and a window much like a place tag editing window should open ("Access deined"(sic) implies wiki data error). Check the language you are using above the title field. Then type in only the name of the road into the title field. If you have extra information, you can type it in description box. Since there is not a specific field for a Wikipedia link, you should put it in the end of description (especially if there is an article about this road). Click 'Save', and wait for confirmation.

If you don't know the name of a road, please do some research to find its correct name and route number.
Do not abbreviate parts of the name such as "Avenue", "Street," "Park", "Boulevard" or "Route".
Be aware that each city or other jurisdiction generally has a system of road naming and addressing that should be followed. There is a difference between "2nd Street" and "Second Street".
In some cases, the cardinal direction is part of the road name, so that "South Brown Street" is different from "North Brown Street". In other naming conventions, the road is just "Brown Street" and North and South are considered to be part of the address. Also, as a road crosses through various towns, it may go from being North to South and back to North again. If you are not familiar with the local naming convention in use, assume that the direction is part of the address and do not include it in the road name.

Properties

Properties of a road are defined for each segment individually. To see these properties of a segment, you can click on it and select "Properties".

Types of roads

There are 5 types of roads available. In map, they differ mainly by their thickness and by zoom levels they are shown. Once you defined a type of road for a segment, this property will be inherited to new segments created starting from the final point of the first segment. {See discussion of additional types and see 'level' properties for bridges & tunnels.}

Dirt road

Select for gravel, unpaved or dirt roads. These roads must be usable by vehicles. They are also shown at zoom level 13 or higher.

Courtyard road

Courtyard roads are used for paved alleyways, bike/hike/running trails and pedestrian paths in a city /urban setting. They may or may not have an official name, and if they don't, be sure that your name for it mentions that it is not official in the description field. They are shown at zoom level 13 or higher.

Courtyard road type is not to be used for neighborhood streets. Neighborhood streets should be marked using the "low traffic" road type.

Road, Low traffic

Low traffic roads are typified by having one lane in each direction. In some cases, they may have only one lane. Also, low traffic roads tend to be in residential areas. Low traffic roads are shown at zoom level 11 or higher.

Typical neighborhood/residential streets should always be marked with the "low traffic" road type.

Road, High traffic

High traffic roads are typified by having one to three lanes in each direction. They tend to be well-known to locals, and to be lined by businesses rather than residences. In city/urban areas high traffic roads may or may not have medians and turn lanes. High traffic roads are shown at zoom level 8 or higher.

National highways should always be marked with the high traffic road mark unless the road is four or more lanes each direction.

Highway

Highways are typified by having two lanes or more in each direction, limited access from other roads, and by a median strip which divides the two directions of traffic. These features make high speed, high volume traffic possible. Draw each direction of highways with its own road mark. Always indicate the direction of travel for each side of the road. Highways are shown at zoom level 8 or higher.

Think of highways road type as "freeway" or "motor way" roads. Highways must not have grade-level crossing intersections. Cross-roads are crossing Highways by using bridges above and/or below the Highway by using tunnels/underpasses.

The key factor here is no intersecting roads at grade level. National routes may not meet this requirement and thus should be marked with the "high traffic" road mark.

Directions

This property indicated direction of traffic in the segment. There are 3 options:

<==> : both directions are possible in this segment.
<-- : only a direction is available. This option usually refers to direction of the older point to the newer one.
--> : only other direction is available.

In order to check on map directions referring to each symbol ("<--" and "-->"), you may look the road while hover mouse over these symbols. A red arrow will appear above selected segment to show the corresponding direction. The first option ("<==>") doesn't show anything.

Once you have defined a property to a segment, and you start to mark new segments starting from a final point of this first segment, direction will be inherited.

Elevation Level

This properties refers to the elevation level of segment in relation to ground level and nearby roads. There are 6 levels available:

2 underground ones: -1 and -2
ground level: Ground road
3 overpass ones: 1, 2, and 3

This property changes way segments are displayed on map. Tunnels are shown in a different colour than other levels. Ground level and overpass levels can only be differentiate when there is a viaduct, where you can see which road is above other.

This property is never inherited to new segments. So, for example, if you want to draw a tunnel with many segments, you will need to check every segment property to assure they are assigned -1 (or -2) elevation level.

Changing properties

If a road changes, for example, from high to low traffic, it is possible to change the properties of those segments to reflect that fact. After drawing the road, click save. Then click on a segment which begins (or ends) the section you wish to change. Choose 'Start to select' from the prompt box, and the segment will turn bright blue. Click on any other segment and it and all the segments between will be highlighted bright blue. Choose 'Properties' from the prompt box, and change the road type. You can change all or part of a road in this manner.

Each property has its own behaviour when one attempts to ghange it in multiple segments simultaneously.

Level: You can change this property for a single segment only. You can't make a selection to try to change properties of any segments together.
Direction: This property is changed only for a group of segments where there is no junction. If you select a group with junctions, property will be changed only for the set of segments between 2 junctions where the segment you click is on.
Type of road: You can change type of road of many segments simultaneously, no matter there are junctions among them. But if the road is too long (for example a national one), you can not change properties of all its segments in a single step: just some segments near segment you clicked will have their properties changed.

Correcting Errors

Points are in wrong location

If you placed a point on the wrong location (or they were already this way, when you found them), possibly just outside the road by mistake, you can click on the point and drag it to the correct location (without releasing your mouse click). If you attempt to put this point over an existing road (or point), you will be prompted to choose between "Cancel" or "Attach point" (or "Join points"). If you don't choose any of these and click anywhere on map, your change will be canceled. If you want to avoid it, you may use map mode and zoom it so that you can put point in that region and it will not be considered too close of existing road (or point).

Wrong segment linking correct points

If a wrong segment is linking two points that are correctly marked, you can delete only this segment, keeping the points in their right places. To do this, just click on the segment. If more segments become highlighted, click on "Start to select" to select just the one segment. (Road segment deletion must be made one by one. You can't delete a set of segments with a single command.) Then click on "Delete segment". You will be prompted to confirm your deletion by clicking "ok".

Name error

If a segment or a set of segments is not named right, you can edit it or clear its name. It's very important to be sure that you are changing only the segments that are wrong and not the whole road.

First you need to select the segment or segments you want to correct: Click on one segment. All the segments of the same road (with the same name) will be highlighted. If you want to modify just some of these segments, you should click on one of the segments and choose the "Start to select" option. You can then select more segments by clicking on them, as long as the segments are all connected.

( Because of a flaw in the system, if you want to change the name of just part of a road then currently you have to do this in two steps: first clear it, and then set it anew. If you try to do it in one step (by choosing the "Edit this name" option, below) then you will end up changing the whole road, and not just your selected segments. )

Once you have selected all the segments you want, click on any one of them and then:

Clear (unset) name: to unset the name and description of all these segments,
Save the changes;

If you wanted to change the name (instead of stopping after clearing it):

Re-select all the same segments, click on one of them and
Set new name: to set the name and description of all these segments.

Duplicated names

Sometimes a unique road is marked as 2 separated roads with the same name. This problems caused because someone has erroneously entered the road name more than once, instead of using the option "choose street name from nearest streets". If it occurs, you can correct it by following these steps:

In roads edit mode, unset the names for all except one road with the same name. The one that you leave unchanged should preferably be at the end of your road. Save.
Then go to the adjoining road segment to that one segment you left unchanged. Click on it and choose "Set new name" (if you see "Edit this name", it means that you haven't unset the road name).
In the name definition window, click on "choose street name from nearest streets" and choose the correct road name from the list. If you see the same name twice, it means that you didn't unset all of the segments, so go back and try to find the segments whose names were not cleared and unset them.
Save the changes and repeat this process beginning from step 2, for the next adjoining segment.

You can make things faster in step 2, if you select all segments together, provided they are connected. This way, you won't need to repeat steps 2 and 3 so many times.

Moving a road

Sometimes, after an imagery update, WikiMapia place tags and roads are not correctly aligned to the images anymore. In this case, one could need to move a road to the correct position. For now, there is no way to move the entire road. So you should move point by point, taking care to avoid creating new crossroads (especially if all the roads around are also marked and if the misalignment was too large).

Tips and tricks

If after placing a point you move it from side to side then the cursor will release it, allowing you to set its properties, create another road, etc before saving. This is useful as saving can be a time consuming operation.

If you are having trouble seeing the line of the road when using one of the wider road types (Street, Low Traffic; Road, High Traffic or Highway) you might try changing the road type to 'Courtyard Road'. This shows a fairly narrow line and you should be able to see more clearly. This trick is especially useful when drawing highways and major interchanges. When you have finished editing the road or highway you can select the segments and change the road type to one more appropriate to the traffic.

Parking lots, and their entrance/exit/internal "driveways" are not to be marked using the road tool. Golf course cart paths are "internal" roads, do not mark. The same holds true for private driveways at residential, businesses or farm/ranch properties. Again, the key factor, is "public" ownership/maintenance of the right-of-way (ROW).

Road Projects

The currently active projects are: