Michigan

This page serves as the primary resource for editors of Michigan. Review all the sections to better understand how the guidelines for this state might deviate from the overall USA or worldwide guidelines. If you have any comments or questions about this page or state refer to the community links below.

No general message at this time.

Introduction

Michigan is a part of the Great Lakes region, which includes the states and/or territories of:

Illinois / Indiana / Michigan / Ohio / Wisconsin.

Mapping resources

Before editing the maps in Michigan, be sure to fully review and understand the editing manual.

The Waze user community follows the Waze etiquette guidelines discussed in the Wiki. Be sure to familiarize yourself with these guiding principals while editing the maps and this Wiki, as well as when communicating with other Waze users.

Statewide

• MDOT NFC Maps - MDOT National Functional Classification (NFC) maps by county and urban area. An effort was started in late 2013 to convert metro Detroit and other major cities to their corresponding NFC road classifications.
• Boundary and Annexation Survey Maps from US Census Bureau
• TIGERweb from US Census Bureau
• MDOT Physical Road (PR) Finder (also see the PR Finder Home page)

County

• Directory of county road commissions, many of which maintain a list of planned improvements or current projects

• Listing of all counties in Michigan and available GIS maps.

Community

The Waze forum is a great place to find answers to previously asked questions and also a place to ask new ones. Below are links to the forums specific to Michigan.

• Michigan section of Waze forum
• The Great Lakes region forum
• The USA section of Waze Forum
• The USA segment unlock requests

Area Managers for Michigan can be found in the table below.

New editors should consider checking into the formal mentoring program available at no charge.

Cities and towns

One of the most common errors when editing the maps is when an editor creates a road and does not confirm the road by setting the city and road name (or stating it has none).

Duplicate cities can be caused by incorrectly named segments and should be corrected following the guidelines in the smudged city article.

Please list cities smaller than 100,000 under their county.

• Ann Arbor
• Detroit
• Flint
• Grand Rapids
• Lansing
• Livonia
• Warren

Major roads

Michigan follows the general road naming and road type guidelines of the USA.

County Highways versus County Roads

• Michigan has an "intercounty" highway system in addition to locally maintained county roads. In both cases, naming conventions should follow highway naming by state.
  • Numbered county highways are prefixed with A through H based on geography. Naming convention should be "CR-[Letter Prefix][#]" (i.e. "CR-D19"). In all cases, local signage should be used to designate a primary name, while the county highway designation could be an alternate name if appropriate. While these roads could conceivably be classified higher, the lowest road type used should be Minor Highway regardless of appearance or functional classification.
  • A small number of counties maintain numbered county roads that are not part of the statewide A-H highway system. These roads should be named CR-[#] (i.e. "CR-388") and would typically appear as Primary Street, Street, or even Dirt Road.

Special roads

Drivable roads

Michigan follows the standard USA guidelines for all of the following special road types.

• Divided highways and roadways
• Carpool, HOV, Transit lanes
• Roundabouts and traffic circles
• Culs-de-sac
• Dirt roads
• Toll roads
• Partial and scheduled restrictions
• Private installations and military bases

Non-drivable roads

Review the Wiki guidelines for non-drivable roads to ensure compliance with the general guidelines.

(DRAFT) Median U-Turn Intersection (MUTI)

• NOTE: Although these guidelines have not officially been adopted as a Waze standard, the discussion is occurring at this forum thread. This section is in place as a guide for editors experimenting with this type of intersection while a consensus is being reached statewide or country-wide.

A Median U-Turn Intersection (MUTI) is a procedure involving an indirect left turn onto or from a split roadway onto another road where the direct left turn is prohibited at the intersection itself. A MUTI can only occur at the intersection with a cross street. Other median u-turns may be available at crossovers along a split road, however these would not be classified as MUTI since they simply facilitate going the opposite direction along the same split road. A reference figure showing both types of u-turns together appears below.

To execute the turn, the driver proceeds through the intersection to turn left at the next median u-turn, then turns left onto the same road (in the opposite direction), and finally turns right at the main intersection. Alternatively, if the intersection involves turning onto a split cross road, the driver could also turn right onto the intersecting split road, then turn left at the median u-turn, finally turning left onto the road and proceeding through the main intersection.

This procedure has proliferated in Michigan since the late 1960's, and is locally referred to as a “Michigan Left Turn (MLT)” or just “Michigan Left“, even in locations other than Michigan. The MUTI and its variants are now used or being considered in several states and other countries.

Other terms for this procedure in transportation literature from the Federal Highway Administration and individual states include:

• “Arizona Parkway”
• “Boulevard Turnaround”
• “Median U-Turn Crossover”
• “Median U-Turn Intersection Treatment (MUTIT)”
• “ThrU-Turn Intersection (TTI)”

In addition, there are a number of related procedures directed toward the same or a similar result as the MUTI. Consequently, some of these procedures may need treatment similar to the MUTI in Waze:

• "Continuous Flow Intersection (CFI)"
• “J-turn”
• “Jughandle”
• “Reduced Conflict Intersection (RCI)”
• “Restricted Crossing U-Turn Intersection (RCUT)”
• “Super-Street Median Crossover”

In order to be considered a MUTI (or variant), proper signage should be in place. Depending on what entity maintains the road, however, the quality of signage will vary.

• Naming Convention: to [street name] [opposing direction] / to [cross street name] [direction]
  • Similar to highway way-finder segments, the “street name” is instructional rather than official
  • Example intersection of Mound Rd and Metro Parkway in Macomb County
    • Driving north on Mound Rd: "to Mound Rd S / to Metro Pkwy W"
    • Driving south on Mound Rd: "to Mound Rd N / to Metro Pkwy E"
    • Driving west on Metro Pkwy: "to Metro Pkwy E / to Mound Rd S"
    • Driving east on Metro Pkwy: "to Metro Pkwy W / to Mound Rd N"

• Road Type: RAMP
  • Although this departs from traditional rules for At-grade connectors and for use of the ramp road type, it hides the instructional street name in the client. It is close to the exception stated on the at-grade connector page, however, in that a MUTI is a signed--though unnumbered--exit from the current direction of travel on a roadway.

• Junction Angles: Between 45 and 90 degrees
  • The angles for the median u-turn should generate two "turn left" instructions. The first “turn left” should occur prior to entering and the second should occur while exiting the median crossover.

• Junction Position:
  • The initial junction ideally should be as close to the start of the solid white line as possible (if present). This prevents a turn instruction from occurring too early or too late. In many cases, this will require adding a geometry node at the start of the segment at the most detailed zoom level to generate the correct turn angle.

Sample MUTI as it appears in Waze Map Editor:

Distinction between MUTI and standard crossovers:

Alleys

As a general rule in Michigan, only residential alleys should be mapped, and only if they are the locally accepted destination for parking at or near a residence. Alleys should only function as a starting point or final destination, not as a thoroughfare. If alleys are mapped, the road type should be set to "Parking Lot Road" and given the name "Alley". Other attributes (city, direction, turn restrictions) should be set as if the alley were any other drivable road.

When adding or editing an alley, an important consideration is to verify that house numbers are properly situated for the surrounding street segments. Waze will route to the closest segment for a set of destination coordinates. This may result in the destination being in the alley, which may or may not be the desired result. Refer to the FAQ for additional information. If you need guidance or are uncertain whether a certain alley would meet the criteria to be mapped, please post a permalink in this existing Michigan forum thread.

Closures

When managing a section of roadway under construction or being closed for a major event, follow the Wiki guidelines on construction zones and road closures.

The following are resources run by the Michigan DOT:

• MDOT MiDrive (Traffic, Construction, etc.)
• MDot Twitter feed

Places

Michigan follows the USA standard for Places. Do not deviate from the guidelines without first obtaining consensus to do so via the state forum linked on this page.

Cameras

Not every camera-looking device at an intersection is a speed or red light camera. Generally speaking:

• 
  
  a speed camera takes a photograph of a vehicle when it passes by the camera at too high a speed.
• 
  
  a red light camera takes a photograph of a vehicle that enters an intersection after the light is red. In some areas, it takes the photograph when a vehicle is not clear of the intersection some period after the light turns red.

Be sure to know your cameras before accepting new camera reports.

Currently only the Waze client app can add cameras to the map. When adding a camera from the app, be sure to review the camera placement recommendations.

Laws regarding speed and red light cameras vary between the states and territories, so be sure to understand the details of camera legality in Michigan.

Guidance

Speed and red light cameras remain illegal in Michigan. State House bills 4762 and 4763 failed to pass the house in the summer of 2013.

While traffic monitoring devices are employed in the state, no cameras are used for enforcement or issuing citations according to the Michigan State Police.

To do list

Many states and territories keep an active list of pending or closed actions that need to be done in the state by the editors. All editors are welcome to contribute to the list of activities.

• Functional Classification Inventory
• Freeway Consistency
• State and County Highway Consistency
• Ferry list (add docks as Point Places)

For spreadsheets above, comments can be inserted, but edits are locked. Send a PM to davielde for editing access.

Area Managers

The table below identifies the editors also designated as Area Managers or higher who are editing in Michigan. If you have any questions, please consider contacting them directly as needed. If you are an Area Manager that covers Michigan, or a USA Country Manager that does a lot of work in Michigan, please add yourself to this list (alphabetical by username) in the correct rank section.

The editor who also serves as the Regional Coordinator for Michigan is automatically listed at the top of the table. That editor may not be highly active in this state and therefore may not be listed separately in the table.

Area managers may also add their managed polygon to this Google map. Just send a PM to user lelehman for access.

Michigan — Area, State and Country Managers Regional Coordinator(s): GizmoGuy411 (PM)
Username	Area Managed	Comments
Country Managers (Great Lakes region)
GizmoGuy411(6) [PM]	Statewide	Regional Coordinator
Sketch(6) [PM]	Statewide	Detroit Enthusiast
davielde(5) [PM]	Statewide	MI State Manager, Ann Arbor-based
State Managers (Great Lakes region)
SkiDooGuy(5) [PM]	Statewide	Detroit
Area Managers
jdeyoung(6) [PM]	West Michigan
lelehman(5) [PM]	Mid-Michigan, Tri-Cities	Bay, Clinton, Eaton, Genessee, Gratiot, Ingham, Isabella, Livingston, Midland, Saginaw, and Shiawassee counties
hitfactor(4) [PM]	SW Lower MI	Berrien and Cass Counties
SuperMari0O(4) [PM]	Upper Peninsula
captnkeegs(3) [PM]	Grand Rapids Area	Mostly working Kent & Barry county some Ottawa & Allegan county area
miked_64(3) [PM]	SW Lower MI	GR, Kzoo and surrounding areas

Other states and territories

The other states and territories of the USA can be found in the navigation box below. Press the "show" button to open the box.