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.
• MDOT maps
• Boundary and Annexation Survey Maps from US Census Bureau
• Michigan Census Designated Places from US Census.
• TIGERweb from US Census Bureau
• MDOT Physical Road (PR) Finder (also see the PR Finder Home page)
• MDOT's Major Road Projects
• MDOT's MiDrive live traffic cameras, accident reports, construction zones

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.

City

• Auburn Hills Road Projects
• Detroit Construction Projects
• Detroit M-1 Rail Project
• Grand Rapids construction updates
• Rochester & Rochester Hills construction map

Recommended WME UI Enhancements

• WME Place Harmonizer
• WME Color Highlights
• WME Toolbox
• WME Validator
• Michigan localised enhancement of Validator
• WME Junction Angle Info
• WME Chat addon
• WME UR Comments
• WME URComments Custom List
• UROverview Plus (URO+)
• WME UR-MP tracking
• WME Closest Segment
• WME HN Tool
• WME Michigan
• Michigan County Overlay
• Mi Drive Total Closures Only (hides everything except total closures and current accidents on Mi Drive)

Forms to Address Mapping/Navigation Issues

• Waze App Search Issues
• Stale Trafficast reports
• City Merge Form
• Mentor Request Form
• Michigan Waze Advertised Place Problems

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 duplicate cities 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.

NOTE: Michigan follows the GLR road locking standards for all roads

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.

State Numbered Highway Naming

The following proposal for a new national state highway naming standard is currently under review by the GLR State Managers.

Primary Street Name: Use whatever name is in common usage in that area. (Check business addresses, GIS, etc). If the commonly used Primary Street name is not the state's Numbered Highway name (Example: M-59), include an alternate street name with the Numbered Highway name.

When to include a City Name on a State Numbered Highway:

• Freeways

• Primary Street Name: No City Name
• Alternate Street Names: No City Names

• mH/MH Numbered Highway

• divided roadway with limited access:

• Primary Street Name: No City Name
• Alternate Street Names: No City Names

• all other mH/MH Numbered State Highways

• Primary Street Name: Include a city name in locales that use city names.
• Alternate Street Names that use a state Numbered Highway name (Example: M-59): No City Name

Functional Classification

Michigan follows the Waze Functional Clasification (FC) standard for determining what Road Type to use for all paved roads. Public unpaved roads (gravel or dirt) will always use the  Dirt Road / 4X4 Trail  Road Type, even if the FC for that road segment is higher than "local". (Dirt is always dirt.)

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
• 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.

Guidelines that vary by state or territory

In Michigan the following are managed differently than USA Guidelines:

• Dirt Road / 4x4 Trail
• (DRAFT) Median U-Turn Intersection (MUTI)
• Alleys
• Parking Lot Roads

Dirt Road / 4x4 Trail

Michigan follows the 'Dirt is dirt' rule.

All dirt roads should be marked as type 'dirt' regardless of Functional Classification.

The "Dirt Road / 4x4 Trail" checkbox should also be checked. However, functionally, this checkbox currently is decorative and has zero impact on the map.

This supports expectations of users who have disallowed dirt roads in their Waze routing preferences.

Michigan speed limits on dirt roads

Oakland County published the following sections regarding Absolute and Prima Facie speed limits. Even though Oakland County posted it, it applies to the entire state.

"Absolute" & "Prima Facie" Speed Limits

The Michigan Motor Vehicle Code allows for "absolute" and "prima facie" speed limits. Absolute speed limits are supported by traffic control orders issued by the Michigan State Police and are posted on signs along the road. On roads where there is no posted speed limit, or on gravel/unpaved roads, the speed limit is known as the "prima facie" speed limit. Prima facie speed limits are subject to driver judgment of driving conditions. If there is a posted speed limit on a gravel road, this is the maximum for optimum conditions, and drivers are expected to drive at lower, suitable speeds when conditions are less than optimum.

Prima Facie Speed Limits

In 2006, the Michigan legislature changed the restrictions for prima facie speed limits, limiting the locations that qualify for posting at 25 miles per hour. The revised law now requires the following speed limits:

• 25 miles per hour in a business district. The law defines a business district as "an area contiguous to a highway where the total widths of the adjacent buildings in use for commercial business open to the general public on both sides occupy 50 percent or more of the total frontage on both sides for a distance of 600 feet or more."
• 25 miles per hour for all roads in platted subdivisions.
• 25 miles per hour on a road with 60 or more vehicle access points (side streets, driveways, private roads, etc.) within a half mile.
• 35 miles per hour on a road with 45 to 59 vehicular access points within a half mile.
• 45 miles per hour on a road with 30 to 44 vehicular access points within a half mile.
• 55 miles per hour for all other roads with no posted speed limit. This is known as the "general speed limit."

(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.

Parking Lot Roads

The following proposal for a new national standard setting a minimum length for dead-end parking lot roads is currently under review by the GLR State Managers.

Dead end parking lot roads should be at least 100ft (30m) in length. This standard could be integrated nationally into either Best_map_editing_practice#Parking_Lots or Road_types/USA#Parking_Lot_Road.

Closures

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

The following are resources run by the Michigan DOT:

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

Local Resources: County Resources

• Washtenaw County Road Work

City Resources

• Ann Arbor closures
• Grand Rapids closures

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.

Working Places in Michigan

Michigan has a standard when working with our Places. In order to ensure consistency and data integrity we enforce the following standard (considered "completing" a place):

• The name should be in a correct format (i.e. Proper capitalization, spelling, grammar)

There is a national standard being developed by the US State Managers for naming common Places. No current ETA.

• The address should be completely and correctly filled out.

• Under the "More Info" tab:
  • The phone number needs to be in the format of: XXX-XXX-XXXX
  • The website needs to be in the format of: www.example.com
    • If it is a business that has multiple locations with corresponding websites, then use the site specific website. Employing the format of: www.example.com/sub-site
  • Check any applicable services
  • Attempt to get the hours and input them

• Once these criteria are met, either lock the Place to rank 3 or contact an editor who can lock it for you from the Michigan Area Managers.

Specific Michigan Place lists and Standards

Click the [Expand] link to the right of each list you wish to view.

• Rest Area/Welcome Center Standardization

View this list full-screen in Google Sheets

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.

When adding a camera, 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.

Never add or approve a Speed Camera or Red Light Camera in Michigan. All attempts to add them to the Waze map should be immediately deleted.

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.

• Speed Limits "Burndown Map"
• Functional Classification Inventory
• Freeway Consistency
• State and County Highway Consistency
• Ferry list (add docks as Point Places)
• Rest Area/Welcome Center Consistency

For spreadsheets above, comments can be inserted, but edits are locked. Send a PM to SkiDooGuy 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) and SkiDooGuy (PM)
Username	Area Managed	Comments
Country Managers (Great Lakes region)
Sketch(6) [PM]	Countrywide	Detroit Enthusiast
xanderb(6) [PM]    Xander (GHO)	Countrywide	USA LC/CM & KY SM
TerryPurdue(6) [PM]  T   TerryPurdue	Countrywide	Local Champ-US State Manager-OH
BigBear3764(5) [PM]	Countrywide	USA CM & IL SM
roadtechie(5) [PM]    Todd-roadtechie(GHO)	Countrywide	USA CM, WV SM & IN SM
State Managers (Great Lakes region)
SkiDooGuy(6) [PM]  B   Bruce SkiDooGuy	Statewide	Assistant Regional Coordinator Local Champ-US State Manager-MI
Doryphore_6(5) [PM]    Doryphore_6	Statewide	MI State Manager
zohar760(5) [PM]    zohar760	Statewide	MI State Manager, Detroit AM
Area Managers
jdeyoung(6) [PM]	West Michigan	Indiana State Manager
hitfactor(5) [PM]	Southern Lower Michigan
lelehman(5) [PM]	Mid-Michigan, Tri-Cities	Bay, Clinton, Eaton, Genessee, Gratiot, Ingham, Isabella, Livingston, Midland, Saginaw, and Shiawassee counties
BuzzardJoe(4) [PM]	Rochester Hills	Likes to wiki
captnkeegs(4) [PM]	Grand Rapids Area	Mostly working Kent & Barry county some Ottawa & Allegan county area
falco_sparverius(4) [PM]    Kestrel	Kalamazoo, Calhoun, Emmet, Cheboygan, and Presque Isle Counties
JB15TM(4) [PM]    John	Shiawassee, Genesee, Lapeer, Northern Oakland / Livingston	AM for lower Westchester NY
SuperMari0O(4) [PM]	Upper Peninsula
vaindil(4) [PM]    vaindil	Traverse City and surrounding areas
AnorestesX(3) [PM]	Lansing
b0b2(3) [PM]	Saginaw / Tuscola Counties	EA in Oakland / Wayne Counties
Gazoo4U(3) [PM]	SE Luce county near Newberry
miked_64(3) [PM]	SW Lower MI	GR, Kzoo and surrounding areas
trukkurt(3) [PM]	Muskegon Area
tythesly(3) [PM]	Saginaw
Veritas27(3) [PM]	Farmington Hills/Detroit	Mt. Pleasant
MattSchultz88(2) [PM]	Farmington Hills

The following editors are also editing in the state and may be working towards an Area Manager position. Feel free to contact them for assistance in their respective areas.

Other Area Editors
Username	General Editing Area	Comments
anti-S-crap(5) [PM]	Burbs of NW Detroit
Binky71(5) [PM]	Troy
Boiler_81(4) [PM]
Devilschain(3) [PM]
Kirkyelise(3) [PM]	Holland/Grand Rapids
mhh60(3) [PM]	Macomb/St.Clair Counties MI & Lambton County ON
MichiganRoadRunner(3) [PM]	Lansing
renzoroberts(3) [PM]	Washtenaw County
Oranges13(2) [PM]	Southern Kalamazoo County
TeeDee55(2) [PM]	Rochester Hills
Xalien88(1) [PM]	Washtenaw County / Berrien County

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.