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Roundabouts/USA
Roundabouts, rotaries, or traffic circles, are unique segments of roadway in the Waze router. When a driver approaches a roundabout, a specific icon is displayed in the turn direction area of the display with a number corresponding to the exit count from the driver's entry into the roundabout. Manually creating a circular road will not tell Waze to navigate the area as a roundabout.
Contents
Creating a roundabout from an intersection
Often times, when streets become more congested, planners will install a traffic circle, or roundabout, to get traffic to flow more freely. This section shows you the steps to get from an existing intersection to a new roundabout.
The situation starts out like this, where the roads are no longer aligned with the new plan, and now there is a roundabout which we need to get created in Waze:
This situation is fairly simple because all the segments are connected together already.
If you look closely, you will see this roundabout actually does have four entrance/exits, so let's also draw in the western road as just a small stub, for future use. This will also cause the roundabout to give the driver better instructions in terms of which exit to take, as a driver will see the stub exit in real life, and so will count that as an exit.
Once those are all created, go ahead and save the work.
If an oval or elliptical roundabout is required, hold down the Shift key. At this time only oval roundabouts along the North/South or East/West axis can be created. If an alternate shape or axis is desired, create a circular roundabout that is close to the correct shape and adjust the nodes manually.
WARNING: Any segments completely within the roundabout area WILL BE DELETED.
When the process is complete and the Save button has been clicked on one last time, this is how the new roundabout looks:
For further reference, please watch this video on roundabout creation.
Creating a roundabout from nothing
Create one or more roads leading into the center of the roundabout area. Use the visual map to align the roads leading into the roundabout. From there create the roundabout just as is described above for converting an intersection to a roundabout.
Note that there must be at least one road leading inside the area of the roundabout being created, otherwise no roundabout will be created when you use that option.
Editing existing roundabouts
It looks like a roundabout, but isn't
A well-meaning editor probably just didn't know how to create a new roundabout, so it was created by hand manually setting the segments as close to rounded as possible. The real problem is that Waze will not navigate these segments like a roundabout. This section of roadway will produce "turn right and then turn right" if you went straight through. This is not what the driver will expect:
A proper roundabout will tell you to "enter the roundabout and take the first exit" when going straight through, so we need to fix this "fake" roundabout.
The first step is to select and delete all the segments that make up the circle connecting the roads leading into the roundabout. That can be done individually or as a group.
If the visual map layer does not show a new roundabout that exists today, use the GPS tracking layer to estimate where the center of the roundabout is located.
After confirming the individual roundabout road segments, there is now a properly-formed roundabout which will give the correct routing instructions:
Note that you cannot create a roundabout with only one segment. You must have the roundabout be intersected by two or more roads. After reviewing the Junction Style Guide for the alternative of a loop or just dead-end and you still believe it should be a full roundabout, just create the roundabout with two segments. When complete the second segment can be deleted leaving the roundabout portion split into two segments.
If when creating your roundabout you do not cross any roads, the roundabout cannot be created. There must be at least one road connected.
Road Type
It is possible to have multiple types of roads (Streets, Primary Streets, Minor Highway, etc.) meeting at a roundabout. The Roundabout itself should have a type equal to the HIGHEST type passing through it (excluding Freeways). If all types are different, then use the highest type (again excluding Freeways).
Examples:
- A Street and a Primary Street meet at a Roundabout. The Roundabout should be type Primary Street.
- A Street, two Primary Streets, and a Minor Highway meet at a Roundabout. The Roundabout should be type Primary Street.
- A Freeway, a Primary Street, and a Major Highway meet at a Roundabout. The Roundabout should be type Major Highway (we exclude Freeways since a Roundabout is not a Limited Access Interchange).