Travel Mapping Manual: Labeling Waypoints

The following list shows the preferred waypoint type in order. Choose the first type that applies.

🔗 Desired waypoints.
1. 🔗 Border points: These points often begin and end files. If a required intersection coincides with a border point, use a border point and skip the intersection point. The only border points in use are international boundaries (all countries) and subdivisional boundaries (for only countries we subdivide in this project).
2. 🔗 Exit numbers: If the highway has interchanges with exit numbers for itself.
3. 🔗 Visibly numbered cross road designation: US 42, A17, I-40 Business Loop, etc.
4. 🔗 Truncated, visible cross road name: Magothy Bridge Road, etc.
🔗 Waypoints for inadequate highway data or other rare situations. Use these only when you are unable to properly label the waypoint according to the above options.
1. 🔗 Truncated junction name: For freeways/expressways with official destination-based named junctions (e.g., some European countries use these).
2. 🔗 Trailblazer label: The type ToA5, if the cross road immediately serves a more major highway like A5.
3. 🔗 Entrance roads for national/state/local parks or other tourist attractions: If immediately served by the cross road, a truncated version of the park's or attraction's name is sufficent.
4. 🔗 Truncated, nearby town name: For a town immediately served by the unnamed cross road.
5. 🔗 Truncated, distant town name: A more distant location that either the cross road serves or that is mentioned on guide signs at the junction. You couldn't find anything near the intersection and now you're grabbing for just about anything to use to identify the waypoint.
🔗 Waypoint labels should avoid secret highway designations, i.e., designations travelers will not know about by driving and reading signs.
🔗 Waypoint labels never have spaces.
🔗 Waypoint labels may never use international characters. Instead, use the closest latin character without a diacritical mark.
🔗 Suffixes such as _W always refer to English direction words such as "west" and never to direction words in other languages, i.e., don't use _O for "oeste."

🔗 Waypoints for ends of auxiliary routes (bannered routes and the suffixed equivalents)

🔗 Waypoints for roads that no longer have a name or no longer exist as a road

If some of your waypoint labels don't match any of the types above, look again for the best match. If you have found a case not yet covered, let us know on the forum and we will come to a preferred solution.

Link	File: Waypoint	Description
🔗	USA/CAN	International borders use the 3-letter country codes with a slash in between. Put them in the order that matches the waypoint order. USA/CAN is the first waypoint for a Canadian highway beginning at the USA border, or the last waypoint for a USA highway ending at the CAN border.
🔗	AL/MS	Subdivision (state/province/oblast etc.) borders are included only for countries that we subdivide.
🔗	CHIH/SON	For subdivision borders in subdivided countries whose region codes have the country code prepended, skip the country code. MEX-CHIH/MEX-SON becomes CHIH/SON.
🔗	Yor/Lan	In the rare case of a highway ending at a county or other border, use the first three letters of the subdivision name for each side.
🔗	HarLim	In the rare case of a highway ending at city limits and the city is part of the surronding area rather than considered separate from it, truncate the city name like a named highway (see below) and add "Lim".

Link	File: Waypoint	Description
🔗	PA581: 4 16 18 21	If the highway is a freeway and has a unique exit numbering system based on its own designation without the exit numbers restarting, use the exit numbers as waypoint labels.
🔗	4	Exits 4 & 5 in one interchange. For a single interchange with ramps given different exit numbers, use the lower number.
🔗	4B	Exits 4B & 4C in one interchange. Use the lower (toward A) letter.
🔗	4 or 4A	Exits 4A & 4B in one interchange. Usually drop the letter if the lower letter is A. If there is another interchange with the same number and different letters, optionally keep the A.
🔗	4A or 4	If an interchange has a letter-suffixed exit number in one direction only, usually keep the letter. If the letter is A, optionally drop it.
🔗	6 6A	Two separate interchanges numbered 6. Distinguish them by picking the next available letter suffix for the second interchange. Number the first interchange normally.
🔗	I-80: 56 87(75) 89(75) 63	In multiplexes where the concurrency uses exit numbers from the other highway, put the highway number in parentheses. Drop the letter prefix of the concurrent highway if it is more than one character long: I-75 becomes (75). A5 can stay as (A5).
🔗	I-80: 56 87(Gar) 89(Gar) 63	If the concurrent highway uses exit numbers but has a name instead of a number, use the truncated first word: Garden State Parkway is truncated as GarStaPkwy, and use the first part that is not the generic highway type: (Gar) for Garden State Parkway, (Bol) for Tangenziale di Bologna.
🔗	A5: 56 57 1(A) 4(A) 17(A)	If there is more than one exit number sequence for a highway and no concurrent route to explain it, suggest a proposal in the forum what parenthetical distinction should be used. All exit numbers in a sequence get the same parenthetical suffix.

Link	File: Waypoint	Description
🔗	I-80 US42 MI67	Generally use the number designation instead of a highway name.
🔗	CHIH7 UT65 NL420	USA & MEX state and CAN provincial numbered highways begin with their abbreviation regardless of a local convention (Michigan State Highway 43 is MI43, not M-43).
🔗	I-80 A-73	USA Interstates and Quebec Autoroutes retain hyphens.
🔗	I49 A5 CR576 CRDD SR7100	All other numbered designations drop their hyphens (Spain AP-7 becomes AP7) and slashes (Czech I/49 becomes I49).
🔗	M22-1	Hyphens between numbers can be kept. This example is Serbian M22-1, a branch of M22.
🔗	US73: US40Bus I-585BS US20Alt	Add banners after the number. For the US Highways, local conventions of using letter suffixes instead of banners are ignored. Use banners; NY US 20A is US20Alt here.
🔗	US40: US40BusWhi US73: US40BusWhi US40BusTho A3: A3Zur	Distinguish two different same-bannered same-numbered routes as needed with the 3-letter city abbreviations. Also use the city abbreviation for bannerless same-designation spurs or branches, such as the Zurich A3 spur intersecting the main A3.

Link	File: Waypoint	Description
🔗	FaiRd PapMillRd MarKingBlvd MLKingBlvd MLKBlvd UCSBBlvd	Abbreviate the generic road type (Rd for Road, Blvd for Boulevard, etc.) if it's one of the very common types. Otherwise, use the first three letters: Uli for Ulica. Skip the final period. For up to two other (specifying) words, truncate the word as follows: 1-4 letters - use whole word 5+ letters - use the first 3 letters. Don't use a made-up abbreviation. Fairchild Road becomes FaiRd, not FrchldRd or FchRd or anything else. If the cross road name has more than 3 words, use one of three options: 1. Pick out the two most important words besides the road type and use only those: Martin Luther King Boulevard becomes MarKingBlvd. Three words in total are included in shortened form. 2. Pick out one important word besides the road type and use it and the initials of the other words: Martin Luther King Boulevard becomes MLKingBlvd. Two words in total are included in shortened form along with initials of the rest. 3. Use initials only besides the road type: Martin Luther King Boulevard becomes MLKBlvd, University of California Santa Barbara Boulevard becomes UCSBBlvd.
🔗	BlvdAll RuePeu	Ignore any prepositions ("of", "de", "del", etc.), articles ("the", "a", "des", etc.), and conjunctions ("and", etc.) in any language. Boulevard of the Allies becomes BlvdAll. Rue de Peu becomes RuePeu. Titles of people (Dr., Jr., etc.) can also be omitted. Exception: If the word is foreign (e.g., Spanish in the USA) and is an essential part of a place name, keep the word. Los Angeles Avenue becomes LosAngAve.
🔗	6thSt 33rdAve SeeLn	Ignore any non-essential direction specifier. N. 6th St becomes 6thSt. 33rd Avenue SW becomes 33rdAve. W. Seedy Lane becomes SeeLn.
🔗	NorPkwy SouBlvd	But keep directions that are the main part of the road name, such as NorPkwy for Northern Parkway or SouBlvd for Southeast Boulevard.

Link	File: Waypoint	Description
🔗	RayWinSP GreSmoNP	For a park or other non-commercial point, abbreviate the name as if it were a named highway (see rules above). Use `NP` for national park, `PP` for provincial park, `SP` for state park.
🔗	A3_U A3_U1 A3_U2	Use a `_U` suffix for interchanges that are nothing more than a U-turn ramp. If more than one is needed for the same highway, use `_U1`, `_U2`, etc.
🔗	Fry LilProFry	`Fry` is normally the appropriate label for ferry terminals. If required or desired to distinguish ferry terminals, additional names can be added, e.g. departure or destination locations.

Link:	File: Waypoint	Description
🔗	US25: I-80 GarStaPkwy	If a highway is a cross road only once, no suffix should appear.
🔗	US25: I-80(173) I-80(256) I-80/90 Gar(53) Gar(56)	If an exit numbered highway is a cross road twice, exit numbers in parentheses can be used to distinguish them. Avoid using two designations and a parenthetical suffix in the same label.
🔗	US25: US90_S US90_N	If a non-exit-numbered highway is a cross road twice, add an underscored suffix. The direction letter refers to the relative position of the intersection along the route whose file is being made. US90_S is the southern of the two US 90 junctions along US 25, which runs S-N.
🔗	US25: US90_S US90 US90_N	If a non-exit-numbered highway is a cross road a third time, a suffixless label is an option.
🔗	N6thSt S6thSt	If non-essential directions were omitted and they are different, they can be put back in. N. 6th St. and S. 6th St. would both be labeled 6thSt, so include the initial N and S for distinction.
🔗	US90_A US90_B US90_C NV57_Ren NV57_Tah NV88_PitS NV88_PitN ME161_FtKS ME161_FtKN	If more than two points for the same non-exit-numbered cross road are needed, there are two options which can be used in combination with or ignoring the previous options for pairs of identical labels. 1. Use alphabetical suffixes _A, _B, _C, etc. 2. Choose 3-letter suffixes for nearby towns if they are fairly close. The 3-letter suffix should be the first 3 letters of the town name. or a desired 3-letter abbreviation if the name consists of more than one word. Add a suffix with an underscore and those 3 letters. Standard town prefixes like "Bad", "Le", "Saint", "San", "Sankt" can be omitted or abbreviated. If you need the same town twice, add a 4th letter that is a direction letter (_PitS and _PitN for southern and northern junctions near Pittston or _FtKN and _FtKS for southern and northern junctions near Fort Kent). If the town suffixes are not useful, are confusing, require further elaboration (3+ junctions with same town), or no towns are nearby, use the county name or alphabetical suffixes instead.
🔗	MilPkwy MilfPkwy	If two named cross roads have different names but would have identical labels (Milford Parkway & Millville Parkway both would be MilPkwy), either add a 4th letter to a 3-letter part of one of the labels, or choose 3 different letters for that label.
🔗	A10: 1 ... A11	Loop roads need one point to appear as both the first and last waypoints. If the loop is exit-numbered, the first point is usually the lowest exit number. The second point can be the cross road name. Here Exit 1 of A10 is where A11 intersects.
🔗	A10: A8_W ... A8_E	If the loop road is not exit-numbered, use the cross road twice, each with a direction suffix (underscore + one letter) representing the direction to the adjacent waypoint. If the second waypoint is west of the first point, append _W to the first point and _E to the last point.