Wikipedia talk:WikiProject U.S. Roads/Archive 24

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Salem Parkway

Today is the day, and while I am still working on the route description, the rewrite of the article is mostly complete and could really use some proof reading and any corrections before going live. The reason I'm posting here is because I want Interstate 40 Business (North Carolina) (and its talk page) into the history of the new Salem Parkway, currently in sandbox. I'm not good at moving articles, so after you all are comfortable with it, if you could go ahead and do that for me that would be great. Recent editors: @Vchimpanzee:, @Beejayhelper:, @GretaLint: and @Roadsguy:, please also share input. Thank you! --WashuOtaku (talk) 18:42, 17 November 2018 (UTC)

Do you agree with my removing the "travel alert" section and putting the useful information in the lede? I felt like that was sort of a "how to" section and not something Wikipedia does.— Vchimpanzee  talk contributions • 19:03, 17 November 2018 (UTC)
Also, no one is calling it Salem Parkway yet, so I don't feel it's time to move it. I should note that I haven't found a source yet that says the road is closed, which is strange.— Vchimpanzee  talk contributions • 19:04, 17 November 2018 (UTC)
I'm fine with no travel alert in keeping with the standards. As for references, check #30 on the rewrite page and if that doesn't help, then here and here. Please go ahead and make any corrections to the page. --WashuOtaku (talk) 19:31, 17 November 2018 (UTC)
I'll do that but I later remembered that I record the 5:00 newscasts on WGHP because I like "Roy's Folks". Why that means I record every ngiht I don't remember, but it reminded me the TV stations would have been a source.— Vchimpanzee  talk contributions • 19:03, 18 November 2018 (UTC)
I see some capitalization problems in the draft. Don't you capitalize "street" in the name of the street? Also, "The" seems to be needed before "first phase". And "combined", not "combine".— Vchimpanzee  talk contributions • 19:09, 18 November 2018 (UTC)
One of your sources did mention the road closed, but the other two did not. I have found my source and will change the article now.— Vchimpanzee  talk contributions • 20:07, 18 November 2018 (UTC)
Obviously, Wikipedia guidelines would require that Salem Parkway will no longer be a disambiguation page once the name change happens. The former redirect target will be a hatnote.— Vchimpanzee  talk contributions • 20:52, 18 November 2018 (UTC)
I am hurt that you do not trust my sources. Yea, it would remove the disabiguation page; Oregon Route 99E Business does not seem to focus the fact its also called Salem Parkway like North Carolina is trying to do, surprisingly no other Salem Parkways in the United States. As for my odd capitalization, I tend to capitalize "Street" and lower case "streets," if this is wrong, it can be changed. And responding to people still calling it "Business 40," it is officially the "Salem Parkway;" people will still call it "Business 40" for another two or three decades from now out of habit. --WashuOtaku (talk) 21:31, 18 November 2018 (UTC)
But saying the road will close is not the same as saying it did close. Something could have gone wrong at the last minute. What you tend to do is not what Wikipedia does, and I'm pretty sure "Street" is supposed to be capitalized. Also, I don't recall anyone saying it is officially "Salem Parkway". When the name "Business 40" is no longer used in sources, that's when the name change happens.— Vchimpanzee  talk contributions • 14:51, 19 November 2018 (UTC)
The name is official, they have signs, they did a whole "meet the politicians as they fake shovel" event and I have several sources and pictures in wikimedia (from NCDOT) confirming this. I'll adjust "Streets" accordingly then. --WashuOtaku (talk) 15:17, 19 November 2018 (UTC)

If no one else objects I won't either, but I still say if the name change was official all the sources would be saying "Salem Parkway is closed" rather than "Business 40 is closed".— Vchimpanzee  talk contributions • 15:36, 19 November 2018 (UTC)

Per WP:NODEADLINE, we should leave this at the current title until the work on the renaming is complete. While it is in process, the old signage is still up, and there's no need to "scoop" the story and beat the actual signage on the ground. According to sources I have found, the signage work is being done in stages and is not anticipated to be complete until 2020 or so. Once we have clear evidence on the ground that the old name is dropped and the new name is in use, there's no rush to move it yet. Though I do agree that, per WP:PRIMARY, once this is completed, we can consider this the primary topic, and include a hatnote to the lesser-used name for the Oregon route. --Jayron32 17:15, 19 November 2018 (UTC)
You are implying all the work that has been done on creating the Salem Parkway should be shelved now? This hurts me. --WashuOtaku (talk) 17:24, 19 November 2018 (UTC)
No, I'm saying that we shouldn't re-title the article based on future plans to rename the road. Once the road is actually renamed, feel free. Also, any additional content can be moved over now; I would just leave it at Interstate 40 Business until it isn't called that anymore. --Jayron32 21:21, 19 November 2018 (UTC)
The way I setup the article, similar to the Pennsylvania Turnpike, it still showed I-40 Bus. as being active, but just demoted to secondary now to the "official" name of the freeway; you know, the one the state DOT wants people to start using now. Do others feel strongly about keeping I-40 Bus. until it officially removed by the state? --WashuOtaku (talk) 21:45, 19 November 2018 (UTC)
WP:COMMONNAME and WP:NAMECHANGES (sections of the article title policy) have been implicitly referenced here, and those should be followed. The title of the article should not be changed to "Salem Parkway" until that name reaches common usage in reliable, third-party sources. This does not directly impact the contents of the article, but care should be exercised with regards to how the highway is named in prose, in order to avoid confusing readers. For example, if you want to refer to the highway as "Salem Parkway", make sure readers know that it is the same route as Business 40. -happy5214 22:20, 19 November 2018 (UTC)

New York US shields

Can someone please fix Template:Infobox road/shield/USA so that 3-digit US routes in New York call "File:US X (NY).svg" as the shield since that style is used by the state? Dough4872 03:08, 23 November 2018 (UTC)

Should be done. Let me know if I missed any. –Fredddie 03:59, 23 November 2018 (UTC)
Thanks, I fixed some of the hardcoded shields. Dough4872 04:00, 23 November 2018 (UTC)
You forgot US 219. Dough4872 04:02, 23 November 2018 (UTC)
Also US 104. Dough4872 12:09, 23 November 2018 (UTC)

Split US 74 Bypass (Monroe Expressway) from Special Routes

Hello, there has been a suggestion to split US 74 Bypass (Monroe Expressway) from Special routes of U.S. Route 74. Please consider sharing your opinion on the matter. Thank you. --WashuOtaku (talk) 03:43, 28 November 2018 (UTC)

Managed lane articles

I recently came across South Metro Express Lanes and my first response was "why does this even exist?" My opinion is that managed lanes should be incorporated in the main route article; but my opinion isn't gospel so what do other editors think about managed lanes, do they deserve their own articles? --WashuOtaku (talk) 15:58, 26 November 2018 (UTC)

I know of no other situation where there is a dedicated article about express lanes/HOT lanes/managed lanes, nor have I ever seen such a lane project I would deem notable enough to merit it's own article. I do know of some article that have sections about express lanes (i.e. California State Route 91 and even then IMHO that is much. I would probably just have the express lanes be included as a couple of sentences in the route description, again baring some notable feat of engineering unique to the express lanes. Dave (talk) 16:07, 26 November 2018 (UTC)
There are other articles describing these managed lanes such as Virginia HOT lanes, which lists all the HOT lanes along Interstate highways throughout the state of Virginia. Generally though I would prefer to include managed lanes (HOT/Express Toll lanes) in the article of the route they are located along and incorporate the information into the route description and exit list along with a separate section describing the HOT/Expresss Toll lanes that includes information such as where there lanes run from to from, access to and from the lanes, and toll rates. See Interstate 95 in Maryland as an example of how Express Toll Lanes are included in the article of the route they are located along. Dough4872 17:45, 26 November 2018 (UTC)

I recently created the article Washuotaku is so concerned about. I created it because there are other pages that are similar to it within the state. We are in a bit of a disagreement because they believe it is against this projects notability standards for the article to exist, while I obviously disagree, having spent some hours doing research on the page and creating it. I believe that the page meets the notability of Wikipedia per Wikipedia:PAGEDECIDE. Opinions aside, I think we need to decide if the notability standards of this project conflict with those of Wikipedia at large. Why do we have pages on interchanges? Why do we have pages on bridges? The managed lane projects are similar in scope to these pieces of engineering. Philosophy aside, if they are deemed to not conflict with the standards, then we should make sure and get rid of all managed lane pages to avoid further confusion. Best, Mccunicano (talk) 09:35, 30 November 2018 (UTC)

Not all "notable" topics deserve their own articles. We merged most of the farm-to-market road articles into lists because there wasn't enough to say about most of them. In addition, the article as written is somewhat misleading. I wouldn't consider the portion of these lanes in the I-675 median to be "part of" I-675, but rather ramps connecting that highway to the express lanes along I-75. Given these two points, this article should probably be merged into Interstate 75 in Georgia. -happy5214 12:18, 30 November 2018 (UTC)
I have recently setup a merge request for South Metro Express Lanes to go into Interstate 75 in Georgia, the discussion can be found here, please weigh in if you agree or disagree. --WashuOtaku (talk) 13:23, 30 November 2018 (UTC)
Personally, I'd say that managed lanes should normally be part of the parent highway article. Yes, they're worthy of coverage, but I don't think we'll find that they're independently notable enough for individual articles. To address a point above: most interchanges and most bridges will not have individual articles. Those with the most coverage will, so it's possible that specific managed lanes may have enough coverage to warrant a separate article. Imzadi 1979  17:33, 30 November 2018 (UTC)

One concern I have with the title of South Metro Express Lanes is that it doesn't tell us very much. WP:NAMINGCRITERIA says that titles of articles should make the subject recognizable to someone who isn't familiar with the subject. Personally, I would move the article to South Metro Atlanta Express Lanes. "Metro Atlanta" seems like the most natural way to say it. –Fredddie 14:44, 30 November 2018 (UTC)

New Jersey Route 179

There is a proposed article renaming at Talk:New Jersey Route 179#Proposed rename: Route 179 (New Jersey – Pennsylvania). Dough4872 18:48, 30 November 2018 (UTC)

Interstate 285

There is a requested move discussion taking place at Talk:Interstate 285 that people here may be interested in following. –Fredddie 03:35, 2 December 2018 (UTC)

Interstate 470 categorization

I have added Category:Interstate 70 to the Interstate 470 disambiguation page. However, another editor keeps removing it. What is the project's stance on such circumstances? Morriswa (Charlotte Allison) (talk) 14:44, 4 December 2018 (UTC)

@Morriswa: the guidelines say that disambiguation pages don't belong in categories. In this case, the individual I-470 articles would all be in that category, so the disambiguation page doesn't need to go there. It would just be redundant. Imzadi 1979  15:58, 4 December 2018 (UTC)

Georgia SR 540 (Fall Line Freeway) signed

I was out of town on Saturday. On my way back, I took US 1/SR 4 from Tobacco Road to Barton Chapel Road. The entire path was also signed as SR 540, the highway number for the Fall Line Freeway, of which US 1/SR 4 from Wrens, Georgia to Augusta, Georgia is part. I looked online and found a news story that SR 540 is being signed in Columbus, Georgia. I did a Google search and found a picture of a SR 24 shield (didn't see where it was at) that had an SR 540 shield added alongside it. Does anyone know more about this? I tried finding the information on the Georgia Department of Transportation's website, but I couldn't find anything. Morriswa (Charlotte Allison) (talk) 17:21, 10 December 2018 (UTC)

Also, I was thinking that, along with updating the signage, the entire Fall Line Freeway page needs a total re-write or restructuring into a current highway page. I was thinking of possibly starting to do this in one of my sandboxes. Morriswa (Charlotte Allison) (talk) 01:26, 11 December 2018 (UTC)

Split Request: I-885 from NC 147

Hello, there has been a suggestion to split the proposed I-885 from North Carolina Highway 147 to its own page. Please consider sharing your opinion on the matter. Thank you. --WashuOtaku (talk) 06:03, 13 December 2018 (UTC)

I'm the one who proposed the split and wrote the draft. At this point, though no one has commented yet, no one has objected either, I'm going to just go ahead and do it within the next few days unless anyone wants to get in a last-minute objection. Roadsguy (talk) 23:06, 17 December 2018 (UTC)

Interstate 80 Business Routes in Wyoming

A while back I tried to address the issue of material from Interstate 80 in Wyoming#Business routes being moved to Business routes of Interstate 80#Wyoming. I swiped most of the info from that segment in hidden text to each segment on the Business route article, but nobody else has taken the issue in the slightest consideration. So why has this been overlooked? ---------User:DanTD (talk) 14:12, 19 December 2018 (UTC)

We were hoping Wyoming would eliminate all Interstate Business loops since last time, but alas. --WashuOtaku (talk) 16:31, 19 December 2018 (UTC)
I honestly don't remember that, so I would say be BOLD and just take care of it. –Fredddie 16:41, 19 December 2018 (UTC)
Okay, that might require some excessive rewrites, but I'll give it a shot. I just hope it doesn't get tagged for expansion like Interstate 90 in Wyoming#Business routes. That could make the whole effort kind of self defeating. ---------User:DanTD (talk) 17:50, 19 December 2018 (UTC)
Ah, the I-90 article was tagged inappropriately. –Fredddie 18:11, 19 December 2018 (UTC)

Feedback request

I've been working on expanding History sections for Minnesota highway articles and referencing them to official or direct sources, as part of eventually improving them to B-class and beyond. Before I go much further, I'd like some feedback on what I've written thus far. It's difficult to tell whilst in the process of researching and writing how much is too much or too little (although the intricacy of each highway's history dictates much of that anyway).

The articles I've done so far are:

The last one I also expanded the route description as much as it could be. Any feedback on prose quality, if there's too much detail or not enough, or anything else would be appreciated. Thanks! --Sable232 (talk) 23:58, 18 December 2018 (UTC)

I'd say the biggest thing would be seeing if you can find some newspaper articles, etc. that give an idea as to why things happened. You can check your library, if you are local, or see if one of the offerings at Wikipedia:The Wikipedia Library might help. --Rschen7754 02:05, 19 December 2018 (UTC)
Yeah I concur with Rschen. Having access to Newspapers.com and Newspaperarchive.com has been instrumental in improving articles for me. –Fredddie 02:09, 19 December 2018 (UTC)
Thanks. Do those sites typically have a good selection of rural newspapers?
Any comments on prose or level of detail? --Sable232 (talk) 23:39, 19 December 2018 (UTC)

Special routes year-specific shields

I noticed that some of the List of special state routes in Georgia (U.S. state) have year-specific shields. However, if I try to change the type parameter to show them, I get a Lua error. What is the correct way to display these shields? Morriswa (Charlotte Allison) (talk) 01:19, 24 December 2018 (UTC)

I don't quite get what you're asking. What types are you trying to use that are giving you errors? –Fredddie 04:39, 27 December 2018 (UTC)

Snow Emergency Route signs

Can anybody think of the proper temporary commons category for "Snow Emergency Route" signs? For those who aren't from north of the Carolinas these are the types of signs I'm talking about. --

I took at least one other picture that had these sings, but I could swear there are a few others in the commons.
If no such category exists, you can create a category for them with a title such as "Category:Snow Emergency Route signs". Dough4872 02:03, 28 December 2018 (UTC)

Maintained by

I'm just testing the waters with this one, but should we have some guidelines for |maint= in {{Infobox road}} with regards to how many agencies should be listed? I was looking at Interstate 295 (Delaware–Pennsylvania), which has four maintaining agencies listed. I feel like 4 is excessive. –Fredddie 22:16, 30 December 2018 (UTC)

I don't have a problem with having all four, but if we remove any of them, we should just omit the field entirely. -happy5214 23:14, 30 December 2018 (UTC)
I feel that we should include all the maintaining agencies for road articles, except for national-level articles that are split into state-detail pages. Dough4872 23:41, 30 December 2018 (UTC)
It helps if the agencies can be abbreviated to condense the space. I agree that some highway with like two dozen city-maintained segments might warrant some different treatment, but four agencies in abbreviated format shouldn't be an issue. For that hypothetical, maybe "and various cities" at the end after the state/county agencies? Imzadi 1979  23:48, 30 December 2018 (UTC)

Wikipedia:WikiProject Highways/Assessment/A-Class Review/Washington State Route 527

Could an uninvolved editor please close this ACR? Thanks. --Rschen7754 22:12, 26 January 2019 (UTC)

 Done -happy5214 23:03, 26 January 2019 (UTC)

Need clarification on the 10-jct limit of the Major intersections section of the infobox

As per WP:USRD/STDS#Major intersections, the major intersections section of the infobox should not list more than 10 intersections. However, I noticed in some of the California road articles recently, someone appears to bypassing this rule by combining all the major intersections in each city onto one line.

For example, currently on Interstate 5 in California, there is the line on the infobox:

I-10 / US 101 / SR 60 / SR 110 / SR 2 in Los Angeles

even though they are actually three separate interchanges. The East Los Angeles Interchange is only I-10, US 101 and SR 60, while SR 110 and SR 2 are each separate junctions.

Similarly on U.S. Route 101 in California, there currently is in the infobox:

I-80 / SR 1 in San Francisco

even though I-80 never even meets with SR 1.

And currently on the infobox of California State Route 1,, there is

I-710 / SR 103 / SR 103U / SR 47 / I-110 in Long Beach

even though the are also actually separate interchanges.

So basically instead of literally listing 10 junctions, it really lists 10 cities with major junctions. Is this allowed, or should they be reverted? Zzyzx11 (talk) 05:35, 24 December 2018 (UTC)

I'd say that these should be reverted. The junction list in the infobox is supposed to be a summary, As a summary, we don't need to list everything. More importantly, we shouldn't be implying that separate junctions/interchanges are really merged together; there's nothing wrong with listing two junctions for the same city, assuming other details are being considered. Imzadi 1979  06:03, 24 December 2018 (UTC)
You have to admire the ingenuity here, most would ignore the 10-limit. --WashuOtaku (talk) 14:40, 24 December 2018 (UTC)
I would have to agree. (And on a side note, 103U!?) --Rschen7754 07:44, 6 January 2019 (UTC)

"To" entries in infoboxes

Some editors keep added "to" entries to junctions in the infobox on the Interstate 87 (New York) page. I have been reverting them, since it is not procedure. Can some consensus from the project be reached about this? Morriswa (Charlotte Allison) (talk) 00:32, 8 January 2019 (UTC)

I would be inclined to leave them out, since the infobox is meant to be a summary only and detail like that is best explained in the junction list. --Sable232 (talk) 00:45, 8 January 2019 (UTC)
Yeah, we do not include "to" entries in the infobox, we only use them in junction/exit lists if indicated by signage. Dough4872 00:55, 8 January 2019 (UTC)

Proposed renaming of Utah list article

Figured I'd post this here to reach more people and get their opinions on this. I think the current title is long and redundant; the new one would be shorter and simpler. Main discussion here: Talk:State highways deleted by the Utah State Legislature in 1969#Requested move 5 January 2019. Roadguy2 (talk) 03:43, 11 January 2019 (UTC)

Routelist template problems

I have been using the routelist templates on my sandbox to be able to add the special routes to the List of U.S. Highways in Georgia page. I have some problems. One, I want to be able to use year-specific shields. Two, I can't correctly add a temporary route. Could someone please fix the code so these work? Thank you. Morriswa (Charlotte Allison) (talk) 09:33, 7 January 2019 (UTC)

Do the shields exist? --WashuOtaku (talk) 13:46, 7 January 2019 (UTC)
@Morriswa: links? It's hard to know what's what without a link to the sandbox in question or without an example of what isn't working or should be changed. Imzadi 1979  14:04, 7 January 2019 (UTC)
I'm not done with all of the entries, but I know some of the shield links actually exist, since they are on the redirect target pages. I noticed that, on the List of U.S. Highways in Michigan, there were entries that use parameters such as "US 1948-Bus". I tried using them, but they didn't work.
When I added the temporary route, I got a Lua error that "US-Temp" didn't exist. Morriswa (Charlotte Allison) (talk) 23:07, 7 January 2019 (UTC)
Evidently, the {{Infobox road small}} and {{Routelist row}} templates don't work the same. Morriswa (Charlotte Allison) (talk) 23:41, 7 January 2019 (UTC)
@Morriswa: no, they don't. The routelist and jct templates use the same Lua modules, while the infoboxes do not. I'm sure we've explained that before, if not, well, that's why. Remember, each type, like "US 1948-Bus" needs to be defined in each state's Lua module, or it won't work. If Module:Road data/strings/USA/GA doesn't have "US-Temp", you'll get the Lua error. Imzadi 1979  05:29, 8 January 2019 (UTC)
I just looked at that module. Neither the "US-Temp" nor the year-specific entries are listed. I would add them myself, but I don't want to damage the module. Could someone add them, please? Morriswa (Charlotte Allison) (talk) 06:36, 8 January 2019 (UTC)
Well, I tried changing the module, copying and pasting from Module:Road data/strings/USA/MI, but I messed something up. Can someone tell me what I did wrong? When I did a preview of changing the US 17 Alt. (Savannah) entry from "US-Alt" to "US 1948-Alt", I got tons of Lua errors, and nearly all of the entries in the table disappeared. So, I backed out of the edit window. I haven't tried changing the US 41 Temp. (Atlanta–Marietta) entry to see if it works, yet. Morriswa (Charlotte Allison) (talk) 07:11, 8 January 2019 (UTC)
I had to revert my edit, since it messed up code (somewhere!) and thus messed up Georgia pages across the encyclopedia. Here is the diff of what I added. Morriswa (Charlotte Allison) (talk) 08:16, 8 January 2019 (UTC)
A reason for a problem would be "abbr = MI["US-Byp"].abbr," where MI is used instead of GA. Johnuniq (talk) 08:26, 8 January 2019 (UTC)
@Johnuniq: thank you for pointing that out. I thought I had changed all the abbreviations over. I guess I was wrong. I will try again. Morriswa (Charlotte Allison) (talk) 09:35, 8 January 2019 (UTC)
Sadly, that also didn't work. It messed up code. So, I had to revert this edit, too. Morriswa (Charlotte Allison) (talk) 10:08, 8 January 2019 (UTC)

Do it like this and it will work. –Fredddie 00:33, 9 January 2019 (UTC)

Are all of the types that you're trying to add necessary? I feel like US 1926-Temp is overkill. –Fredddie 00:35, 9 January 2019 (UTC)
@Fredddie: thank you for adding the first two entries. I modified the already-added 1948 Alternate and Business entries. However, one entry caused an error (I kept checking the code. I even copy-pasted from a working entry, and that didn't help.): "Lua error in Module:Routelist_row at line 277: Type not in database: US 1948-Alt." I don't know what this error entry is all about. I will wait until I add all known entries to the table before I modify the module, so I know exactly which entries are actually needed. Morriswa (Charlotte Allison) (talk) 07:57, 10 January 2019 (UTC)
As a side question, can you remind me as to exactly which years should be used for each entry? Is is 1926: 1926-1947; 1948: 1948-1960; and 1961: 1961-present? I just want to do this correctly. Thank you. Morriswa (Charlotte Allison) (talk) 08:01, 10 January 2019 (UTC)
For Georgia, I use 1926:1926-1948, 1948: 1948-1961, 1961:1961-2000, regular types for 2000-present. Clear as mud. –Fredddie 13:56, 11 January 2019 (UTC)
@Fredddie: thank you so much for that clarification. Do you know what is causing the Lua error on my page (listed above)? The code is correct, and copied from working entries. Morriswa (Charlotte Allison) (talk) 15:24, 11 January 2019 (UTC)
@Morriswa: you had |country=USA instead of |state=GA for that one row. There's a different Lua module for national-level items, and it wouldn't have all of the fancy vintage stuff in it. Imzadi 1979  17:32, 11 January 2019 (UTC)
Thank you for changing that. I think that, when I first added that entry, the Georgia one didn't work. I see now that it does. However, is there a way for the 1948 Georgia entries to show the Georgia-specific shields? If you follow the U.S. Route 78 Alternate (Alabama–Georgia) redirect link, it uses File:US 78 Georgia 1948.svg, instead of File:US 78 (1948).svg. Morriswa (Charlotte Allison) (talk) 02:47, 12 January 2019 (UTC)
I just added 1961 entries to the page. However, since one is the Alabama–Georgia entry, it is trying to link to "U.S. Route 78 Alternate (Alabama–Georgia, Georgia)", instead of "U.S. Route 78 Alternate (Alabama–Georgia)". How do I fix this? Morriswa (Charlotte Allison) (talk) 03:19, 12 January 2019 (UTC)

Major cities in the article introductions

There are three highways where I have recently seen back-and-forth editing and discussion in the talk pages about which cities should be listed in the intro:

Do we have a project-wide guideline for how many cities should be mentioned in the introductory paragraph of the article? I know there was discussion about the major cities box of the infobox, but I can't find anything about the introduction.

There seems to be a range of possibilities, since I-25 seems to include some smaller cities. Should it be just the biggest of the big? The ones with the most significant junctions? The ones with the largest population? One representative city per state? Obviously, there will be some variation—I mean, the I-90 intro is going to look vastly different from the I-97 one—but I'd like to get a reasonable degree of consistency in the articles—or at least get more eyes on the trouble spots I listed above. —C.Fred (talk) 21:08, 29 January 2019 (UTC)

We really don't have a formal guideline for what cities to mention in the lead. For a cross-country Interstate ending in 0 or 5, I say we limit it to major cities, such as state capitals or the state's largest cities by population along with other cities that can be deemed "major". I say a rough idea for a major city is one with over 100,000 people (not including suburbs of larger cities) or professional sports teams or a significant international airport. For shorter Interstates, more regional cities can be included. A rough idea for regional cities can be cities with over 25,000 people or cities that are big enough to constitute their major metropolitan area. Dough4872 21:18, 29 January 2019 (UTC)
A hard-and-fast rule would likely end up littered with exceptions, but in general I feel it should be limited to major metropolitan areas - one per state would probably work best for most nationwide interstates, maybe two depending on the situation. There's plenty of space in the route description for more. The list on Interstate 25 is right out, in my opinion. Two per state at the most, but I would not oppose limiting it to only Albuquerque, Denver, and Cheyenne. --Sable232 (talk) 22:47, 29 January 2019 (UTC)
I agree with Sable232 that Albquerque, Denver, and Cheyenne should be the only cities included in the lead for I-25, maybe adding in Santa Fe as well since it's a state capital. Dough4872 22:50, 29 January 2019 (UTC)
This seems like a redux of major cities in the infobox in a way. If you remember, we decided as a project to not include them because of the subjectivity. That being said, I don't like the idea of having a sentence that says "Highway X passes through A, B, and C." or a paraphrase thereof in every article just to have it. Any I really don't like the idea of hard-and-fast rules for when we do or don't mention cities. What should be happening since the lead is a preview of the article, any mentions of cities or metro areas should be natural. I would go as far as saying that if a lead would benefit from one of those lists of cities, the whole thing should be rewritten so it comes naturally. –Fredddie 00:50, 30 January 2019 (UTC)
This is a prime example. Scrap the whole thing and start over. –Fredddie 00:55, 30 January 2019 (UTC)
Over 10 years after the 10 junction limit came in for the infobox, we still struggle with editors deciding that they are just going to ignore consensus and explicit HTML comments and put 15 in. I worry about giving them another battlefield to make sure that their favorite cities get into the lead. However, I agree that we shouldn't just ignore cities entirely in the lead per Fredddie. --Rschen7754 01:58, 30 January 2019 (UTC)
Thinking out loud for a moment, I'm thinking that the idea of just listing a bunch of cities in a single sentence is just poor writing. There are more creative ways to work in the same information without the monotony of a long list. I've typically been of the opinion that a list of three examples as illustrations is normally plenty, something like "I-98 passes through Midwestern cities such as X, Y and Z", with a qualifying phrase ("such as") to denote that the listing isn't exhaustive, just illustrative. That will only work in a few cases though.

I took a stab at a better concept: expanding the state and city listing in the lead of the I-75 article into a narrative summary of the RD]. There's still room for a bit of expansion there, just so long as people remember that the lead is a summary, not a replacement for the body of the article. As a side note, you can list more cities naturally in such text without turning it into a sentence that will not end. Imzadi 1979  15:04, 30 January 2019 (UTC)

And another such edit: --Rschen7754 06:14, 5 February 2019 (UTC)

Also thinking out loud, IMHO this goes right along with 2 other USRD infobox practices that I think should be scrapped. First, the 10 most prominent junctions in the info-box. As Rschen states above people just ignore any comment or mention of guideline and cram _their_ hometown in. Second is the state level navigation boxes on U.S. and Interstate highway articles. (i.e. that directs one from U.S. Route 66 to Kansas route 67 as next and 65 as previous) (I have no idea if this example is correct, it illustrates the point even if not). In both cases. these sections have been subject to misuse. In both cases people just add "Hey you forgot that U.S. Route 66 also runs through New Mexico". IMHO they provide little value anyways. The Navbox only saves one mouse click, as the same information is likely in an article category at the bottom or a listicle linked in the infobox. Of course, every article has a junctions list that covers those 10 junctions. IMHO, just get rid of both of them. Now, back to listing cities in the lead. As a reminder the lead is supposed to be a summary of the rest of the article. So certainly if a city is not mentioned in the route description, it does not belong in the lead. I'm inclined to ban all "lists of cities" be it a literal list or a sentence in the lead that is a list with commas and a period at the end. How about the lead should only list a city as part of an actual non-list sentence? (For example, "The largest city served by the route is Springfield" and "In 1990 the highway was re-routed to bypass Springfield" are ok provided they are summarizing information elsewhere in the article.) Again, just thinking out loud. Dave (talk) 06:34, 5 February 2019 (UTC)
I'm not opposed to getting rid of either the junctions or the browse. I think the only reason we do the browses is because the original California routeboxes did them. That being said, we would probably have to disable it similar to how we disable cities in the US, since Infobox road is international. --Rschen7754 06:50, 5 February 2019 (UTC)
@Moabdave: that's why I wrote a paragraph summary of the RD for I-75, which actually gives more useful information than a monotonous list of cities, and funny thing, I was able to list more cities than where there before because they just naturally flowed with the rest of the text.

@Hraines46: please join us in this conversation here and please revert your recent edits pushing extra cities into those long, listy sentences in the batch of articles you edited within the last 24 hours. Wikipedia operates on a consensus model, and because this situation applies to more than just one article, we're discussing it in a centralized place. You may not have seen direct replies at the individual article talk pages, but I know C.Fred mentioned on Talk:Interstate 75 that he was going to discuss the situation here. Imzadi 1979  14:13, 5 February 2019 (UTC)


Hello? What is it?  Preceding unsigned comment added by Hraines46 (talkcontribs) 16:15, 5 February 2019 (UTC)

@Hraines46: we've been discussing general guidelines and best practices to handle the lead sections of these national-level highway articles. In short, many of us agree that a single sentence that's a long listing of cities is very poor writing. We'd like to hear your thoughts on all of this instead of seeing you edit several articles to change the city listings. Please read this as a strong suggestion to engage in conversation and to pause in article editing on this topic until we come to some conclusions on the best way forward. Imzadi 1979  17:42, 5 February 2019 (UTC)
So, if we can't use single sentences, what are we gonna do?  Preceding unsigned comment added by Hraines46 (talkcontribs) 19:30, 5 February 2019 (UTC)
Well, Hraines46, I've offered the concept of writing out a paragraph instead, as I did on the I-75 article. Remember, the lead is supposed to summarize the body of the article, and every section of the article should be summarized in the lead. So the paragraph I added is intended to summarize the route description section in the body of the I-75 article. Imzadi 1979  19:43, 5 February 2019 (UTC)
Yeah, writing it out, like the concept on I-75's page was nice. Will we have to do that for every page?  Preceding unsigned comment added by Hraines46 (talkcontribs) 20:10, 5 February 2019 (UTC)
@Hraines46: yes, that would be the better course of action. I know it's a lot easier just to slap additional cities into the sentence when you think they're missing, but you're creating text no one wants to read.

Additionally, you should take a look at WP:OVERLINK; we don't repeatedly link things in close proximity. For I-90, since "Seattle" is linked when it is first mentioned as a terminus, we wouldn't link any additional mentions of it in the lead.

On a side note, it would help a lot if you could do two things to follow proper talk page etiquette. First, indent your replies underneath others. My previous comments were preceded by three colons (:::), each one adding an indentation. Your reply should have been preceded by four colons (::::). You'll notice that my current reply has five (:::::), so if you reply to this, you should use six (::::::) colons to start your comments. Second, please end your comments with four tildes (~~~~). This code will be replaced by your signature. This is important so that we know who is saying what. After your last comment, a bot had to insert a signature for you, but then you edited your comments and removed that, so I had to add it back. As noted on your talk page, you should always sign your posts on talk pages. These are two simple, but very important things to do with any discussion on a talk page.

Thank you, Imzadi 1979  05:29, 6 February 2019 (UTC)


I don't understand.  Preceding unsigned comment added by Hraines46 (talkcontribs) 17:10, 6 February 2019 (UTC)

Interstate 80 in New Jersey

We are having an issue at Interstate 80 in New Jersey where an editor keeps adding cities to exit lists that are not on signs, which violates MOS:RJL. This editor has been constantly reverting me (See history) by adding the cities that are not on signs. Can someone please take care of this issue? I do not want to revert again. Dough4872 01:15, 17 January 2019 (UTC)

"Extra" parameters in Template:Jct

Is there any way to add multiple "extra" parameters (such as "extra=airport") to a {{Jct}} entry? Morriswa (Charlotte Allison) (talk) 00:22, 21 January 2019 (UTC)

Not in a single call. You can do something like this, though: {{jct|state=TX|extra=airport}}{{jct|state=TX|SH|151|extra=hospital}} SH 151. -happy5214 00:55, 21 January 2019 (UTC)
@Happy5214: thank you for the suggestion. I just implemented it on U.S. Route 17 in Georgia. Morriswa (Charlotte Allison) (talk) 01:50, 21 January 2019 (UTC)
I think it looks tacky to have the route marker sandwiched between two extra icons. We should find a way for {{jct}} to be able to call multiple extra parameters, for instance "extra1=" and "extra2=". Dough4872 02:12, 21 January 2019 (UTC)
I think nearly all instances of |extra= look tacky, especially all the hospitals. Instead of trying to shoehorn the template to fit your needs, why not review what you're trying to convey to our readers? –Fredddie 02:16, 21 January 2019 (UTC)
We're trying to convey what signage for exits say, which is what is called for in MOS:RJL, and sometimes exit signage includes hospital or airport icons. Dough4872 03:22, 21 January 2019 (UTC)
These icons really need to be in the string modules, not Module:Jct. We can fix both issues at once. -happy5214 20:50, 21 January 2019 (UTC)

Categories

An editor that is not a usual USRD editor removed Category:Proposed Interstate Highways from the Interstate 165 (Indiana) because it is no longer proposed. What I was wondering is this: Should the above category and the Category:Proposed U.S. Highways category be used on highways that were previously proposed but were later cancelled? Morriswa (Charlotte Allison) (talk) 00:05, 4 February 2019 (UTC)

Article categories should be in the present tense. Since I-165 was proposed but then canceled, it follows that should not be in the proposed category. The fact that there was a small edit war over this is really dumb. –Fredddie 02:52, 4 February 2019 (UTC)
Well, I didn't know that former proposals don't go in that category. So, how is that dumb? Can we make a category named "Former proposed Interstate Highways" or some other appropriate wording? Morriswa (Charlotte Allison) (talk) 15:02, 4 February 2019 (UTC)
The edit war was dumb. That's it. Anyway, I don't think we need a another category for these. Next we'll have "Former proposed Auxiliary Interstate Highways in Connecticut in 1994". –Fredddie 21:19, 4 February 2019 (UTC)
Doesn't Category:Cancelled highway projects in the United States cover situations like this? --Sable232 (talk) 23:18, 4 February 2019 (UTC)

Last exit before toll

After a discussion at Talk:U.S. Route 301 in Maryland, I noticed we never noted last exits before tolls in junction lists before, as in what is the last exit one would have to get off at before a toll road begins or before coming to a toll bridge or toll tunnel. In some states they note this on the green guide signs, usually in yellow on the bottom. I was wondering if we should start noting the last exit before tolls in junction lists in USRD articles. Dough4872 04:33, 30 January 2019 (UTC)

I think it would be worthwhile to include, especially if it's commonly listed on guide signs. --Sable232 (talk) 22:30, 1 February 2019 (UTC)
I don't think it's needed in most cases, but if it's included, please remember that exit lists can be read from the bottom up for the opposite direction of traffic. Imzadi 1979  00:09, 4 February 2019 (UTC)
Perhaps they should be denoted using a column-spanning note similar to the existing "Begin freeway / West end of freeway" notes. SounderBruce 00:22, 4 February 2019 (UTC)
If we do include these notes, we can use directions to to reader to make it more clear, such as "last northbound exit before toll". I think it would be better to include in the notes for the exit over a column-spanning note since the note pertains to a specific exit, and the column-spanning note would look more clunky. Dough4872 00:38, 4 February 2019 (UTC)
Agreed in opposition to a column span. That's been reserved for situations where the freeway transition doesn't correspond to an interchange; when it does, it's a note on the appropriate exit instead. Imzadi 1979  00:42, 4 February 2019 (UTC)
I think adding this to the notes column is reasonable. IMHO, knowing which exit is the last before a toll barrier is more useful than things we already tolerate in the exit lists.Dave (talk) 06:27, 6 February 2019 (UTC)

Tolls update

Hello everyone, A helpee in IRC help channel suggested that the information on tolls on articles: Florida State Road 408, Florida State Road 417, Florida State Road 429 are very old and need to be updated. Since I am unfamiliar with the information about tolls, could any of you guys have a look? Thanks! 1997kB (talk) 12:15, 9 February 2019 (UTC)

I don't have time to fix them myself, but this document has the updated toll rates for the Central Florida Expressway Authority tollways (near Orlando). -happy5214 01:34, 10 February 2019 (UTC)

Pelham Parkway

Some concerns over the neutrality of the above article were raised on my talk page here (I'll leave it when I archive on Friday). The OP's concerns appear, at least to my uninformed eye, to have some merit. I'm asking that any of you with interest or knowledge that would be pertinent to maybe look there with an eye to help. The OP was going to start a talk thread there, but doesn't seem to have done so yet. Thanks. John from Idegon (talk) 01:43, 28 February 2019 (UTC)

My mistake. I was working on other issues on the web, let alone Wikipedia, but the thought of the biased tone of that article never left my mind. ---------User:DanTD (talk) 04:52, 3 March 2019 (UTC)

Natcher parkway in Kentucky is now I-165

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