Wikipedia:Notability (streets and roads)
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The following is a proposed Wikipedia policy, guideline, or process. The proposal may still be in development, under discussion, or in the process of gathering consensus for adoption. Thus references or links to this page should not describe it as "policy". |
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This is a proposal under creation. Your input is valued and encouraged. |
| Notability |
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All Wikipedians agree that there cannot be an article about every little side street in the world. But there should be a general guideline as to what makes a street or road notable for inclusion in an article of its own. I have created many articles on roads where I live, and expanded on others that already exist. A few have been proposed for deletion, with varying results. The AFD debates that have resulted have opened up the discussion as to what is required for a road to be notable.
In my opinion, a road is notable if it fits into one or more of the following criteria:
- Roads that link two or more cities, towns, or communities should generally be considered notable. These are the type of roads you would find on a wall map or road atlas that does not display every little side street, but does show main roads. If you were to look at a detailed street map of a neighborhood, these would be the roads that you would view as the "main road" (or few roads) of the community or town.
- In the downtown area of a major city with a gridlike pattern of streets, the major streets that are considered the city's main streets would be considered notable. However, more minor streets (which there are in most downtowns) would not be considered notable, unless some other factor else establishes them as such. For example, in Manhattan, where there are a few major north-south streets which transverse the town a long distance (mostly numbered Avenues), these would be considered notable. However, not all west-east numbered streets would be considered notable. Most of these are narrow, with one lane for thru traffic, and parking on each side. A few (like 79th and 86th Streets, for example) are wider, transverse Central Park, have bus lines operating on the streets, and other stand-out factors like these, and therefore, would be considered notable.
- In Washington, DC, not all lettered or numbered streets are notable. But a few major ones, like K Street or 16th Street are notable.
- A side street or small road divided by a yellow line that is contained to one area and is not close to being the "main" road in the area is generally not notable. Exceptions are if the street plays some role in popular culture (such as being the location of a major news event or is featured in a movie), or is the subject of some highly notable writing.
- One of the arguments that has made been made in some AFD debates is that a road has to be "numbered." This in no way is a limit to what streets and roads could have articles. There are many streets that are not numbered routes that all agree are notable. Besides, some jurisdictions do not have numbered routes. Being a numbered route is no free pass to notability either; there are many short, seemingly unimportant roads that just happen to have route numbers.
- Roads that are contained to one town, suburb, or other similar area that have a high importance within that area alone, but do not connect to other areas, and do not merit and article of their own can be mentioned with a few short paragraphs within the article about that town. Such lists may also include roads that do have articles, accompanied by the {{main}} tag. See Owings Mills, Maryland#Transportation for an example. Such a list, however, should not be indiscriminate and include every little side street. A road that is listed should have some signifigance, such as a major landmark being located on the road.
- In a major city, a page listing streets within the city can be created to list streets that do and do not have articles. See List of streets in Baltimore, Maryland for an example. Once again, such a list cannot be indiscriminate and include every little side street Sebwite (talk) 00:04, 24 January 2008 (UTC)
- Are you specifically addressing roads or highways here? --Rschen7754 (T C) 00:13, 24 January 2008 (UTC)
