Talk:Shipping route

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Shipping lanes and shipping routes are two completely separate concepts.

A shipping lane (more correctly a Traffic Separation Scheme) is a defined geographic area, with vessels of certain characteristics, travelling in only one direction, and following the international and inland Navigation Rules. For example, there exists a pair of shipping lanes off the coast of Southern California to facilitate north/south ship traffic without interference from other vessels. They are a legally defined unit and clearly demarked as lanes on the charts.

A shipping route is more generally defined as the general path a vessel would take across a body of water. It does not describe a legal entity, but rather the track by which a ship would generally go. Routes would be drawn on a map of an ocean or where entire continents are shown.—Preceding unsigned comment added by 66.59.246.145 (talk • contribs) 2006-10-11T00:28:16