Wikipedia:WikiProject U.S. Roads/Standards
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The U.S. Roads WikiProject has a standard page format that all users generally agree should be followed. These standards are not set in stone, however, and can be ignored if the particular highway warrants it. Please note that WP:MOS, the Wikipedia-wide Manual of Style, should be also be followed; in cases where the two conflict, follow the MOS instead. (You should probably also bring the conflict to the project's attention so this document can be amended to comply with MOS.) Also, be advised that many of the state subprojects specify different standards that may override these, so check with the applicable subprojects to see what other standards apply.
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[edit] Notability
Before writing an article on a highway, you should check to make sure it is notable. Interstate, U.S. Routes, and state highways are always notable. Other streets, roads, and highways may not be. Check Wikipedia:Notability and Wikipedia:WikiProject U.S. Roads/Notability to ensure your article won't be deleted due to notability concerns.
[edit] Names
The standard article naming convention (where the page is located) for interstate highways is "Interstate [number]", and the convention for U.S. highways is "U.S. Route [number]". State highway articles are generally titled in the form "[State] [road type] [number]" (e.g. Missouri Route 13, Oklahoma State Highway 3, New York State Route 17). Kansas and Michigan are the exception to this general trend, due to those states' DOTs naming their highways as "K-[number]" and "M-[number]" respectively. Each state's convention is listed at the page listed above. Naming conventions were determined after a long period of conflict, so ignoring or proposing drastic changes to these conventions is contentious.
[edit] Displayed text for links
Displayed text for links to routes in the infobox should be an abbreviated form. Use a common abbreviation for that state.
| Incorrect | Correct |
|---|---|
| New York State Route 15 | NY 15 |
| Oklahoma State Highway 51 | SH-51 |
| Interstate 99 | I-99 |
| U.S. Route 20 | US 20 |
Highway names in the main body of the article (i.e. in the prose, not in the infobox) can either be abbreviated as above or written out fully. Note that the name of the state should generally be dropped when it is not part of the official name and is unambiguous, e.g. Route 76, not Missouri Route 76. (See WP:USSH for details.)
Use the standard abbreviations for bannered routes ("BUS", "BYP", "ALT",...) for the displayed text. Their mixed-case counterparts ("Bus., "Byp.", "Alt.",...) are equally acceptable.
| Incorrect | Correct |
|---|---|
| U.S. Route 222 Business US 222 Business |
US 222 BUS |
| West Virginia Route 10 Alternate WV 10 Alternate |
WV 10 ALT |
| U.S. Route 66 Bypass US 66 Bypass |
US 66 BYP |
Shorter banners, such as Loop, Spur, and Truck can either be abbreviated or used in their full form.
[edit] Infobox
All articles should include an infobox. In most cases, {{Infobox road}} should be used. (Further documentation on fields the infobox accepts can be found on its template page.) Many state subprojects use a state-specific infobox based upon Infobox road, such as {{Infobox NH Route}} for New Hampshire.
[edit] Maps
Articles should include a map showing the route the highway takes. The Maps Task Force is responsible for the creation and maintenance of all
[edit] Major intersections
In the major intersections section of the infobox, there are to be no more than 10 junctions listed. These are preferably Interstates; on longer articles, the most major interstates (those ending in 0 or 5) should be the only ones mentioned. A shorter route can have more minor junctions, but the 10 junction limit still applies regardless. The major intersection list in the infobox should be a <br/> (line break)-delimited list. Breaks in segmented routes can be reflected in this field with a <hr> (horizontal rule).
Lists of cities or counties should be a comma-delimited list.
[edit] State abbreviation for communities
Do not include the state abbreviation with town names for the junction list for a state highway (as it is implied that the town in question is in the same state as the road). Do include the state abbreviation in every other case.
[edit] USSH incorporation
All items addressing the infobox in WP:USSH apply here as well.
[edit] Browsing
The bottom section of the infobox provides a field for browsing all highways in a state in numerical order. This section standardizes the order they should be laid out in.
[edit] Type codes
By default, three types are enabled for all states: Interstate, U.S. route and state highway. To generate the correct type, the following should be entered into "previous_type" or "next_type", where applicable:
- Interstate for Interstates
- US for U.S. routes
- 2-letter state abbreviation for state highways
In some states, redirects exist for state highway types but making more redirects is not necessary nor recommended.
Bannered routes (such as West Virginia Route 10 Alternate) should not be included in the browse. Suffixed routes (such as New York State Route 252A) should. Use the "spur_of/spur_type" parameter for bannered routes instead.
[edit] Browsing precedence
Precedence for browsing is as follows:
| Interstate | → | U.S. route | → | State highway |
 I-58 |
 US 58 |
 Route 58 |
Interstates with the same number should be ordered first, followed by U.S. routes, followed by primary state highways. If any secondary state or county highway systems are present, they may be included at the discretion of the state subproject. The state subproject should also determine the browsing order for their secondary highways.
[edit] Article layout
Articles should include a set of standard sections that cover various aspects of the route. This ensures more complete coverage and provides a standardized look-and-feel. Articles covered by a subproject should use any modifications to the structure specified by the subproject. All articles not covered by a subproject use the below structure. Sections can be added or modified as necessary.
[edit] Infobox
Articles should use Infobox road, and all known info should be supplied. See the the template documentation for applicable flags and WikiProject U.S. Roads/Article Templates#Infobox for standards for the routebox.
[edit] Lead
Untitled section that describes the route. It might be helpful for formatting to use {{TOCleft}} at the top of this section to display the table of contents on the top left, followed by the main description of the route. Depending on the route this section may just name the direction (E/W or N/S) and termination points, or may go into considerable detail. However, the majority of detail, such as progress by town or county, should be reserved for the next section.
[edit] Route description
This section is for describing the route itself and its progression across the state. Regardless of the route's length, progression should be described from south to north, west to east.
[edit] History
Any historical information known about the route should be noted. Historical routes that other pages redirect to in the article (for example, NY 36A in NY 63) should be bolded.
[edit] Services
This section is optional. If the road offers any special motorist services (such as motorist aid hotlines, service plazas, a dedicated law enforcement unit, call boxes, or a travel radio station), discuss them here. If very little can be written about the services (less than about two paragraphs or so) then this section should be merged into the route description. Most of these extra services are associated with turnpikes, and so this section will be less common on articles about free roads.
[edit] Tolls
For articles on turnpikes only. This section should cover the cost to drive the entire turnpike, the system used to assess tolls (barrier, ticket-based, or wholly electronic), where toll plazas are located, and what, if any, electronic tolling system is accepted (EZ-Pass or its equivalents) and whether open-road tolling is available.
[edit] Major intersections or Exit list
The contents of this section may vary by route. Refer to the table below for the appropriate section header and further instructions.
| Route composition | Section header title | What should be here |
|---|---|---|
| All grade-separated interchanges; no at-grade intersections | Exit list | An exit list. |
| Mixture of grade-separated interchanges and at-grade intersections | Major intersections or Exit list | Depending on the route in question, either a junction table or a "combo" exit list featuring exits and intersections can be used. See Pennsylvania Route 60 for an example. |
| All at-grade intersections; no grade-separated interchanges | Major intersections | A junction list |
Exit lists should be designed in accordance with the international exit list guide. There is no set standard for junction lists, but the de facto standard is to use the {{jcttop}}, {{jctint}}, {{jctco}}, and {{jctbtm}} system of templates to create a junction table. State subprojects may have specialized versions of these templates customized to address issues pertaining to that state.
[edit] See also
Place all internal links here.
[edit] References
Place all references here, using the <ref></ref> tags in the article and the {{reflist}} tag in this section.
[edit] External links
Place all external links which are not references here.
[edit] Categories
All state highways should be filed into the correct category. (Look at a similar article from the same highway system to determine which is the correct category.) Sortkeys for the category should be of the form nnnA, where nnn is 3-digit route number, and A is the letter designation if any (e.g. Route 1A is "001A", Route 2 is "002").
[edit] Deprecated sections
These sections may be present in older articles. If found, they should be removed from the article, their contents merged elsewhere.
[edit] Communities along the route
Formerly, this section contained a list of communities, which could range from small hamlets to large cities, along the route. Depending on the length of the route this may include only major communities, or just the few hamlets the route passes through.
This section has been dropped, as all cities should be mentioned in the route description. When found in an article, ensure all cities listed are mentioned in the route description, and remove the section.
[edit] Miscellanea
This section is deprecated per WP:TRIVIA. It included trivia or facts about a route (any interesting information that doesn't belong in the History section) should be placed in this section.
[edit] Shields
Shields displayed at the top of the infobox should be 70px in height. (For most wide three-digit shields, this will require a width of 88px.) Auxiliary/banner plates (Alternate, business, etc.) should be 70px in width. Shields in the infobox, junction lists, and exit lists should be 20px in height (requiring a width of 25px for most wide three-digit shields), except in the event where a 20px height will cause the shield to be less than 20px in width. In this event, the shield should be 20px in width.
Shields should not be placed inline in the middle of paragraphs.
[edit] Talk pages
{{U.S. Roads WikiProject}} should be placed at the top of all talk pages of articles related to U.S. Roads with the "state" parameter set to either:
- Interstate for U.S. Interstate Highways
- US for U.S. Routes
- two letter state abbreviation for any state article (regardless of the existence of a subproject)
For non-route articles that do not pertain to a state, leave this option off the template to display the standard U.S. Roads banner.
