User:AlphaBeta135/About

In May 2018, I created this account on Wikipedia with an initial interest of improving articles about U.S. streets and roads. Over the years, I have improved articles on streets and highways in Chicagoland, the state of Illinois, and beyond. I added interactive maps (e.g. IL 111 and the A1(M)), route description and history on numerous articles about Wisconsin state highways (e.g. WIS 86), and missing AASHO reports in the 1930s and 1940s sections.

In recent times, however, I gradually became less inclined to primarily edit road-related articles, focusing instead on articles beyond the scope of WP:USRD. Multiple reasons for my declining interest include real life and shifting interests (e.g. editing public transit articles).

The end of WP:USRD?

For the issue I responded below, see Wikipedia:WikiProject U.S. Roads/Newsletter/Issues/Volume10/Issue01.

In early September 2023, I discovered that part of the WP:USRD community is moving to a new wiki they made. I was not expecting a Wikipedia community to migrate to their own wiki as this was new for me. Their wiki is not too dissimilar to another wiki that SABRE made; SABRE's articles primarily cover roads in the British Isles.

I was completely unaware that there was a dispute over notability and sourcing on WP:USRD articles. When I first found out about this dispute, I discovered that key USRD editors were concerned about points of contention that arose from several deletion nominations (e.g. MN 91). I never expected editors questioning the notability and sourcing of USRD articles to such degree.

Urbanism and USRD

I rode many miles by bicycle, but drive zero miles by auto (as of January 2024). However, my mode of choice should not invalidate years of hard work as someone who edited several articles on roads/highways.

It is unlikely that the growing popularity of New Urbanism, check out Not Just Bikes and Strong Towns, contributes to USRD dissociating from Wikipedia. I do not believe in unfounded conspiracy theories and speculations. The community's growing discontent over the issue of WP:GEOROAD likely coincides, but is not the result of New Urbanism's growing popularity. I refuse to elaborate further on urbanism to avoid triggering another controversy within the USRD community.

Of course, this section might be a bit too soon as I don't know what the future is going to hold for the North American roadgeek community on Wikipedia.

What does this mean for me?

Throughout 2023, I rarely edit articles that fall under the scope of WP:USRD, with a few being as significant as creating U.S. Route 40 in Missouri. This is unlike 2020-2022, when I made interactive maps, published AASHTO reports, "de-stubbed" Wisconsin highway articles, etc. In fact, a lot of edits I have performed in 2022-2023 came from editing articles about public transit in Chicagoland (CTA and Metra). In sum, I have taken a step back from the USRD community. I am not expected to continue regularly editing road-related articles or create an account on the AARoads Wiki.