User:CaroleHenson/Byway guidelines

The following is an outline for scenic, historic, archaeological or geologic byways for U.S. Roads. Many of the standards for U.S. Roads apply to byways. Where there are differences, the items are highlighted in beige

Definitions

• Road articles: road article containing the information about construction history, costs, location of road junctions, etc.
• Byway articles: information on the byway designation, why it was chosen as a byway and by whom, and tourist information like location of historical markers, scenic turnouts, recreational sites, etc.
• Combined road / byways: in some cases the entire road is also a byway, such as New Mexico State Road 6563, which is the Sunspot Scenic Byway. In that case only one article is needed and it should have all the elements of a road + additional byway specific information, such as the history of the designation, type of designation, etc.

Names

• Article naming
  • Byways

    Draft: Use the designated name for the article name. For instance, the name used for the National Scenic Byway, Bureau of Land Management Back Country Byway, National Forest Scenic Byway, or state byway

  • Combination road / byway

    Draft: For combination road / byway articles, name the article according to the standards for naming roads and create a redirect page with the designated byway name to the road.

Article layout

• Introduction
• Infobox: Template:Infobox road

Extended content

** {{Infobox road see Template:Infobox road for field usage information |name= |alternate_name= |header_type= |type= <hist / scenic / other, see Template:Infobox road/doc/type, which may vary by country |country= <3 character code> |map_notes= |map_alt= |state= |counties= |maint= For nationally designated byways: 1) The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) oversees the National Scenic Byways (NSBs). A part of that system is the All-American Roads, and together, FHWA markets them on signage and websites as "America's Byways"., 2) The U.S. Forest Service (USFS) oversees the National Forest Scenic Byways (NFSBs) and 3) The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) oversees the BLM Back Country Byways (BCBs) |route= |history= |tourist= |map= |loop= |system= |length_mi= |length_km= |length_round= |length_ref= |established= |direction_a= |terminus_a= |junction= |direction_b= |terminus_b= |previous_type= if applicable |previous_route= if applicable |next_type= if applicable |next_route= if applicable }}

• Route description
  • Describe the path the road takes and the landmarks along the way, preferably in prose.
  • Type of byway
    • Scenic - It's important to note that it is very easy to go overboard with scenic routes and violate WP:NPOV; you can't just say a site is scenic, but you can cite that opinion to commentators like travel guides and media articles. See: Wikipedia:WikiProject U.S. Roads/New user orientation#Neutral point of view (WP:NPOV) Good example: Pierce Stocking Scenic Drive
    • Historic or archaeological - TBD
    • Cultural - TBD
    • Recreational - TBD
    • Natural - TBD
  • Overlapping or related byways in the same geographic region

    DRAFT Mention and link to byways that overlap the byway route or are related byways in the same geographic region

• Maps
• History
  • History of byway
  • Reason for byway designation
  • Applicable state and/or national designation history
• Junction list
  • Use if the article is for a combination road/byway - (verbiage TBD)
• Optional sections
  • Scenic opportunities - See Brockway Mountain Drive
  • Cultural significance - See M-1 (Michigan highway), also known as the Automotive Heritage Trail
  • Awards and recognition - See Brockway Mountain Drive
  • Future
• See also / Portals
  • Scenic byways in the United States
• References
• Further reading (optional)
• External links
• Coordinates - use of {{Attached KML}} instead the coordinates template. A KML will draw a line on a map to indicate the full route of a highway, and the coordinates template singles out one point to represent the road. The KML should be used whether or not an article has an infobox, and it's required to pass A-Class Review for the projects.
• Defaultsort
• Categories
  • For combination road/byway articles, see Categories
  • National and/or state byways, as applicable

Image use

• Images -

  Draft See The images section of the Manual of Style.

Sources

• State byway sites
• National byways sites, such as National Forest Scenic Byway, National Scenic Byway or BLM Back Country Byway, bearing in mind that some of the sites may not be recent
• Federal Highway Administration site
• Other reliable sources

Questions

1. How to address status of designation (current, discontinued)?: Strike out, applies only to list of byways  Done
2. How to address overlapping or related byways? Created a draft in Route description
3. Thoughts about definition of road/byway and the content in the two types of articles?
4. Sources of information - list of sources or types of sources: State Byway sites, books, other? National information? Created a draft Sources section
5. Style guidelines
   1. Route description in prose Added to Route description
   2. Images? Added Images section with draft
   3. Table use? Just for Points of interest table? Input?
6. How to fill out infobox for byways? Modify fields based upon Pierce Stocking Scenic Drive's infobox?  Done from multiple examples