Wikipedia talk:WikiProject U.S. Roads/Maryland/Archive 2

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Interstate 70 in Maryland

Given that we already have an Interstate 95 in Maryland article, should an Interstate 70 in Maryland article also be created? I feel that the Frederick Triangle Interchange construction, the truncation at the Baltimore City line, the history of the 70N/70 shuffle and the info that Scott Kozel has on the history of I-70 in Baltimore would provide more than enough meat to flesh out a route description and exit list. -TheOneKEA

Absolutely, I was thinking the same thing but never got around to starting the article myself. Generally, the criteria for creating a state-specific article are that the route passes through at least three states and doesn't have an overly short section in the state in question. I-70 definitely meets those criteria.-Jeff ^(talk) 02:34, 17 January 2007 (UTC)

Done! Interstate 70 in Maryland -TheOneKEA

U.S. Route Business Shields

For the U.S. Route XX in Maryland and U.S. Route XX Business (Placename, Maryland) articles, we need someone to make SVG representations of the new green Business U.S. shields MDOT SHA has begun to post for the U.S. Business routes. Any takers? -TheOneKEA

Been there, done that :). Have a look. I only created ones for US 1, US 13, and US 50, and they are of the form US X Business (MD). I even created a template so anyone can create more with an SVG editor, unfortunately I didn't do a 3-digit template yet, as far as I know though, there aren't any 3-digit US business routes in Maryland. Oh and by the way, you can get to these and other Maryland-specific highway shields through the "shield/sign gallery" link on the project page.-Jeff ^(talk) 05:46, 7 January 2007 (UTC)

U.S. Route 113 Business through Snow Hill, Maryland - it used to be MD 394. Thanks for the link to the shields - do you want them used on the Maryland-specific articles? -TheOneKEA

That would be nice, they are already used on the junction table in U.S. Route 50 in Maryland, so it would make sense to add them to the others as well. Thanks for the info on US 113 Business, I'll try to get that and the 3-digit template up tonight.-Jeff ^(talk) 17:44, 8 January 2007 (UTC)

They're both finished now, -Jeff ^(talk) 05:00, 9 January 2007 (UTC)

Thanks. Do you have one for US 15 Business through Emmitsburg, Maryland? -TheOneKEA

Done -Jeff ^(talk) 20:02, 19 January 2007 (UTC)

Standard for major junctions section

I've been working on a standard style for listing junctions, it can be found at user:Jeff02/test page#Road junction table, it's based off of the Interstate exit list table. If we need to, we can add collumns for example, for exit numbers for highways that have numbered exits. As far as what junctions to include, the best rule of thumb I have come up with is include junctions with signed numbered routes and junctions with other major roads. Comments?-Jeff ^(talk) 06:02, 3 November 2006 (UTC)

Well, seeing as I haven't gotten any comments yet, I'll assume its ready and start working on adding it to the editing guide as soon as I get the chance. So if anyone has any objections speak now!-Jeff ^(talk) 20:43, 30 November 2006 (UTC)

Wikipedia Day Awards

Hello, all. It was initially my hope to try to have this done as part of Esperanza's proposal for an appreciation week to end on Wikipedia Day, January 15. However, several people have once again proposed the entirety of Esperanza for deletion, so that might not work. It was the intention of the Appreciation Week proposal to set aside a given time when the various individuals who have made significant, valuable contributions to the encyclopedia would be recognized and honored. I believe that, with some effort, this could still be done. My proposal is to, with luck, try to organize the various WikiProjects and other entities of wikipedia to take part in a larger celebrartion of its contributors to take place in January, probably beginning January 15, 2007. I have created yet another new subpage for myself (a weakness of mine, I'm afraid) at User talk:Badbilltucker/Appreciation Week where I would greatly appreciate any indications from the members of this project as to whether and how they might be willing and/or able to assist in recognizing the contributions of our editors. Thank you for your attention. Badbilltucker 16:02, 30 December 2006 (UTC)

Counties traversed, especially with respect to Interstate articles

I feel the recent edit to Interstate 95 in Maryland, even though it brings the article in technical compliance with the project, is hugely to the detriment of the article. In accordance with the milepost numbering scheme, everything else in the article is listed in south-to-north order. The counties traversed, by contrast, is north-to-south. Why? —C.Fred (talk) 02:45, 6 January 2007 (UTC)

I didn't even realize that the Interstate project had a different standard for ordering, in that case I think it would be best to make everything in Interstate articles consistent with that project, I'll make sure to make that an exception to this project's editing guide.-Jeff ^(talk) 05:54, 7 January 2007 (UTC)

New Interstate shields

Just a heads up, I've just uploaded a new set of shields, state name Interstate shields with Maryland as the state name. They're all of the form I-XX (MD), and here's a link to the gallery I created for them: Commons:Maryland Interstate highway route markers. The next shields I want to do are the Key Bridge, JFK Highway, and Capital Beltway shields (as seen here and here), if anyone knows where I could find the official specifications for any of them or if you can think of other signs like these, it would be much appreciated.-Jeff ^(talk) 05:14, 19 January 2007 (UTC)

WikiProject Maryland

I noticed that the article on the Baltimore-Washington Parkway was part of WP:WikiProject Maryland, and found myself wondering whether or not any of the other articles within this project might benefit from dual membership (i.e. the articles on the Interstates, the Beltways, or the bridges/tunnels/historic routes/etc). Would it make any sense to add the project tag to such articles? -TheOneKEA

I certainly think that WikiProject Maryland could benefit from including the more notable roadways within their project's domain. It may be more relevant, however, to ask this question on their project's discussion page so that they can make their own determination of what roadways to include or exclude. --Thisisbossi 21:38, 30 January 2007 (UTC)

College Park Interchange

During my voluminous edit of Interstate 95 in Maryland I split off the section on the College Park Interchange into a new article. Seeing as how the Springfield Interchange has its own article, I created one for the alternate interchange; unfortunately I can't think of much else besides a full description of lane movements and a short history blurb to give the article any depth. Any suggestions from the WikiProject? -TheOneKEA

Airport Loop

Yesterday I created an article on the Airport Loop, a super-designation applied to segments of MD 162, MD 170 and MD 176 around BWI Airport near Baltimore. I was curious as to whether or not an article like this belongs in the WikiProject, and if it does, how it could be expanded - at the moment, it's just a route description and a few other blurbs. -TheOneKEA

I'm a fan of the belief that Wikipedia's electronic form effectively means that we can expand indefinitely, so every article is a good article so long as we can give at least some sort of encyclopedic context. Your article seems to do just that, so I definitely have no problem with it. Consider me too lazy to check myself, but make sure to provide links to this on any relevant highways -- whether by wikilinking in the main article or by adding it into a "See Also" section. Cheers! --Thisisbossi 22:29, 24 January 2007 (UTC)

Yeah, seems like a good idea to me. If I can find the specification (if there is one) for the route signs used along the Airport Loop then I could make SVGs of them to use in that article and/or the articles for the individual routes that form the Airport Loop.-Jeff ^(talk) 00:26, 25 January 2007 (UTC)

Maryland Route 222

I've recently made some substantial changes to this article in order to adequately cover Truck MD 222. I would like to know if the changes are acceptable to the WikiProject. -TheOneKEA

Looks good enough to me, except this sounds awkward: "paved with paving stones". I'm not a pavement materials expert by any means, but I like to think I'm at least somewhat familiar with the topic; and I'm not particularly sure what you mean by this... is it unpaved but filled in with loose stones? --Thisisbossi 23:39, 23 January 2007 (UTC)

No, it's paved with those paving stones that you see in people's front yards - those large, polygonal bricks that are meant to be fitted together into a tessellated pattern. That's what the entire shoulder of the traffic circle is made of. -TheOneKEA

They made a road out of those?! Wow, I'm going to have to pull that one up on our video log and show that around the office! --Thisisbossi 05:03, 24 January 2007 (UTC)

Interstate 81 in Maryland

Why does this article exist? According to the WikiProject's rules, I-81's Maryland segment is too short to make such an article worthwhile. Have the rules changed? -TheOneKEA

11 miles seems a bit short, I think it should probably be merged with Interstate 81, since that article's Maryland section is pretty short and merged with the West Virginia section. That is, unless we can come up with more to say about the route through Maryland.-Jeff ^(talk) 23:46, 22 January 2007 (UTC)

SHA Map Copyrights

I have in my possession a 1976 MDOT SHA Bicentennial map that has several "strip maps" on the reverse showing close-up details of I-70, I-81, I-83, I-95, and I-270 (linked images are from MDRoads). I would like to use these strip maps for the appropriate articles, but I can't (and won't) scan and upload them to Wikimedia until I can find out whether or not their copyright has either expired (the map is copyright 1975) or if it never existed in the first place (the map is public domain material). Does anyone know how I can find out this map's copyright status (short of e-mailing the SHA mapping department)? -TheOneKEA

Unless there's no copyright notice on the map, it's copyrighted. --NE2 12:28, 25 January 2007 (UTC)

As I expected. I wonder if the webmaster of MDRoads will be sent notice of infringement then. -TheOneKEA

Presumably it's in the grey area where the SHA doesn't generally care, but we don't take that risk. --NE2 17:27, 25 January 2007 (UTC)

Dealing with multiple-segment routes, part II

As noted in the talk page for Maryland Route 144, I am currently performing a major edit of that article. After I'm finished searching for incarnations of MD 144 I would like to know if the way I've chosen to present the route is acceptable to the WikiProject. -TheOneKEA

OK, editing is finished. I managed to find eight segments of MD 144, with a total mileage of 60 miles. If the article format is acceptable then I intend to apply it to Maryland Route 7, and maybe Maryland Route 18. -TheOneKEA

That works for routes made up of disjoint sections like Maryland Route 7 and Maryland Route 648 since it emphasizes that they are separate sections. Not sure about 18 though considering it's more of a continuous route than other routes made up of letter-suffixed sections, each section begins at the same intersection that the previous one ends at.-Jeff ^(talk) 03:28, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

About disconnected routes, I would suggest looking at WP:INSR for their guidelines about split routes.  V60 ^{VTalk · VDemolitions · VRoads} 17:39, 10 February 2007 (UTC)

Switch to {{Infobox road}}

Per WP:USRD/INNA, this project should switch to {{Infobox road}}, since this standardizes the look of any U.S. Road article. Comments? V60 ^{VTalk · VDemolitions · VRoads} 00:23, 6 February 2007 (UTC)

Looking at the number of parameters needed for that, I prefer the routebox we have, it keeps things simple. I wouldn't mind however, making {{Infobox Maryland highway}} look more like {{Infobox road}}. The only problem is that it might require a change in parameters.-Jeff ^(talk) 03:20, 6 February 2007 (UTC)

I managed to change the look without changing any parameters. It's not exactly the same as Infobox road, but it does have the standard look.-Jeff ^(talk) 04:05, 6 February 2007 (UTC)

The look's not that important. What is important, though, is that the functionality of the infobox must be expanded to suit our needs later on. For example, this project badly needs a navigation system on all infoboxes!!! Interstates already have the functionality, so shouldn't MD Routes have as well? Shields and routes can automatically be detected by just punching in a 2-letter state abbreviation and the route number. The From-to sort of orientation is outdated, for Pete's sake; what is supported now is more "West end" and "East end". Please check out Maryland Route 140 for what it would look like. V60 ^{VTalk · VDemolitions · VRoads} 06:02, 6 February 2007 (UTC)

It's just too generic, it requires a ton a parameters, many of which will be the same for all of this project's articles or not used at all (a perfect example being {{{section}}}, which is only used by two states). Is there any reason why states can't have their own routeboxes just like the Interstates have {{Infobox Interstate}}? I can understand having all routeboxes look the same and having the same info in the same places, but forcing every single road to use the same 30-parameter routebox is asking a bit much, especially when about half of those parameters aren't necessary for all roads. What I'm thinking is that I can create a new routebox for the project that looks exactly like Infobox road, perhaps using Infobox road as a backend. What does everyone think?-Jeff ^(talk) 13:02, 6 February 2007 (UTC)

WP:INNA does not restrict states having their own routeboxes (such as {{Infobox MA Route}} for WP:MASH), but it is recommended that states use {{Infobox road}} or one that calls, not look exactly like {{Infobox road}}. V60 ^{VTalk · VDemolitions · VRoads} 16:20, 6 February 2007 (UTC)

The initial changes to the template are done, I gave some of the parameters different names then the ones used in {{Infobox road}} for backwards compatibility reasons, you'll notice that all the existing articles already use the "new" routebox. The parameters in all of these articles now need to be cleaned up to conform to the standard style used for them in Infobox road, but at least for now these boxes are at least comprehensible.-Jeff ^(talk) 18:04, 6 February 2007 (UTC)

Cool. But I have a long term solution, similar to the ones formerly held at WP:USH and WP:IH (change from routeboxtype to Infobox Type), and this project can do it as well. I'll try using Infobox road on 20-30 articles, and see if people like Infobox road or the current routebox better. V60 ^{VTalk · VDemolitions · VRoads} 20:42, 6 February 2007 (UTC)

Personally I would prefer if the articles used {{Infobox Maryland highway}} since it is now compliant with US roads project standards and if we ever want to create a default value for a parameter (for example 2 for length_round since the Maryland HLRs always round to two decimal places), we can modify Infobox Maryland highway and the default value would be applied across all articles in this project.-Jeff ^(talk) 16:49, 7 February 2007 (UTC)

The only problem with the new routebox is that it kills the first bullet point in the routes junctioned listing. -TheOneKEA

Exactly why we need to change the bulleted lists to <br />-separated lists.-Jeff ^(talk) 02:12, 8 February 2007 (UTC)

The standards doesn't encourage bulleted junction lists.  V60 ^{VTalk · VDemolitions · VRoads} 18:33, 7 February 2007 (UTC)

Interesting. I guess Jeff02 will have to fix that at some point. -TheOneKEA

UPDATE: I feel that the bog-standard {{Infobox road}} should be used for the U.S. route articles and the Interstate articles - I have it in place at U.S. Route 15 in Maryland and U.S. Route 29 in Maryland. Using it for the Maryland state highway articles should be decided by the WikiProject - examples of how it will look can be found at Maryland Route 30 and Maryland Route 70.

There are specialized versions of {{Infobox road}}, such as {{Infobox Interstate}}. I think we should use those on their respective articles and use {{Infobox Maryland highway}} for the state highways, since it is basically now one of those specialized versions.-Jeff ^(talk) 02:20, 8 February 2007 (UTC)

Decommissioned Highways

What type of articles should be created to describe decommissioned highways? Should a routebox parameter be created that allows a decommissioning date to be included? Should the decommissioned highways go in a mega-article like the minor highways? -TheOneKEA

All of these decommissioned highways can be merged in one article. The setup can be similar to Deleted California State Routes.  V60 ^{VTalk · VDemolitions · VRoads} 21:46, 7 February 2007 (UTC)

Sounds like a good idea, I'll go ahead and start it. List of decommissioned Maryland state highways-Jeff ^(talk) 02:36, 8 February 2007 (UTC)