Draft:WikiProject UK geography/Road article improvements

Why are road articles notable?

UK road articles on Wikipedia are notable primarily for several reasons, based on Wikipedia’s guidelines on notability, which focus on the subject’s coverage in reliable sources and its impact on the public. The notability of these road articles can generally be attributed to the following:

1. Historical and Economic Significance: Many UK roads have a long history and have played critical roles in the development of transportation networks, trade routes, and the growth of towns and cities. Roads like the M1, A1, and A5 have been integral to the economic infrastructure, facilitating the movement of goods and people, making them historically significant.

2. Cultural Impact: Some roads have cultural significance, being mentioned in literature, music, or associated with major events. For example, roads such as the A303 are linked to Stonehenge, contributing to their cultural and touristic relevance.

3. Coverage in Reliable Sources: Many UK roads have been extensively documented in books, government reports, news articles, and transportation studies. This reliable and independent coverage helps meet Wikipedia’s general notability guidelines.

4. Engineering and Infrastructure Importance: Certain roads are notable for their engineering, construction techniques, or major infrastructure projects, such as motorways, tunnels, or bypasses. These aspects often attract coverage in specialist publications about civil engineering and transportation.

5. Traffic and Public Interest: Major roads, especially motorways and trunk roads, often feature in news reports due to their role in accidents, roadworks, or their importance in daily commutes. The public's dependency on these roads elevates their relevance.

6. Government and Policy Focus: Roads are frequently the focus of government policy, investment, and legislation, often featured in parliamentary discussions or government publications. This can make road development and maintenance a notable topic for public interest and documentation.

Through these factors, UK road articles maintain notability by demonstrating their significance in historical, cultural, economic, or infrastructural terms, supported by coverage in various reliable sources.

Structure of articles

Main page: Wikipedia:WikiProject/Highways

Each article should have an infobox, which is typically Infobox road, and a lead section which introduces all the article sections. The first sentence should provide a definition of the article subject, including location. If there is another common abbreviation for the subject, state it in the lead section. A map and image help the article. This is an example of map layout adopted by the U.S. Roads WP.

The use of lists is discouraged; prose or tables should be used when more appropriate. For further exploration of road article structure, see road articles that are Featured Articles or any of the subprojects.

Infobox

As of 2010, the standard infobox, {{infobox road}}, has been updated to accommodate roads worldwide, and the subtemplates have been set up already for these countries. There is also {{infobox road junction}} for articles on individual junctions or interchanges.

Maps and images

Use a standard highway map style. Identify articles about highways and routes that need maps and place a regional request map template on the talk page. For further information see Images and media or Commons map resources. Identify and categorize existing historical highway maps, and list them at here. Add {{Image requested}} to the talk page of the road article, the request will end up in one of these Wikipedia requested photographs in places categories.

Route description

Each article should have a prose description of the route. One uniform direction should be followed; for example, in the United States, all route descriptions progress from south to north and from west to east.

History / Future

Where applicable, each article should have a history section and / or a future section, describing past and present affairs of this route. Details in the future section must be verifiable and not speculation, per WP:CRYSTAL.

Junction list / Exit list

Each article should have a list of junctions, or where applicable, a list of exits. This is normally not just a list; it needs to be in a table format. Exit lists need to follow MOS:RJL, the international road junction list section of the Manual of Style, as well. Here is a page of junction templates.

Stub sorting

• The most general stub type for road and highway articles is {{road-stub}}.
• Use the most specific stub type applicable which are listed on the specific geographical wikiprojects listed above.
• Multiple stub templates can be used on a stub, but avoid adding more than two stub templates to any specific article.
• In order to create a new stub type, identify at least around 50 articles that would fall into the proposed stub category and then make a proposal on the WikiProject Stub sorting/Proposals page.

Categories

• The most general category for highway and road articles is Category:Roads
• Use the most specific categories applicable, deferring to the above only when the existing categories are not appropriate.
• Do not place articles into both a category and that category's parent category, but use the more specific of the two.

Article Assessments

Highways articles by quality and importance Quality Importance Top High Mid Low NA ??? Total FA 1 8 9 FL 1 1 FM 2 2 A 1 1 2 GA 5 27 37 69 B 6 23 73 42 144 C 12 35 262 255 564 Start 9 67 1,115 1,000 2,191 Stub 5 78 5,351 2,660 8,094 List 9 98 1,227 111 11 1,456 Future 1 82 7 90 Category 51 4 1,181 1,236 Disambig 32 1 104 137 File 16 16 Portal 1 1 Project 5 35 40 Redirect 5 319 78 508 910 Template 1 3 498 502 NA 6 6 Other 7 1 2 10 Assessed 42 314 8,552 4,208 2,353 11 15,480 Unassessed 12 1 2 15 Total 42 314 8,564 4,208 2,354 13 15,495 WikiWork factors (?) ω = 62,295 Ω = 5.63