Wikipedia:WikiProject U.S. Roads/Newsletter/Issues/Volume06/Issue01#Project looks ahead to new year

Editor: Rschen7754

File:Wikidata-logo-en.svg

;What is Wikidata?

Wikidata's goal is to be a data repository for all Wikimedia Foundation sites.

;What is a data repository?

In short, this site will hold data that is used on different language Wikipedias; it will be like Commons for data.

;How will it affect the U.S. Roads WikiProject?

There's two phases so far: Phase 1 is enabling interwiki links to be handled through Wikidata, allowing for a central repository and more efficient handling of them. Phase 2 will allow for infobox data to come from Wikidata, which would affect us greatly.

;How does Wikidata work?

We create an item for each article, and indicate the wikis that have an article for this item. However, the interwiki linking is not yet live. It will go live to the Hungarian Wikipedia on January 14; the English Wikipedia is fourth in line.

;What needs to be done?

We are still finishing Phase 1 setup for our articles. As of this writing, we have 24 states that still need items created to enable Phase 1 when it goes live on the English Wikipedia. Phase 2 has yet to be built on the site.

;How can I help?

We now have a task force at d:WD:USRD to coordinate our efforts and to discuss how phases 1 and 2 will be implemented for road articles.

;Why don't we have a task force at Commons, Meta, or Wikisource?

Well, we do now! See commons:COM:USRD, m:USRD, and wikisource:WS:USRD.

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:Contributors: Fredddie

After a two year absence, the USRD Cup is returning! If you're not familiar with it, the USRD Cup is a contest similar to WP:CUP, but points are only awarded for contributing to and improving USRD articles. Editing areas that earn points are divided into four categories: class improvement, article recognition (GAN, ACR, FAC, etc.), media (pictures, maps, shields, KMLs), and project participation (reviewing articles). Special bonuses will be awarded for performing certain tasks.

If you would like to participate, please sign up at Wikipedia:WikiProject U.S. Roads/Cup. Three rounds are planned, but this may be shortened to two rounds. Regardless, the first round starts on February 1.

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:Contributor: Dough4872

As USRD heads into a new year, it is a good time to reflect at what has happened over the past year and plan for the upcoming year. In 2012, the project saw the achievement of several goals. Among these was the reduction of the stub count, with a total of 100 stubs lost. In addition, the junction lists in all GA and better articles have been converted to the {{tl|jctint}} templates. However, we were unable to destub all the Interstate and U.S. Route articles; work on that goal will continue this year. As of January 6, 45 stubs remain among the Interstate and U.S. Route articles. The project also has other goals set for 2013. One of the goals is to lower the relative WikiWork of the entire project to 4.400. In addition, the project is aiming to have 25 states completely destubbed by the end of the year, with 11 states destubbed so far.

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;State and national updates

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:Editor: Fredddie

This is a list of the top ten states as of January 17, 2012.

The top ten states are largely the same, but Iowa has moved ahead of Arizona and Oklahoma has bumped out Minnesota. For the first time ever, all of the states in the top ten have a relative WikiWork under 4.000. For complete stats updated almost daily, check out WP:USRD/A/S. Now here is the project as a whole.

Since the last issue, we have added five featured articles—M-553 (Michigan highway), H-58 (Michigan county highway), Interstate 80 in Iowa, Interstate 696, and California State Route 56—and 26 new good articles were promoted. For the first time ever, the number of C-Class articles has surpassed the number of stubs!

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• WP:HWY/TFA was created in October to track potential choices for the Today's Featured Article (TFA) spot on the Main Page.
• MOS:RJL was amended to provide colors for exits with electronic toll collection (ETC) and high-occupancy vehicle (HOV) restrictions. The ETC-only color is a shade of purple while the HOV-only color is yellow. A second amendment changed the formatting for the summary-style lists on national-level highway articles form bulleted lists to the semicolon-generated definition list format.
• There was a discussion about implementing AL-Class, an A-Class for lists, and reviewing the articles through the existing ACR process. No action has been implemented yet. ACR's promotion requirements were changed to require three supports, and image review, and a spotcheck in November.
• Wikipedia:Notability (geographical features) has been promoted to a guideline that would cover highway articles in addition to other geographic features.
• Open reviews for USRD:
• One Featured Article Candidate, California State Route 52
• Dour open A-Class Reviews, Kansas Turnpike, Interstate 96, Michigan State Trunkline Highway System, and California State Route 67
• Six Good Article Nominees as of press time

;California

All California junction lists are now on the RJL templates. In addition to this, a drive is underway to get all San Diego County highway articles to FA. California State Route 56 is now a FA, California State Route 52 is now at FAC, and California State Route 67 is at ACR, with more on the way. —Rschen7754

;Florida

Florida's articles are slowly improving since the discovery of FDOT's [http://www2.dot.state.fl.us/straight-linesonline/ straight line diagrams]. At the very least, junction lists and lengths in general can now be cited to three decimal places.—Fredddie

;Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania Turnpike became a GA in October; that article will be going to ACR. In addition, the state gained three new GA's in December. —Dough4872

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;July

File:Interstate 470.jpg

Interstate 470 (I-470) is a {{convert|10.63|mi|km|adj=mid|-long}} loop of Interstate 70 bypassing the city of Wheeling, West Virginia. The western terminus of the freeway is at an interchange with I-70 near Blaine, Ohio. The highway uses the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Bridge to cross the Ohio River. Its eastern terminus is at I-70 near Wheeling Park. Construction began in 1975 in the two states but due to a chronic lack of funding, construction in Ohio was stalled between 1976 and 1981. By 1983, both states had completed construction on the freeway. (more...)

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;July

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;August

State Route 40 (SR 40) is a state highway in the U.S. state of Georgia. The highway runs {{convert|30.46|mi|km}} from U.S. Route 1 (US 1), US 23, and US 301 in Folkston east to Church Street in St. Marys. SR 40 is the primary east–west highway of eastern Charlton and southern Camden counties. SR 40 was assigned to the Folkston–St. Marys highway in the early 1920s. The highway was first improved in the mid-1920s and paved by the early 1940s. The highway was extensively relocated between Folkston and Kingsland in the mid-1960s. SR 40 was expanded to four lanes, much of it divided highway, east of Kingsland in the 1980s. (more...)

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;August

File:I5inPortlandNight.jpg

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;September

File:Kansas City, Missouri 1955 Yellow Book.jpg

Interstate 470 (I-470) is a {{convert|16.72|mi|km|adj=on}} loop of the Interstate Highway System that serves to link southeast Kansas City to Independence via Lee's Summit in Jackson County, Missouri. The western terminus of the freeway is at the Grandview Triangle interchange while the northern terminus is an cloverleaf interchange with I-70. Plans for a southern freeway were first published in 1955, and the first portions of I-470 were completed in 1970. By 1983 the entire freeway was open to traffic. (more...)

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;September

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;October

File:Orange Freeway southbound leaving the Kellogg Hill Interchange.jpg

State Route 57 (SR 57), also known as the Orange Freeway, is a north–south state highway in the Greater Los Angeles Area of California. It connects the interchange of Interstate 5 (I-5) and SR 22 near downtown Orange, locally known as the Orange Crush, to the Glendora Curve interchange with I-210 and SR 210 in Glendora. A predecessor to this road ran through Brea Canyon by the early 20th century and was added to the state highway system. The freeway was built in stages during the 1950s, one of which included the Brea Canyon Freeway; SR 57 was designated as part of the 1964 state highway renumbering. The final portion of the present-day Orange Freeway was not completed until the early 1970s. The latest piece of SR 57 to be added was formerly part of I-210, after SR 210 was extended to San Bernardino in 1998. An unconstructed extension from Santa Ana south to Huntington Beach remains in the legal definition of Route 57, and has been studied most recently as a toll road above the Santa Ana River. (more...)

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;October

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;November

File:Downtown Patterson, NY.jpg

New York State Route 311 (NY 311) is a state highway located entirely within Putnam County, New York. The highway begins at NY 52 in Lake Carmel and has a northern terminus at NY 22 just south of the Dutchess County line. Part of modern-day Route 311 was originally the Philipstown Turnpike, a road built in 1815. Another section was constructed in the early 1900s, from near the modern-day intersection of Route 311 and Route 164 to the Village of Patterson. In the 1930 renumbering of state highways in New York, the segment of former NY 39 east of West Patterson was renumbered to NY 311. and later a segment of NY 52 became part of an extended NY 311. (more...)

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;November

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;December

File:Interstate 696 and M-1 aerial.jpg

Interstate 696 (I-696) is an east–west auxiliary Interstate Highway in the US state of Michigan. The highway is also known as the Walter P. Reuther Freeway, named for the prominent auto industry union head in 1971. I-696 is a bypass route, detouring around the city of Detroit through the city's northern suburbs. It connects I-96 and I-275 at its western terminus in Novi and runs through suburbs before merging into I-94 at St. Clair Shores. Planning for the freeway started in the 1950s, and construction started on the first segment in 1961. The western third of the freeway opened in 1963, and the eastern third was completed in January 1979. The central segment was the subject of much controversy during the 1960s and 1970s. Various municipalities along this stretch argued over the routing of the freeway and various groups used federal environmental regulations to force changes to the freeway. These concessions delayed the completion of I-696 until December 15, 1989. (more...)

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;December

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The next quarterly issue should be out in April. The editors of the newsletter would like to hear from you, the reader. What do you like about the current format? What should be changed? Removed? Added? Your comments are needed.

Lastly, remember that this is your newsletter and you can be involved in the creation of the next issue released in the fall. Any and all contributions are welcome. Simply let yourself be known to any of the undersigned, or just start editing!

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• Dough4872 (contributor)

• Fredddie (editor)
• Imzadi1979 (editor)
• Rschen7754 (editor)

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