Talk:Transportation in South Florida/GA1

GA Review[edit]

Article (edit | visual edit | history) · Article talk (edit | history) · Watch

Reviewer: Imzadi1979 (talk · contribs) 02:56, 28 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

GA review (see here for what the criteria are, and here for what they are not)

The following three links are to disambiguation pages, and should be changed to direct to the most specific applicable entry: Busway, Miami River, Ocean Drive.

It is reasonably well written.
a (prose): b (MoS for lead, layout, word choice, fiction, and lists):
There are issues detailed below with the quality of the writing. There is information in the lead of the article that I didn't see repeated elsewhere.
It is factually accurate and verifiable.
a (references): b (citations to reliable sources): c (OR):
Several of the sources used are primary sources, and they should be easily replaceable with secondary sources from the press in the area. Many sections of the article are totally uncited; there are several cases where statistics have no citation given, as well there are descriptions given that are opinions that will also need citations. Statistics and opinions are two items that the GA criteria specifically require have citations.
It is broad in its coverage.
a (major aspects): b (focused):
Some further focus could be made to refine and distill/summarize some parts of the article, especially since sections are summaries of other articles, but overall, the article is fine.
It follows the neutral point of view policy.
Fair representation without bias:
Opinions and commentary are given without sources. If backed up to reputable sources qualified to draw those conclusions, then this would be neutral.
It is stable.
No edit wars, etc.:
It is illustrated by images, where possible and appropriate.
a (images are tagged and non-free images have fair use rationales): b (appropriate use with suitable captions):
File:MDT_Extension.svg should have a source for the information used to generate the map. File:MiamiMetroBus.jpg should have a caption (once the infobox is pulled)
Overall:
Pass/Fail:
Overall, this article represents significant work by a single editor, however, the deficiencies need to be rectified before it can be listed as a Good Article. It is my opinion that the level of research necessary will take longer than the standard 7-day hold period, so I'm failing the article. The article can be renominated after these issues are addressed.

Several of my comments below deal with issues that are technically not part of the GA criteria, however, applying things like proper dash usage earlier in your writing plans means less work for future WP:FAC nominations. The end result of this review did not hinge on those extra comments, but they are still provided to detail all of the various issues facing this article at this time.

Lead

The second paragraph has uncited statistics; I didn't see these repeated in the body of the article, which is against WP:LEAD. As stats, they need citations. While you're at that, please update for the 2010 census since the 2000 numbers are now out of date.
The stat on population per square mile should have a conversion to population per km².
There are abbreviations given that are never repeated. Why bother the reader with them?

Highways

What is an "Intestate style highway"? I think you mean that the area has several freeways.
The article should link to Interstate 95 in Florida, U.S. Route 1 in Florida, etc. Even if the state-detail articles don't exist in a particular case, they will at some point in the future, and the redirects currently exist to point to the state section of the national-detail article on the highway.
Constructions similar to "north-south" should be "north–south" using an en dash.
"tri county" should be hyphenated. In this case, tri and county are jointly modifying what kind of area it is.
A citation is needed for the claim of "two busiest roads in South Florida"
Highway abbreviations are used very inconsistently. A good writing practice is that each time you mention a highway for each "class" (Interstate, US Highway, State Road, County Road) then spell the name out in full and include the abbreviation in parentheses afterwards. Personally, once the abbreviation convention is given, I only use abbreviations for consistency and good article flow. (That applies to more than highway designations; once FDOT's abbreviation is given, why spend the time to type out "Florida Department of Transportation" again?)
Why is I-75 not mentioned? I know that it ends in Hialeah, but that's a city in Miami-Dade County. (I assume that you've focused the scope of the article to the City of Miami, but yet the first sentence talks about "Greater Miami".)
Decades are consistently mis-formatted. It should be "1960s" (no apostrophe), and the "19" should not be dropped. The construction "1960's" is the possessive form of 1960, and indicates "ownership" or a connection to a single year, not the whole decade.
The proper name would be "State Road 112", not "Florida Route 112"; they are State Roads, not State Routes as well.
"The Dolphin Expressway, Airport Expressway, Don Shula Expressway, Gratigny Parkway and Snapper Creek Expressway are ..." would flow better as "The Dolphin, Airport, Don Shula, and Snapper Creek expressways and the Gratigny Parkway are ..." to drop the repetition of the word "expressway".

Tolls

A citation is needed for the toll amounts. Basically, any time you list a number like that, give a footnote.

Other road

"The grid throughout most of Miami-Dade County with the exception of a few cities is a simple axis-oriented ..." has missing comma. It should be: "The grid throughout most of Miami-Dade County, with the exception of a few cities, is a simple axis-oriented ..." to set off the exception part.

""north/south divisor" has two issues: the slash should be an en dash and the word "divisor". This isn't math class, so the correct word is "divider"; a "divisor" is part of a fraction.

Is "Miami Grid" a proper noun? If in doubt, assume it isn't and drop the cap on "grid".
What's "MIA"? I know from later on in the article that it's Miami International Airport, but since this is the first reference, it should be specified. In the lead, you can change the parenthetical that lists the airport name to "(Miami International Airport, MIA)" to resolve this.
A personal preference, but I would spell out "Avenue", "Street" and the like. The AP Stylebook says to only abbreviate that part of a street name in an address, but not when mentioning the street along. (So "Main Street", but "123 Main St.") Remember too, these abbreviations have other possible meanings, and readers aren't all native English speakers.
Since the causeways are in a table, maybe this bulleted list could be converted to one as well for consistency of presentation?
The causeways stuff would be better served by having its own subheading.
"The Venetian Causeway and MacArthur Causeway connect ..." would read better as "The Venetian and MacArthur causeways connect ..." (Don't include the lowercase common word in a wikilink though.)

Taxis

Citations for fares. Again, quoted statistics need to be referenced.
The measurements here need converted values in metric given. Not all of our readers are American.

Vehicle dependency

Again, citations for statistics.
You mention a study. Cite it, please.
Fix "1970s".
"For example, both state governors Jeb Bush and Rick Scott denied funding for an intercity high-speed rail system in Florida." Citation needed for this claim. Also, the word "state" is superfluous and unneeded.
"This, along with a more recent federal investigation and takeover in 2011 has led to Miami- Dade Transit's perception as an unreliable organization." By whom? Says who? Citations needed.
"14 story" should be "14-story". This is a compound adjective describing the building.

Air

"One of the busiest international airports" citation need for this claim.

MIA Mover

"MIA Mover opened on September 9, 2011 and is 1.27 miles long ..." You need a comma after 2011 and a conversion for the length measurement. Ditto the speed in the next sentence.

AirportLink (Metrorail)

"It consists of a 2.4 mile elevated line" should be "It consists of a 2.4-mile (3.9 km) elevated line"
Something to remember, the {{main}} tag doesn't mean this article doesn't need citations for information summarized from another article. Even if it's summarized from the main article, and cited there, it needs to be cited here if it's being repeated.

Sea

"six lane bridge" should be "six-lane bridge".
The costs and dates need citations

Public transportation

Can this be broken up and recombined a little bit? You have stuff about the rail connections related to the airport under the Air heading. There is also subsections of a subsection of this section. How about reshuffling stuff to pull all of the rail items in one heading. put all of the bus stuff in another. This would reflect the separation by transportation modes reflected in having highways, sea, and air separate.
"...metros such as Boston and Washington DC which ..." there is a comma missing after DC. In this case, the DC abbreviation is serving the same function as a state name in a construction like "Grand Rapids, Michigan" or "Grand Rapids, MI", and needs to be followed by a comma unless it is at the end of a sentence, etc.
Later down that paragraph, there are distances without conversions, and more 2000 census information that should be updated for 2010 data.
"single 22.4 mile line," should be "single 22.4-mile (36.0 km) line,". Check the rest of the section for similar measurements lacking conversions and measurements serving as an adjective in front of the item being described, which need to be hyphenated.
"the old cash-/token-based system" reads better as "the old cash- or token-based system", and it eliminates the slash per the MOS.
"Since the system launch on October 1, 2009, all passengers utilizing Metrorail must use either an EASY Card or EASY Ticket to enter stations." Per the MOS, we don't use boldface for emphasis; rather italics are used instead.
"16 of the 22 stations have .." avoid starting a sentence with a number since you really should spell the word out.
"The stops that don't are ..." avoid the contraction if possible.
The level of specificity here needs citations for the times and prices, since these are all statistics.

Metromover

"and 22 stations in the central business district" OK, you defined the CBD abbreviation in the lead, yet you didn't use it here. Second, the "22 stations" is a counted or measured value. There should be a non-breaking space ( ) used between the number and the "unit" of that value so that a line won't break between them. (This is the first time I ran into this on my screen, but it means you haven't done that in the article and should. Using {{convert}} for converting and formatting measurements will apply that formatting for you, but in counted values that use numerical formatting, you have to do it manually. "Two cars" wouldn't need the non-breaking space because the number is spelled as a word.
"the 25 cent fare" needs a hyphen since the price is a compound adjective.
Something I noticed in the two rail maps is that not all of the highways have their highway markers used in the map diagram. I would either put them there for all highway crossings, or none of them for consistency. You can use either {{jct}} (ask if you need help) or manually format the graphics. If done manually, the |alt=|link= coding should be added to conform with WP:ALT (which the jct template will do for you.)

Metrobus

It looks like you copied over the lead from the article, but you also copied over the boldfacing. That needs to be dropped since we only use boldface text for the subject of the article in the lead, and this article isn't about the Metrobus.
You probably should drop the infobox, but use the photo directly.
"(No 24 hour Hialeah service)" should be "(No 24-hour Hialeah service)". Again, compound adjective.
Spell out "and" instead of using the ampersand "&".
More statistics here that need citations.

South Miami-Dade Busway

"The South Miami-Dade Busway (originally the South Dade Busway) began operating on February 3, 1997 and" drop the bold and the old name, add a comma after the year; the full article can list the old name.
"runs parallel to US1/ S Dixie Highway," You never introduced that US 1 (ideally you're using a non-breaking space between the US and the 1) is the abbreviation for US Route 1. I would put the street name in parentheses instead of after a slash as well.
"Park & Ride lots" spell out the "and".

Routes that use the Busway

Can this be summarized into a table or converted into prose?

Busway vs. rail controversy

Now you're using "US-1" for the abberviation... consistency, please!
"the Busway runs as far as 2 blocks", spell out even numbers under 10, so "two blocks".

Rail

"However, Florida governor Rick Scott" the state name is unneeded, and as a title in front of a name, "governor" should be capitalized.

Tri-Rail

"Tri-Rail is a 70.9 mile, 18 station commuter rail train system," should be "Tri-Rail is a 70.9-mile (114.1 km), 18-station commuter rail train system,"
This whole section is devoid of citations, yet we have statistics and opinions given.

Amtrak

Can you combine the second short one-sentence paragraph into the first one?

Bicycling

"In 2010, Miami was ranked No.44 most bike-friendly city" spell out the word "number"; that abbreviation is not readily recognizable to all readers of English.

Walkability

"A 2011 survey of the largest cities in the United States by walkscore.com determined the City of Miami to be ranked eighth in terms of walkability." Unless you're referring to the city government, I wouldn't capitalize "city".

MDT Orange Line (Metrorail)

"Broward/Dade county" that slash should be an en dash. (Slashes indicate "or", while a dash indicates a range or opposition, separation.)

FEC Tri-Rail alignment

"This is the proposal to move Tri-Rail to the more easterly Florida East Coast Railway freight line. This would bring it closer to people and boost its ridership, as well as bring it straight into Downtown Miami, terminating at the Government Center transit hub." This needs to be reworded since it is relying on the reader to read the heading to know what "this" is.

References

For a topic specific to the US, Month DD, YYYY dates should be used consistently in the references.
Journals, newspapers, etc. should be in italics.
Authors should all be in Last, First format.
Maps should use {{cite map}} for formatting.
Footnotes 12 and 13 are bare URLs. Can we have a full citation?
Footnote 20 should be redone as a news/journal citation.
Footnote 22 needs a full citation. It's published by WSVN-TV, yet we aren't given the station's location, any author/reporter name, publication date etc.
Some of these are primary sources, and should be replaceable with secondary sources where possible.