Wikipedia:WikiProject U.S. Roads/New York/Standards

The New York State Routes Task Force has developed the following article standards for page formatting and layout, which should be used on nearly all highway articles under this project's scope. Although these standards are designed with the Wikipedia Manual of Style (MOS) in mind, there may be an occasional instance where the MOS may conflict with the guidance provided here. The MOS takes precedence in these situations, and it is recommended that any conflicts are brought to the project's attention so this document can be amended to comply with the given provision of the MOS. These standards are sufficient for the vast majority of articles in this project's scope; however, they can be ignored if warranted for a particular highway article, as determined by consensus on the article's talk page or the project's talk page.

State routes
Articles on state touring routes shall be named "New York State Route N" where N is the route number per the naming convention guideline for US state highway articles. Articles about parkways that are signed as such (like the Robert Moses State Parkway) should be named for the parkway, not for the reference route number or numbers it carries. Other reference routes that are notable enough to have an article shall be named using the naming convention for touring routes.

Former New York state touring routes that became a single county route upon removal shall be titled for their former state route designation and covered as such. The articles on said routes will be tagged solely as a state route for project article list purposes.

County routes
Articles on county routes shall be named "County Route N (county County, New York)", where N is the route number and county is the county that the route is in. Lists of county routes, both traditional and the index for RCS-style lists (explained below), shall be named "List of county routes in county County, New York", where county is the county that the routes are in.

Other roads
Articles and lists relating to any other roads shall be named according to the relevant Wikipedia naming convention guideline.

Infobox
The infobox for standalone articles within the scope of this project is Infobox road. Full instructions for use can be found at the template's documentation page; the most commonly used parameters in New York are listed below. See NY 174 for an example of a completed infobox.

Please note that it is not necessary to list every route at a given route's terminus, such as other county routes (when said county routes are not the sole designation at the terminus) or other designations that would not help the reader identify the location of the terminus. In general, terminus listings (as well as the listings in the "junction" field below) should be as concise as possible. Incorporated locations—villages, cities, or towns—shall be the only locations used in the terminus and junction fields.

All routes listed in the infobox should be abbreviated to conserve space. Common abbreviations are:
 * Interstate Highways: "I-XXX" (Interstate 390→I-390)
 * U.S. Routes: "US XXX" (U.S. Route 20A→US 20A)
 * State routes: "NY XXX" (New York State Route 153→NY 153)

This is the basic syntax you need to add the infobox to an article. 

Common parameters
This section is an overview of the most commonly used parameters of the infobox template. Many other parameters exist, and a full list can be found on the template's documentation page. Any parameters that do not apply to a particular route can either be omitted (recommended) or left blank.

Junctions
The parameter should only contain intersections that are both major in importance and help illustrate where the route travels. There should not be more than 10 junctions listed; this limit is intended to keep the infobox's height from becoming unwieldy and excessive. Try to avoid listing multiple junctions from a single area. In the event that this occurs (such as NY 104 intersecting both I-81 and US 11 in Mexico), list only the most important of the junctions. Simply put, avoid repeating locations.


 * Junctions that should be placed here
 * Junctions with U.S. Highways, parkways, freeways, or Interstate Highways.
 * Junctions that help to illustrate which regions of the state that the route serves (see NY 7). These are generally intersections with long-distance travel routes or the primary intersection in major locations on the route.


 * Junctions that should not be placed here
 * Junctions that do not fall into the classes above, such as those with county routes, state routes that are primarily local in nature, or locations where a route passes over/under a road but does not intersect it.
 * Junctions with roads that parallel the road the article is about (example: I-88 and NY 7), as these junctions typically do not help to illustrate where the route travels.

Browse row
The last row of the infobox is used for browsing the state's numbered route system. Its contents are generated by four parameters:, , , and. The "previous" and "next" are in relation to the article route, and the types are Interstate, US, or NY for Interstate Highways, U.S. Highways and other New York state routes, respectively.

The browsing on a state level is ordered by number from lowest to highest, then by priority in the event that routes in different systems have identical numbers:
 * Interstate Highway
 * U.S. Routes
 * State routes

Thus, the infobox for NY 690 has the following values:
 * I and 690 to link to I-690, as there is no US 690 in New York
 * I and 695 to link to I-695

The browsing order shall include the following highways:
 * All Interstate Highways, U.S. Routes, and state routes—active and former—with a standalone article
 * The primary alignment for a designation, active or former, that redirects to another article. This includes out-of-service numbers with only one alignment (NY 229) or with one alignment that is more significant than the others (NY 432), or active route numbers that are covered in another article (NY 363). Use the infobox's parameter to add a new row to the redirect target article's infobox for these routes. This extra browse row should be omitted if the redirect target article would be a previous or next route in the resulting browse row (such as NY 9G for NY 9F).

The order shall exclude the following highways:
 * Former routes whose alignment is not the primary topic for its designation and are redirects to another article (NY 347 (1930–1934)).

The current browse order for the state of New York is listed on this page.

Article structure
The articles that fall within the scope of this project shall be organized in the order shown below. This structure is fully compliant with the Wikipedia Manual of Style and has been accepted by the Wikipedia community at the Good Article and Featured Article nomination venues as the optimal layout for road articles.

The first item in an article should be the infobox. Place the template after all hatnotes and cleanup templates and before the lead section.

Lead section
Required. An untitled section (known as the lead section) that summarizes the article. Things to include here include a summary of the route, its history, major areas that the route serves, and major highways that the route intersects. For additional guidance, see WP:LEAD. Please note that the majority of detail, such as progress by town or county, should be reserved for the next section.

Route description
Required. This section is for describing the route itself, such as where the route is located, where it serves, what it passes by, etc. Progression shall be described from south to north or west to east to keep in accordance with NYSDOT's practice of inventorying routes from west to east and south to north. If this section is several paragraphs long, it should be broken up by counties or other suitable segments using third-level headlines.

History
Required. Place any historical information about the route here. Ensure that proper, reliable references are added. If this section is several paragraphs long, third-level headlines should be added to break up the prose. Events in this section should be significant, such as an extension, a truncation, a rerouting, a total reconstruction, an extended closure, or the outright removal of the route's designation. Minor projects, such as a routine repaving or a signage replacement, have typically been deemed not notable enough for inclusion in articles by the Wikipedia community.

Future
Optional if applicable; omit otherwise. Place any confirmed (no speculation) information about the future of the route here. Again, ensure that proper, reliable references are added. This section should be used only if the future event is significant, such as an extension, a truncation, a rerouting, a total reconstruction, or the outright removal of the route's designation. Minor projects, such as a routine repaving or a signage replacement, have typically been deemed not notable enough for inclusion in articles by the Wikipedia community.

Suffixed routes
Required if applicable; omit otherwise. This section shall be used only on parent articles; ex. place this section on NY 30, not NY 30A. This section shall be omitted if a route has never had any suffixed routes (such as NY 8) or if all of a route's suffixed routes are sufficiently covered as part of its history (such as NY 192). The description of a route can be as brief as a sentence or go into full detail; this typically depends on whether or not the suffixed route has its own article. If a suffixed route accesses communities that the parent route doesn't reach, at least one should be noted here. The exact composition of this section may vary slightly:
 * If only one suffixed route exists or existed for the article route, use that route for the name of this section instead of "Suffixed routes" (NY 30A instead of Suffixed routes) and do not use a bulleted list. See NY 30 for an example.
 * If multiple suffixed routes exist or once existed for the article route, use "Suffixed routes" for the header and use a bulleted list to list the route's past and present suffixed routes. See NY 7 or NY 31 for examples.

Special routes
Required if applicable; omit otherwise. Place all special routes (also known as bannered routes) of the route here. This section shall be named for the route's abbreviated designation ("NY 19 Truck") and not "Special routes" or "Bannered routes". See New York State Route 52 for an example of how this section should look.

Major intersections
Required. This is a junction list or exit list for the route designed in accordance with the road junction list guide. The junction lists or exit lists of any articles within the scope of this project shall also be designed in accordance with the following guidelines:
 * Colors shall be used as specified by MOS:RJL, which should be used as specified by MOS:RJL. When a color is used, the appropriate color key shall be added to the junction list to comply with MOS:RJL. For example, adding "|type=closed" for the closed color. If the table has more or less than five columns, then "|col=#" will also need to be specified, with # being the number of columns that the table has.
 * Service and intermodal icons, such as the white-on-blue "H" for hospitals and the white-on-green plane for airports, and warning signs, such as a "dead end" sign, shall not be used
 * Incorporated locations—villages, cities, or towns—should be the only locations used in the Location column. Hamlets may be noted in the Notes column or used as a location in the Location column if said hamlet spans multiple junctions.
 * Control cities shall not be listed in the junction lists of articles on at-grade highways
 * Intersections for at-grade highways should generally be limited to major roadways, such as other state routes, U.S. Highways, Interstate Highways, major unsigned arterials, or roads that were once a signed route

The name of the section's header shall vary by route type:
 * "Major intersections" for routes that are entirely or mostly an at-grade highway
 * "Exit list" for routes that are entirely or mostly a limited-access highway

The NYint family of templates may be used to generate a MOS:RJL-compliant junction list for at-grade and limited-access highways. The following is the basic syntax you need to use NYint. Place this in the "Major intersections" section of an article and fill in the variables. A full list of parameters and features is available at Jctint.

For additional entries, add the following between the closing brackets of the last NYint entry and NYintbtm:

Further instructions can be found at Jctint. The easiest way to generate MOS:RJL compliant entries for the road parameter is to use jct; see that template for usage instructions. Types that the template recognizes include "NY" (state routes), "US" (U.S. Highways), "I" (Interstate Highways), "Parkway" (for parkways; specify the parkway name without "State" in the next parameter), and "CR" (county routes; requires that "county#= " be specified as well).

A few formatting notes:
 * If a reference route is significant enough to be listed in an entry in a junction list, it should not be the first route listed per MOS:RJL, which puts less emphasis on unsigned routes than signed routes. Instead, the street name or common name of the route should be used first, followed by the number in parentheses (i.e. "West Commercial Street (NY 940U)") or the route that the reference route connects to should be used first, followed by the name and number of the reference route (i.e. "To NY 157A via Thatcher Park Road (NY 910J)"). Reference marker and reference marker-type signs shall not be used as shields in a junction list per MOS:RJL.
 * The notes column is typically reserved for notes about the junction (type of junction - interchange, roundabout, etc., touring route but not reference route termini, missing movements at interchanges) or to denote a hamlet. More substantial notes should be added to the prose sections ("Route description" and "History") instead.

Categories
If a designation redirects to another article, the designation (redirect) shall be placed in the appropriate category, not the article that the designation redirects to per the Wikipedia guideline for categorizing redirects.

Categories for state touring and reference routes:
 * Numbered state routes
 * Active touring routes → Category:State highways in New York (state)
 * Sortkey: "000A", where "000" is the three-digit route number and "A" is the letter suffix if applicable. Thus, the sortkey for NY 1A is "001A", the sortkey for NY 2 is "002", and so on.
 * Former touring routes → Category:Former state highways in New York (state)
 * Sortkey: same as active touring routes for non-disambiguated routes. If the route in question is disambiguated by year, the first year of the disambiguation shall be added to the sortkey. Thus, the sortkey for NY 254 (1930–1940) is "254 1930".
 * Reference routes, active and former → Category:Reference routes in New York (state)
 * Sortkey: "00A", where "00" is the last two digits of the 900-series route number and "A" is the letter suffix. Thus, the sortkey for NY 990L is "90L".

Routes shall also be added to the transportation categories of any counties that it enters. Examples:
 * New York State Route 153 exists solely in Monroe County, so it has just Category:Transportation in Monroe County, New York as a category.
 * New York State Route 251 enters both Monroe and Ontario Counties, so it is categorized in both Category:Transportation in Monroe County, New York and Category:Transportation in Ontario County, New York.

All county route articles shall be placed in or a by-county subcategory. The sortkey varies by county: counties without routes numbered over 100 should have a sortkey of "nnA", where nn is the two-digit route number with leading zeroes if necessary, and A is the letter suffix if any. Counties with routes numbered over 100 should have a sortkey of "nnnA", where nnn is the three-digit route number with leading zeroes if necessary, and A is the letter suffix if any. If no subcategory exists for that county, the article should also have that county as a category. shall be added to all traditional or RCS-style index lists.
 * County routes

List structure
All standards listed below apply only to county route lists. There are no set standards for lists relating to state highways in New York.

Historically, two significantly different formats have been used for lists of county routes in New York. The first, dubbed the "traditional" format, is a simple table of all county routes in a particular county. The second, widely known as the "Rockland County Scenario", is an enhanced list that devotes extra coverage to each county route. The structure that each style of list shall use is described below.

Traditional
The traditional format has two basic elements: a lead section and a table using the "wikitable" class. Per the Manual of Style (MOS) page on stand-alone lists and the MOS page on leads, the lead section should never contain the sentence "This is a list of county routes in X County, New York". Instead, the lead should describe the system, such as its size, how the numbers are signed, how the route numbers are posted, etc., as suggested by the MOS page on lists. It is not necessary to place any text in boldface; to the contrary, no text should be bolded per MOS:BOLDTITLE.

Depending on the size of a county's route system, there may be a single table listing all of the county's county routes or several tables in several sections, separated by ranges. Generally, larger counties are broken up by 100s; however, other ranges, such as by 200s, may be more appropriate for some counties. The tables shall have the following headings:


 * Route: the route numbers, prefixed by "CR"
 * Length (mi): length of the route in miles. Place the reference for the route lengths in this cell.
 * Length (km): length of the route in kilometers; use convert to generate the conversion from miles
 * From: western or southern terminus of the route
 * Via: roads that the route is routed on
 * To: eastern or northern terminus of the route
 * Notes: any notes regarding the route, such as a former number no longer in use

Use towns, villages, and cities for locations; do not use hamlets. If the route is completely located within one location, add that location to the "via" cell; else, place the location the route begins in in the "from" cell and the location the route ends in in the "to" cell. For an example of a fully compliant list, see List of county routes in Albany County, New York.

Rockland County Scenario
Like the traditional format, the Rockland County Scenario (RCS) has two basic elements: a lead section and subsections devoted to each route in the county. Due to the nature of the RCS, RCS-style lists are much larger in size than traditional lists. As a result, they are broken up into separate articles by ranges. These type of lists are known by the rest of Wikipedia as "long lists"; per Naming conventions (long lists) and current NYSR practice, the split lists shall be named "List of county routes in   County, New York (N1–N2)" (where county is the county that the routes are in, N1 is the low end of the range covered by the article, and N2 is the high end of the range covered by the article) while "List of county routes in county County, New York" shall serve as an index page. See Category:County routes in Erie County, New York to see this in practice. All guidelines described above for the traditional format's lead section apply to the index page of the RCS-style lists as well. For the subpages, a simple statement such as "This section of the list of county routes in County, New York, contains all routes numbered between X and Y." suffices.

The sections for each route shall be titled "County Route N" (where N is the route number) and contain three components: a transclusion of infobox road small (not infobox road), a description of the route's history and routing (without subheadings for either) and a junction list designed in accordance with MOS:RJL with a header of. It may be helpful to hide the table of contents and use a pseudo-navbox for navigation instead. See List of county routes in Erie County, New York (545–580) to see this structure in practice.

Route markers
The route markers (shields) used in lists and articles should be period accurate. Thus, articles about routes that were eliminated during the 1950s should only have route markers from that era and lists containing said routes should have the 1950s route marker. The approximate time frame for shield designs in New York (excluding minor design changes) is as follows, according to the AARoads Shield Gallery: