AARoads:Canada/Structure

[[File:{{{logo}}}|x50px]] Structure
A Canadian provincial department of the AARoads Wiki

Structure of road articles

All articles not covered by a descendant WikiProject should follow the general structure outlined below. Sections are optional depending on the nature of the road.

Infobox

Highway 402
Route information
Maintained by the Ministry of Transportation of Ontario
Length	102.5 km (63.7 mi)
Existed	1952–present
Major junctions
West end	I-69 / I-94 in Port Huron, MI
East end	Highway 401 near London
Location
Country	Canada
Province	Ontario
Highway system
Ontario provincial highways Current Former 400-series
← Highway 401 → Highway 403

Articles should use Template:Infobox road, and all known info should be supplied.

This is the basic syntax you need to get a complete routebox on the article page, just place this before any other text and fill in the variables. Note that this is a complete list of every variable that can be used with Infobox road and that many are unnecessary in most cases. Variables that are empty can be omitted. For the above parameters here's what you should fill in:

• province: two-letter abbreviation of the province that the article route is located in
• type: usually the two-letter state abbreviation for provincial highways; varies for secondary and lower highways
• route: this is the number of the route the article is about
• alternate_name: Use in situations where the entire route has another name
• map: image name of a map for the route, width should be 290px
• length_km: This is the length of the route in kilometers. If you specify beyond integers (i.e. add a decimal value) you will need to set the following parameter, length_round
• length_round: If your value for length_km is a whole number, you can omit this. Otherwise it needs to be set to the decimal precision of the length_km parameter.
• length_ref: To do what a good article writer should, provide your reference for the length of the route using standard <ref> method.
• established: This is the date the route was commissioned or assigned to its current alignment
• direction_a: This should be either south or west to keep in accordance with the route description, which lists termini and junctions in progression traveling from west to east and south to north.
• starting_terminus: This is where the route begins and is either at the southern terminus or western terminus.
• junction: a list of major junctions - those that help define where the road travels.
• direction_b: The opposite of direction_a
• ending_terminus: where the route ends, in accordance with the guidelines set forth with starting_terminus
• counties: a list of counties that the route enters (replace with rural_municipalities for Saskatchewan and Manitoba highways)
• cities: a list of major cities that the route enters
• previous_type: This is the type of route that precedes the current one in the system. The values for this are the same as those used for the type parameter.
• previous_route: The number of the route preceding this one
• next_type: Same as previous_type but for the route following this one
• next_route: The number of the route succeeding this one

Note that if length_km does not exist, then no length is displayed. When length_km exists, the other (length_mi) is calculated and rounded to the same precision automatically. length_ref, if defined, appears after the first length. Use a citation or {{fact}} here. Be sure that the first length is the one for which you have a reference. length_notes, if defined, appears as a note below the length. This can be used to show former length, or future length, etc.

Other parameters exist as well; see {{Infobox road}}.

By completing the infobox as follows, you'll get a routebox like the one above.

Lead section

Depending on the route, this section may just name the direction (E/W or N/S) and termination points, or may go into considerable detail. However, the majority of detail, such as progress by town or county, should be reserved for the next section.

Route description

This section is for describing the route itself and its progression. Regardless of the route's length, progression should be described from south to north, west to east. Rare exceptions exist but should be discussed before implementation.

History

Historical information about the route here. Ensure that proper references are added.

Future

Place any verifiable, not speculated, information about the future of the route here.

Major intersections

Route composition	Section header title	What should be here
All grade-separated interchanges; no at-grade intersections	Exit list	An exit list designed using the junction list guide as a base
Mixture of grade-separated interchanges and at-grade intersections	Major intersections or Exit list	Depending on the route in question, either a junction table or a "combo" exit list featuring exits and intersections can be used. See Nova Scotia Highway 104 for an example of the latter.
All at-grade intersections; no grade-separated interchanges	Major intersections	A junction table designed using the junction list guide as a base (i.e. same basic format, but with no column for exits)

See also

For internal links to other articles on Wikipedia. Should not be redundant with the links in navigational boxes.

References

Recommend using m:Extension:Cite/Cite.php with <ref> tags in prose and {{reflist}} in this section.

External links

Place all external links which are not references here.

Navigational boxes

For instance, {{Canadian highways}} should only be placed on lists by province, not individual highway articles, due to its scope.

Categories

All state highways should include the category tag for that province. Sortkeys should be "nnnA", where nnn is 3-digit route number, and A is the letter designation if any (e.g. Route 1A is "001A", Route 2 is "002").