AARoads:Manual on Uniform Road Articles

Manual on Uniform Road Articles
A subpage for the AARoads project

This is the Manual on Uniform Road Articles (MURA), a guidebook on how to properly format an article on the AARoads Wiki.

Article titles

Articles shall be titled in accordance with AA:TITLES.

Article structure

Section headings

Articles shall be divided into sections. The main sections of an article are level 2 headings. (Level 1 is reserved for the title of the article at the top of the page.) These are created by typing the desired heading text on a new line and enclosing it in double equal signs (=). ==Route description== on a new line will create the heading for the route description section.

Subsections of a section are created with level 3 headings, which have three equals signs on a new line: ===Southern segment===. Additional levels can be created up to level 5, but this can produce complicated tables of contents if there are too many levels. All headings should be written in sentence case.

Standard article sections and order

In an article, there are a standard set of sections to consider that article complete. Some topics may lend themselves to the inclusion of sections on topics not included here, like the "historic bridges" and "memorial designation" sections on U.S. Route 41 in Michigan. With the exception of the lead and end matter, sections may appear in any logical order. Sections on the route description should be grouped any sections on services and tolls, the history section should be grouped with any future section, and the junction list table should divide those sections from any related routes section and the end matter. The end matter includes any see also, notes, references, further reading, and external links sections, which shall appear in that order at the end of the article.

Lead and infobox

The lead is the untitled section at the beginning of the page. This section contains the infobox, a box that includes concise summary of facts on the subject of the article along with a map and the roadway's marker(s). The lead appears next to the infobox and is a prose summary of the body of an article. The level of detail to the lead and length will depend on the overall length of the article.

The first sentence of the lead contains the name of the article's subject in boldface followed by any standard abbreviation for that subject in parentheses. (Note: the parentheses themselves shall not be in bold.) Any important alternate names should be listed in boldface text in the lead. If a historical designation redirects to an article, just as M-92 redirects to M-52, then that designation should be mentioned in boldface text in the lead as well. All sections of an article should be summarized in the lead in some fashion, whether it is a paragraph summary, or just a sentence that touches on the topic; the infobox's junction list serves as a summary of that article section.

On an article about the section of a longer highway passing through an individual state or province, such as U.S. Route 44 in New York, a hatnote linking to the national article will appear above the lead and infobox. This can be created using the {{highway detail hatnote}} template.

{{Infobox road}} will be used on articles about individual highways. There is also {{infobox road junction}} for articles on individual interchanges or intersections. An infobox template shall be placed after any hatnotes and before the prose in the lead.

When using infobox road, articles shall not list more than 10 junctions. This limit ensures that the infobox is a quick summary of the article and does not visually overwhelm the rest of the article. Location names listed in the infobox shall not include state abbreviation with town names for the junction list for a state or provincial highway or an article about an national highway that is about the route in that state/province (i.e. U.S. Route 50 in California), as it is implied that the town in question is in the same state/province as the road. Do include the abbreviation in every other case.

Route description

This section is for describing the route itself and its progression across the state/province or country. The section should be divided into subsections as it grows in length. For national level articles, these subsections should be for individual states/provinces or regions. Regardless of the route's length, progression should follow the mileposts as they are maintained by the appropriate agency responsible for the highway.

For an article on a named interchange, the section can simply be titled "Description". The section then describes the interchange.

Services

If the road offers any special motorist services (such as motorist aid hotlines, service plazas, a dedicated law enforcement unit, call boxes, or a travel radio station), discuss them here. If very little can be written about the services (less than about two paragraphs or so) then this section should be merged into the route description. Most of these extra services are associated with turnpikes, and so this section will be less common on articles about free roads.

Tolls

For articles on turnpikes only. This section should cover the cost to drive the entire turnpike, the system used to assess tolls (barrier, ticket-based, or wholly electronic), where toll plazas are located, and what, if any, electronic tolling system is accepted (E-ZPass or its equivalents) and whether open-road tolling is available.

History

Any historical information known about the highway should be noted. Historical routes that other pages redirect to in the article (for example, NY 36A in NY 63) should not be bolded if mentioned in this section; however, they can be bolded in the lead if discussed there.

Future

This section is optional. Any concrete future plans regarding the future of the route. Proposed extensions, truncations, upgrades, or decommissionings would fall into this section. Special care should be taken to ensure all content included in this section is reliably sourced to be under serious consideration by highway officials and not mere speculation. In short, if the plans have not been mentioned by the appropriate government agency, or they have not been published in a reputable news source, they should not appear in our articles.

Junction/exit list

This section shall contain the appropriate junction or exit list, whether in tabular or bulleted list format. This section may be called "junction list", "major intersections", or "exit list" depending on the nature of the subject roadway. "Exit list" is reserved for highways that are freeways for most or all of their routing, while the other two headings may be used on all other roadways.

Related routes

This section is optional. A section describing for the highway's special routes (alternate routes, business routes, bypasses, etc.) or auxiliary or suffixed routes, if applicable. If there are only a few special routes, describe them here. If there are many, split the description off into its own listicle (see Special routes of U.S. Route 71 as an example) and use this section to list simply the routes and their locations, with a hatnote at the top of the section linking to the list. If the related routes have individual articles, summarize them here.

See also

This section shall consist of a concise bulleted list of links to other topical AARW articles that are otherwise not already linked from the body of the article. The topical connection to the article should be obvious, or a concise description should be provided. If there are no links, this section shall be omitted.

Notes

This section shall contain {{notelist}} or {{reflist}} with |group=lower-alpha, which will list any explanatory footnotes from the article. If there are none, this section shall be omitted. Footnotes are created using <ref group=lower-alpha></ref> tags, which typically appear inline in the coding for the body of the article, but the template collects them to display here.

References

This section shall contain {{reflist}}, which will list all of the reference footnotes from the article. Footnotes are created using <ref></ref> tags, which typically appear inline in the coding for the body of the article, but the reflist template collects them to display here.

Further reading

This section shall contain a list of additional sources not used in the article that may be of interest to readers. Typically these entries would be print sources, although they may have online copies available. Items that would appear here may instead be listed in the external links section if they all appear online. If this section has no content, it shall be omitted.

External links

This section shall contain a list of additional webpages of interest to readers. Links to Wikimedia sites such as Wikimedia Commons or Wikitravel should appear here.

Categories

Articles shall be placed into the appropriate topical and geographical categories. The coding for these are placed at the very end of the article, at the bottom of the last section. Geographical categories should appear in geographical order.

Standard list sections and order

Lists have tables of statistics on a group of highways. They shall use a standard layout of sections and shall use a standard format for the tables.

Lead

The provisions for article leads apply to lists. Use {{infobox state highway system}} or {{infobox highway system}} and summarize the information in the body of the article here.

Description

This section shall describe the overall network of roadways being listed.

History

This section shall give any overall historical information known about the roadway network.

Table(s)

Each list shall consist of a sortable table or set of tables containing the following columns:

Number

The number column shall include a 25-pixel-tall marker and a link to the highway that row contains data about. The link text shall display the accepted abbreviated form of the designation.

This column shall be sortable. A sortkey should be provided, where appropriate, to ensure that numbers sort in a logical order. If one is not provided, {{routelist row}} will automatically generate one of the form <type><route number (zero-padded to four digits)>.

Length

There shall be two columns for length, one containing miles, and the other containing the equivalent in kilometers. Use the highest available precision for a given route; it does not matter if some routes have more precise data than others. These columns shall be sortable.

Termini

There shall be two columns for the route's termini, one entitled Southern or western terminus and the other Northern or eastern terminus. Each terminus should include the road at which the highway terminates, as well as geographic context to allow the reader to locate the terminus (e.g. SH 25 in Hardy, K-100 toward Drexel, etc.) Cities in adjoining states/provinces shall include state/provincial abbreviations. Use wikilinks as appropriate.

The termini columns shall not include any type of shield or graphic. These columns shall not be sortable.

For highways with no termini (i.e. beltways and other loops), one cell should span both rows and provide a general description of the route (e.g. Beltway around Oelrichs).

Local names

Local names, i.e. the name(s) of the street(s) or freeway(s) that the route follows through a given area. This column is optional, and may be omitted if not relevant. If used, this column shall not be sortable.

Formed

The year that the designation was initially created. This column shall be sortable. If a more precise creation date is known, a sortkey should be provided using this date; however, only the year shall actually be displayed.

If a highway is proposed and has not yet been officially designated, this column shall contain the word "proposed".

Removed

The year that the designation was removed, if any. This column shall be sortable. If a more precise removal date is known, a sortkey should be provided using this date; however, only the year shall actually be displayed.

If a designation is still active, this column shall contain the word "current". If the highway is proposed, this column shall contain an en dash (–).

Notes

Any other pertinent information needed to understand the route. This column should only contain "at-a-glance" information, where the entries in the other columns would provide an incomplete picture of the route. It should not include in-depth information, nor anything that is trivia. This column is optional, and were used, shall not be sortable.

Colors

Rows may be given a background color to denote that the route is proposed or has been decommissioned. If colors are to be used, decommissioned routes shall have a gray background (#D3D3D3). Proposed routes shall have an orange background (#FFDEAD). When colors are used, a color key shall be provided at the bottom of the table to describe the colors.

End matter

As with articles, lists shall have see also, notes, references, further reading, and external links sections as appropriate. Lists shall also have appropriate categories.

Standard listicle sections and order

Listicles are hybrids of an article and list, such as Business routes of U.S. Route 131. They exist to group together what would be short individual articles. These pages will consist of a lead section summarizing the article with an appropriate infobox, i.e. {{infobox road list}}, and sections on each individual roadway. Those sections shall use {{infobox road small}} and be written list miniature versions of a full article. Sections shall not be divided into subsections for practical and technical reasons.

The prose in each section should be organized into paragraphs by topic. Typically, the first paragraph begins with a lead sentence including the subject roadway's name in boldface. That paragraph then describes the route of the roadway. An additional paragraph or paragraphs detail the history of the highway. A junction list table should close out the section if there are more junctions than just the termini. If this table is included, a faux heading precedes it by placing the "Major intersections" or "Junction list" in bold on its own line before the table coding.

As with articles, listicles shall have see also, notes, references, further reading, and external links sections as appropriate, after the last roadway section. Listicles shall also have appropriate categories.

Prose styling

English language

Articles shall be written in the most appropriate variant of English; global articles with no specific regional connection should use American English. In all cases, articles shall not use colloquialisms.

Do not alter the spelling of proper names or titles: a joint project of the United States Department of Defense and the Canadian Department of National Defence.

Alternate terms in other versions of English may be given once upon introduction in an article: A divided highway (British: dual carriageway) is... . If there are multiple international terms, these shall be placed in a footnote.

Abbreviations

Abbreviations are shortened forms of words or phrases. They include acronyms, which are words formed from parts of the constituent words in a phrase. Abbreviations also include initialisms, which are formed from some or all of the initial letters of the words in a phrase. Initialisms are pronounced as individual letters, while acronyms form a word that can be pronounced. AASHTO is an acronym, while FHWA is an initialism. In running prose, an initialism requires an article (a, an, the) while an acronym does not: Proponents petitioned AASHTO and the FHWA to make the change. not Proponents petitioned the AASHTO and the FHWA to make the change.

On first usage, articles shall spell out a term in full before giving the abbreviation in parentheses. The abbreviation shall then be used alone on second and subsequent mentions a

As defined by the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), a single-point urban interchange (SPUI) is... A SPUI was installed on the site in...

Articles shall not use capital letters in the full version only because they are used in the abbreviation: ...a Single-Point Urban Interchange (SPUI) is...

Plural forms of abbreviations shall be formed by adding -s or -es to the singular form: HOVs or VMSes. Articles shall not use an apostrophe to form a plural: HOV's or VMS's.

Abbreviations formed by shortening a single word shall end in a period: St. Acronyms and initialisms shall not include periods: MDOT not M.D.O.T. Note: "U.S." as an abbreviation for the United States is an exception to this rule and may be rendered as such or as "US".

Articles shall not use the ampersand (&) in running prose; its use is limited to tables and inboxes where space is limited.

Boldface and italics

Boldface shall be limited to the restatement of an article's subject in the lead sentence and any significant alternate names in the lead or to words being defined in a glossary.

Articles shall use italics for emphasis instead of boldface. Italics shall also be used for titles of long-form works, like books, films, television series, named exhibitions, computer games, music albums, and artworks. The titles of articles, chapters, songs, episodes, storylines, research papers and other short works instead take double quotation marks.

Foreign words and phrases shall be rendered in italics.

Capitalization

Most content shall be written in sentence case, thus only the first word of a sentence and any proper names or proper nouns are capitalized.

Article titles, section headings and table headers shall be written in sentence case. Titles of works like books and print works, movie and song titles and other audiovisual works, and artworks are given in title case, meaning every word is given an initial capital except for certain less important words; the first and last word in a title is always capitalized.

Job titles used before the name of a person holding that office are treated as proper names and capitalized. When used generically, titles are left in lower case. President Eisenhower signed the bill, but Reagan was president at the time. Articles shall treat names of institutions and organizations the same: the Illinois State Toll Highway Authority, the authority, the Ohio Turnpike, the turnpike, the City of Baltimore (when talking about the city government itself), the city of Balitmore (when talking about the geographic area).

Cardinal directions are not capitalized unless they are part of a proper name. North Dakota but The roadway turned north.

Linking

Links shall be provided only where they are relevant and helpful in the context. Excessive linking can be distracting and dilute the value of the terms that are linked.

For topics on the AARoads wiki, link to the local article. To create a link, enclose the term in double square brackets. For example, to link to Interstate Highway System, use [[Interstate Highway System]]. To change the displayed output of the link, use the pipe (|) character; [[Interstate Highway System|Interstate Highway]] appears as "Interstate Highway". Links can point to a specific section using the hash sign (#); [[Interstate Highway System#Planning]] will link to the "Planning" section of the Interstate Highway System article. Section linking and piping can be combined as needed.

MediaWiki, the software that runs the AARoads Wiki and Wikipedia does not require that a link start with a capital letter. To link to the article named "Freeway" in the middle of the sentence, use [[freeway]].

For other topics, such as cities or states, that do not have articles on the AARoads Wiki, articles shall link to the English Wikipedia articles on those topics. To do so, start the link with w:. Adding a pipe to the code will obscure this interwiki prefix. Using the code [[w:Detroit|]] will turn into [[w:Detroit|Detroit]] when saving and will display as "Detroit". This pipe trick can also be used to simplify other displayed text: [[w:Lansing, Michigan|]] becomes [[w:Lansing, Michigan|Lansing]] when saved and displays as "Lansing".

Terms in quotations may be linked, but whenever possible, such links should appear outside of quoted material.

External links shall not be used in the body of an article. They may be inserted into a bulleted list in the External links section at the end of the article. External links are created by enclosing the link within single square brackets and separating the displayed text from the URL by a space: [http://www.fhwa.dot.gov Federal Highway Administration] displays as "Federal Highway Administration".

Numbers

Articles shall spell out integer values from zero to nine as words in running prose and use numerals for larger integers. Rational numbers using fractions or decimals shall use numerals only. Use a period (.) as the decimal point and the comma (,) as the thousands separator. Numbers shall use the short scale (thousand, million, billion, trillion, etc.) and not the long scale (thousand, million, milliard, billion, billiard, trillion, etc.).

Other general provisions include:

• Sentences that start with a number value shall spell out the number as words or be rewritten to avoid starting with a figure.
• In tables and infoboxes, numbers shall be expressed in numerals.
• Vote totals shall be expressed in numerals: 18–6 not 18–six or 18 ayes, 6 noes and 1 abstention. Use an en dash (–) not a hyphen.
• Large numbers may be given as multiples of million or billion: $56 million or $2.1 billion. On repeated usage, these may be abbreviated $56M or $2.1B. Note: there is no space between the number and the abbreviation.
• Use the percent symbol (%) in tables and spell out the word percent in running prose. The

Currency

Articles shall use the local currency for the area it pertains to. For older values, an inflation-adjusted amount should be given to provide context for the value. Smaller costs should be adjusted using consumer-pricing indices while larger costs should use a GDP-based index. The {{inflation}} template can automate these conversions.

Dates and time

Articles shall use Month DD, YYYY, formatting. Where space is limited, month names may be abbreviated. Full dates in running prose shall be followed by a comma or other appropriate punctuation: Construction started on June 1, 2023, and ...

Names of seasons are rendered in lowercase: spring 2010 or summer 2023, and not Spring 2010 or Summer 2023 except in publication dates in citations where the season is capitalized and treated as a month name. Where possible, specific months or dates should be used over seasons in prose.

Date ranges shall use an en dash (–) to substitute for the word to.

• Year–year ranges use an unspaced en dash between the two years rendered in full: 2020–2021. Do not abbreviate the second year: 2020–21. For fiscal years or other special periods, a slash may be used: the 2005/2006 fiscal year.
• Month–month ranges within the same year use an unspaced en dash: June–August 2015 or during March–May that year.
• Day–day ranges within the same month use an unspaced en dash: July 1–15, 1999, or September 2–4.
• Ranges that cross months or years use a spaced en dash: June 1 – July 15, 1994, or December 1, 1989 – February 2, 1990.

Note: ranges preceded by a preposition do not use a dash: Construction ran from June 1 to July 15, 1994,... not Construction ran from June 1 – July 15, 1994,...

Times may be given in either 12-hour or 24-hour notation. Colons are used to separate hours, minutes, and (where present) seconds. For 12-hour times, a.m. and p.m. (or am/pm) are indicated, and these are separated from the rest of the time by a non-breaking space ( ): 2:00 p.m. not 2:00p.m. Do not use a leading zero on hours. Use noon or midnight over 12:00 a.m. or 12:00 p.m. to avoid ambiguity.

For 24-hour times, use a leading zero and do not include a.m., p.m., noon or midnight suffixes. The time 00:00 refers to midnight at the start of a date, 12:00 to noon, and 24:00 to midnight at the end of a date.

Decades shall use four digits and an s: the 1980s not the 1980's. (The latter example is the possessive form of the year 1980). Prefixes shall be hyphenated: the mid-1990s while adjectives shall not: the late 1950s.

Centuries shall not be capitalized and do not use superscripts: the 20th century not the 20th Century or the 20^th century.

Units of measurement

Articles shall use United States customary units as the primary measurements, and they shall give metric conversions afterwards. Articles on topics in other countries may use metric as the primary units as long as America customary units are given as a conversion. Usage of {{convert}} is encouraged.

Punctuation

Apostrophes and quotation marks

Articles shall use straight apostrophes (') and quotation marks (") instead of curly options (‘,’, “, ”). Do not use other punctuation to substitute for these marks. Quotations are enclosed by double quotation marks, and any quotations within a quotation use single quotation marks, alternating for any addition levels.

Commas

Articles may use an Oxford comma. Articles using this convention shall be consistent in its application.

In geographical references that include multiple levels of subordinate divisions (e.g., city, state/province, country), a comma shall separate each element and follow the last element unless followed by terminal punctuation or a closing parenthesis. The last element is treated as parenthetical. Similarly, in a full date such as "October 1, 2011" shall be followed by a comma so that the year is treated as a parenthetical.

Dashes, hyphens and slashes

A hyphen (-) indicates conjunction. They shall be used in hyphenated last names, to link prefixes to words, and in compound modifiers (the 2.8-mile-long [4.5 km] highway)

There are two types of dashes, the en dash (–) and the em dash (—). En dashes shall be used for:

• Ranges, such as: July 1–15, 12–15 miles [19–24 km], pp. 1–10; or
• Compounds involving separate entities where the order can be reversed without changing meaning, like: Dallas–Fort Worth metro area, the Fenton–Clio Expressway, the Canada–United States border.

Em dashes are used to set off a parenthetical within a sentence more strongly than parentheses or to divide a sentence more strongly than a colon. In these cases, the dash is not spaced. An en dash may be used in these situations, but it shall have a space on either side.

Slashes shall be used to indicate concurrencies of highways or connections of highways at an interchange. Slashes shall not be used in place of a dash or a hyphen.

Ellipses

Ellipses are formed by typing three unspaced periods. Generally, a non-breaking space precedes an ellipsis and a regular space follows one.

Spaces

Articles shall not have a space before a comma, semicolon, colon, period/full stop, question mark, or exclamation mark. Double spaces after a period are unnecessary and will be converted to single spaces when the page is rendered.

A single blank line shall be left between paragraphs; the server will not collapse additional blank lines and will show them. Use {{clear}} to prevent page elements from overlapping instead of inserting blank lines.

Terminal punctuation

Most sentences shall end in a period; usage of exclamation marks or question marks outside of direct quotations should be limited. Photo captions other that are not complete sentences lack any terminal punctuation. Notes in a junction list or other table notes are typically not written as complete sentences and also lack terminal punctuation.

Quotations

Articles may use brief quotations to illustrate a point, establish context, or attribute a point of view or idea. When using quotations, they shall be as concise and used as minimally as possible to respect the copyright of the original sources.

Quotations shall be faithfully reproduced. This does not mean that the text has to be perfectly replicated. Quote material may be changed minimally so that the text flows with the rest of the article. Additions or substitutions shall be marked by enclosing the change in square brackets. "He used his scientific mind, as well as his powerful family and friends, to pave the way for the delivery of good roads." may be quoted as "[Logan Waller Page] used his scientific mind, as well as his powerful family and friends, to pave the way for the delivery of good roads." Text may be omitted when it is extraneous or irrelevant and its removal does not change the meaning. These omissions are noted with ellipses.

Short quotations shall be wrapped in double quotation marks. Longer quotations should appear in block quotes.

As a best practice, articles should alter typography to conform to this style guide so long as it does not change meaning. Punctuation and capitalization should be harmonized to be consistent with the rest of the article. Minor typographic errors may be silently corrected, or they may be left intact and indicated with {{sic}} or similar.

Media formatting

Images can be used in articles where they are relevant to the subject. Images must follow the guidelines set forth in the Images section of the Content policy. Freely-licensed images should be uploaded to Wikimedia Commons while fair-use images should be uploaded to AARoads Wiki but should only be used where absolutely necessary.

The following is an example of an image:

Western portal of the Hanging Lake Tunnel in Glenwood Canyon along Interstate 70 in Colorado

[[File:Hanging Lake Tunnel I-70 Glenwood Canyon.jpg|thumb|right|Western portal of the Hanging Lake Tunnel in Glenwood Canyon along Interstate 70 in Colorado]]

• File:Hanging Lake Tunnel I-70 Glenwood Canyon.jpg is the filename of the image as titled on Wikimedia Commons or, in the case of a fair-use image, on AARoads Wiki.
• thumb is used to generate the image as a thumbnail.
• right is the alignment of the image in the prose, which in this case is to the right side of the page. Images should generally be aligned to the right side of the page. However, images may alternate between right and left in long stretches of prose.
• Western portal of the Hanging Lake Tunnel in Glenwood Canyon along Interstate 70 in Colorado is the image caption, a short description of the image that is displayed below the image in the article.

Image thumbnails are default sized to 300 pixels; however, users may change the size they see images at in their settings. To force the image to display at a different size than the default, simply add the size you want the image to display at. For example, adding 250px will display the image at 250 pixels.

Proper sourcing

Articles shall include the sources used for the information contained within them. References shall be given through the use of footnotes located at the end of the passage supported by that footnote or set of footnotes. at a minimum, a properly sourced article shall have a footnote at the end of every paragraph.

To standardize the formatting of citations, articles should use the existing series of citation templates. At a minimum, enough information shall be provided in a citation for readers to locate a copy of that source, online or offline, to verify the information themselves. This means an author, title, publication date, and publisher should be provided. For larger sources, the location within that source should be provided: a page or range of pages in a book, the inset or grid section(s) of a map, etc.

Articles shall use the highest quality sources possible. From AARoads:Content policy#Sourcing

1. Works (including, but not limited to, websites, maps, geographic information system data, databases, catalogs, and meeting minutes) published by a state or national department of transportation or similar agency responsible for the construction and maintenance of roads,
2. Published works, such as commercial atlases and maps, books, newspapers, magazines, journals, and commercially-run websites,
3. Self-published works related to highways, such as websites or blogs, which are known to the community as being generally reliable.

Works appearing on the above list in a higher position shall generally have precedence over those in a lower position, except when the preponderance of the evidence available demonstrates that the higher-ranked source is likely to be factually inaccurate.

Junction lists

Summary lists

For roadways that have state- or provincial-level sub articles, a full junction list table is not practical. Instead, these articles shall have a hierarchical list consisting of the shields and names of intersecting highways and locations.

Tables

In all other cases, an article shall provide a table of junctions or interchange along the length of the subject roadway. The formatting for these tables can be created using the {{jctint}} family of templates.

Standard columns

Generally, the following columns should appear from left to right in the following order:

• Geographic columns should be used to orient the location of a junction along the path of the roadway. These will vary based on the country that the highway is in, and may not be applicable in all countries. These should be formatted so one cell expands across the rows for all junctions within a geographic entity. If the roadway only passes through one geographic location, the column(s) should be omitted and a note placed above the top of the column. These columns may be omitted entirely if there is not consensus on what subdivisions to use. The locations should be wikilinked. Examples of these column types are:
  • State subdivision: The subdivision of the country, state or province within which the junction lies. Title the column with an appropriate term—region, county, district, prefecture, parish (as in Louisiana), borough (as in Alaska), or equivalent.
  • Location: The municipality or equivalent within which the junction lies, whether it be a town, city, or village. If the location is indeterminable, or if the junction lies in unincorporated territory, this should be left blank. If the route passes through an independent city or a consolidated city-county, do not repeat the location in both columns, instead have an entry which spans both columns.
• mi or km: The measured location of the junction. If no source is available, and the road uses a distance-based exit numbering system, then this column may be left out in favor of the exit number column. For lists in some geographic areas, other terminology may be used in accordance with alternate distance-measuring systems. The preferred practice is to use both columns with one measurement system as the primary distance, but some situations may require only one column.
• Exit or Junction: This column is for use on grade-separated roadways that have numbered interchanges. The column lists the number of the exit/junction. If old and new numbers exist, these should be presented as two columns, "Old" and "New".
• Interchange name: This column should follow the exit/junction column for highway systems which have named interchanges. Use only if the interchange names are in common usage in the region and are not purely ceremonial names.
• Destinations: Locations and roads as presented on guide signs for the junction. Other locations should not be listed unless that location is extremely notable and well known; an entry in the notes column such as "Serves Missouri State University" can be used. Routes not indicated on the guide signs may be included in parentheses.
• Notes: Any additional notes about the interchange or terminus, such as the design of an interchange, special circumstances such as missing ramps, concurrency termini, opening date, or additional locations that do not merit inclusion in "Destinations".

To promote accessibility on the part of our readers who use assistive technology like screen readers, tables or the templates used to create tables shall use: !scope="col"|<column name> (or the HTML equivalent) as the code to create column headers. Furthermore, each row of the table shall use !scope="row" style="text-align: right;"|<table data> (or the HTML equivalent) for the primary distance number. To keep the cells right-aligned, use class="wikitable plainrowheaders" (or the HTML equivalent) in the header coding.

Colors

The use of colored backgrounds in the table is optional. If a list includes backgrounds, a key below the table must be included. Color should not be the only method to impart the information. For the benefit of colorblind readers or persons using screen readers, the Notes column must include the information. The following table lists the standardized colors with standardized meanings. Additional colors may be used to supplement the standard colors below. These colors must be compliant with this guideline, and they must be included in the key below the table. The template keys listed below are built into {{jctbtm}}.

Color key

Color	Use	Template keys	Notes
#ddffdd	Concurrency terminus	concur
#d3d3d3	Closed	closed	Previously complete and open, but now closed (temp. or perm.)
#ffff99	HOV only	hov	Interchange/intersection only accessible to high-occupancy vehicles (HOV)
#ffdddd	Incomplete access	incomplete	Some ramps/movements missing
#dcdcfe	ETC/Tolled	etc, toll	Interchange or bridge requires the use of electronic toll collection or is otherwise tolled as an exception to the rest of the roadway
#ffdead	Proposed/unopened	unbuilt, proposed	Interchange/intersection proposed, under construction and/or not yet open to traffic
#dff9f9	Route transition	trans	Indicates a transition from one route number to either another route number, or a section without a route number, along a named road

Table footers

A standardized table footer template has been implemented with {{jctbtm}}. The necessary color keys can be individually specified using the |keys= parameter as described in the template documentation. Both templates close the wikitable syntax and generate a conversion key. This conversion key is required on all tables unless both miles and kilometers are listed on the table. Samples of this key are used in the examples section below.

• Example 1, no colors:

1.000 mi = 1.609 km; 1.000 km = 0.621 mi

• Example 2, all colors:

1.000 mi = 1.609 km; 1.000 km = 0.621 mi       Closed/former       Concurrency terminus       Electronic toll collection       HOV only       Incomplete access       Proposed        Tolled       Route transition       Unopened

• Example 3, some colors:

1.000 mi = 1.609 km; 1.000 km = 0.621 mi       Closed/former       Concurrency terminus       Incomplete access        Tolled       Unopened

What to include

The following items should be included or excluded in tables on grade-separated highways.

Include

• All grade-separated interchanges, without exception
• Concurrencies
• Toll barriers, major water bodies, major bridges and tunnels; if possible, wikilink to the article on the bridge or tunnel concerned. These should be represented with a multi-column row. Ideally this should span the Exit/Junction, Destinations and Notes columns, allowing the distance where the barrier is located to appear to the left.
• Service areas; if multiple exist, limit those displayed to those of historical or other significance or notability. These should span the Exit/Junction, Destinations and Notes columns as above.

Exclude

• Crossings with other highways where no interchange between the highways exists
• Proposed or future interchanges that have not reached the construction phase. Do not add future exit numbers without a reliable source such as signing plans.

List formatting

Each list shall consist of a lead section and as many prose sections as necessary to describe the subject of the list. The list shall contain a sortable table (or multiple tables) containing the following columns:

Number

The number column shall include a 24-pixel-tall marker and a link to the highway that row contains data about. The link text shall display the accepted abbreviated form of the designation.

This column shall be sortable. A sortkey should be provided, where appropriate, to ensure that numbers sort in a logical order. If one is not provided, {{routelist row}} will automatically generate one of the form <type><route number (zero-padded to four digits)>.

Length

There shall be two columns for length, one containing miles, and the other containing the equivalent in kilometers. Use the highest available precision for a given route; it does not matter if some routes have more precise data than others. These columns shall be sortable.

Termini

There shall be two columns for the route's termini, one entitled Southern or western terminus and the other Northern or eastern terminus. Each terminus should include the road at which the highway terminates, as well as geographic context to allow the reader to locate the terminus (e.g. SH 25 in Hardy, K-100 toward Drexel, KS, etc.) Cities in adjoining states shall include abbreviations identifying the state. Use wikilinks as appropriate. Interstates and U.S. routes shall be treated as though they terminate at the point at which they exit the state the list applies to.

The termini columns shall not include any type of shield or graphic. These columns shall not be sortable.

For highways with no termini (i.e. beltways and other loops), one cell should span both rows and provide a general description of the route (e.g. Beltway around Oelrichs).

Local names

Local names, i.e. the name(s) of the street(s) or freeway(s) that the route follows through a given area. This column is optional, and may be omitted if not relevant. If used, this column shall not be sortable.

Formed

The year that the designation was initially created. This column shall be sortable. If a more precise creation date is known, a sortkey should be provided using this date; however, only the year shall actually be displayed.

If a highway is proposed and has not yet been officially designated, this column shall contain the word "proposed".

Removed

The year that the designation was removed, if any. This column shall be sortable. If a more precise removal date is known, a sortkey should be provided using this date; however, only the year shall actually be displayed.

If a designation is still active, this column shall contain the word "current". If the highway is proposed, this column shall contain an en dash (–).

Notes

Any other pertinent information needed to understand the route. This column should only contain "at-a-glance" information, where the entries in the other columns would provide an incomplete picture of the route. It should not include in-depth information, nor include trivial content. This column is optional, and where used, shall not be sortable.

Colors

Rows may be given a background color to denote that the route is proposed or has been decommissioned. If colors are to be used, decommissioned routes shall have a gray background (#D3D3D3). Proposed routes shall have an orange background (#FFDEAD). When colors are used, a color key shall be provided at the bottom of the table to describe the colors.