Talk:List of Interstate Highways in Texas

Expansion

This article should be expanded in the future with a list of the business routes, similar to List of Interstate Highways in Michigan. As that was the last FL for USRD, that's currently setting the standard for content and inclusion for these types of lists. I've already converted to two existing tables over to using the WP:USRD/STDS/L templates, so it shouldn't be a difficult matter for someone to use the Highway Designation Files to pull the lengths and dates to build the table with the templates. Imzadi 1979 → 10:12, 25 November 2014 (UTC)

I've created about half the business route list containing the routes of three of the state's six Interstates that have business routes. It's immediately obvious that the Lua Texas database is lacking. Most immediate is that "routelist row|type=BS" is broken in that Interstate business spur routes are overwritten as state highway business routes (and overwritten badly with wrong shields at that). I'll have more to say tomorrow. Fortguy (talk) 09:30, 27 November 2014 (UTC)

Should be fixed now. TX.BS was listed for Interstate business spurs and had a redirect to TX["SH-Bus"]. The redirect was ambiguous, so I removed it. –Fredddie™ 14:04, 27 November 2014 (UTC)

That's because TxDOT's documentation uses "BS" to equal "Business State (Highway)", yet the templates for the other states use "BS" to equal "Business Spur". The TxDOT codes were added to the Lua module as aliases to coordinate with the other TxDOT-based templates.

I just went through to replace the various {{roadlink}} uses with direct links because as I understand the long-term plans, {{roadlink}} is to be retired. Also, it's possible to link to [[#I0010|I-10]] to link directly to the I-10 line in the appropriate table, something that's been done in other similar lists. (Each line has a hidden anchor generated by a # followed by the code and the number padded with leading zeroes to make four digits, which is the same as the automatic sort key. I don't know about table lines with ambiguous entries, like all of the duplicate BL I-10s.) Imzadi 1979 → 00:08, 29 November 2014 (UTC)

 Done Fortguy (talk) 03:25, 29 November 2014 (UTC)

As a side note, but I left the notes as is in the table for the most part, trimming them where they would duplicate the termini columns. I think they can be somewhat trimmed further. Imzadi 1979 → 10:12, 25 November 2014 (UTC)

 Done Fortguy (talk) 23:58, 4 December 2014 (UTC)

Some observations

Now that I've had a chance to work on the improvement suggestions mentioned above, here are some problems I've encountered and some suggestions for feedback.

• {{Routelist bottom}} seems to need some work. The legend doesn't display correctly at the bottom of the Primary Interstates table which has a proposed route. I used the parameter "unbuilt" from {{Jctbtm}} but don't know if that is correct. The template has no useful documentation. The legend displays correctly on the Business Interstates table which has decommissioned routes.
• There needs to be a way to better display routes that have disconnected segments such as I-69. Whoever added I-69 and its branches to the table used the HTML horizontal rule element to separate them, but it looks ugly and likely presents severe accessibility issues for people using text browsers or non-graphical assistive technologies. The documentation for {{Routelist row}} offers no suggestion on how to implement a "rowspan" property for individual table cells if it is at all possible.
• On business routes, other templates such as {{Jct}} and {{Infobox road}} correctly display "Business" or "Bus." before the route name/abbreviation rather than after as {{Routelist row}} does. This is inconsistent with the other templates and with TxDOT naming conventions. I would be nice to be able to use the official alphabetic suffix either as a separate line in the template or replacing a city name in the "dab" parameter and having that appear in the route abbreviation. Another possibility is to allow a "name" parameter like the infobox templates to overwrite the default. Many states have similar conventions to differentiate between individual routes, and this would serve to break the sameness that they all seem to have. If done properly, it could also call up the correct shield marker in the future as Texas does display the letter of the business route on its signage.

Just some issues I've noticed and suggestions for improvement. I realize the Routelist templates are relatively new and still have some bugs. Fortguy (talk) 01:54, 5 December 2014 (UTC)

@Fortguy: any comments on the templates specifically should be made over on the template's talk page. Your comments about the about the business abbreviation are also out of date. {{Routelist row}} and {{jct}} use the same Lua module to handle the the file names of the graphics, the full links and the abbreviations. That module was changed a few days ago to use either BL or BS in front of the I-# instead of "Bus." after. (Personally, I think all of the special types should appear ahead of the parent highway because the banner plate, or for Interstates, the wording on the shield, appears at the top of the assembly.) Any further changes regarding the suffixes would involve both templates. Imzadi 1979 → 07:51, 5 December 2014 (UTC)

One way to handle the suffixes now would be to do the same thing with the suffixes mainlines, like I-35W. You'd have to upload all of the shields, or create image redirects. (That little suffixed letter will never show at 20px or 40px, and I doubt it would even show at 70px at the top of an infobox, so there's no point in actually creating them and uploading them if the letter can't be read ever.) We'd also have to create all of the redirects so Interstate 10C Business (Sierra Blanca, Texas) or Interstate 10C Business would actually link someplace.

The Michigan Lua module has some intelligent switching added to it so that jct and routelist row don't link |state=MI|type=I|route=96 to "Interstate 96 (Michigan)" when the article is actually titled "Interstate 96". We could do something similar so that the letter suffix on business types is ignored, both for the shields and for the links. However, that's adding a lot more complexity to the module. You'll never get {{jct|state=TX|BL|10|C}} to work because it will always assume that the C is the type for a second highway. Imzadi 1979 → 08:08, 5 December 2014 (UTC)

The most immediate concern was "Routelist bottom". I finally figured out that the key parameter "unbuilt" from Jctbtm must be replaced by "future" (and must be lower case). With that change, the table now displays correctly. The rest of your responses represent less immediate concerns of mine more along the lines of an eventual wish list which I will address on the template talk pages when I get a chance to collect my thoughts and present something useful. Thanks. Fortguy (talk) 07:16, 9 December 2014 (UTC)

While I've brought up the subject of improving templates, can we also update {{TxDOT map}} to include this 1956 highway map capturing the road system just before the introduction of the Interstate system? It would also be useful for this list article. Fortguy (talk) 07:29, 5 December 2014 (UTC)

@Fortguy: I added the map. Something to note on another map you've cited: when you you type out the scale, you shouldn't use a " in place of inches. Rather, it would be better to use "in" instead. Imzadi 1979 → 07:51, 5 December 2014 (UTC)

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Uncited entries

The entries on I-369 and I-14 are partially uncited, which should be fixed. Skarmory (talk • contribs) 12:18, 9 January 2022 (UTC)