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Category:Maryland Transit Administration bus routes
Hi, I came across this category recently. I'll note that per WP:BUSOUTCOMES, individual articles for bus routes are not retained, but instead a list article should be used. I've already merged a few articles, but thought I'd reach out to you since you've been gnoming in here lately. Are there any bus routes here that have individual notability, or would you agree that a list article sufficiently covers everything? 162 etc. (talk) 16:07, 6 May 2022 (UTC)
- Nearly all of them should have individual articles with only a few exceptions (those being the ones numbered 15, 29, and 44 under the pre-2017 numbering scheme). The rest of them were planned based on streetcar routes and have a long storied history going back to the 20th century. There are a number of reputable sources in print and online to reference for each. If there is any additional information you would want to know to retain these articles, let me know.
- I'm not sure if it helps to point this out, but Baltimore is different from most American cities in that a very large proportion of the population does not drive. The amount of influence each of these routes have on the city in general is a lot greater than most cities; and other public transport cities do tend to have individual route articles (New York, London, and Washington, DC all do - and Washington, DC was a smaller city than Baltimore until relatively recently if size is also a factor).
- It also seems like it would be a big discrepancy to make such sweeping changes to bus route articles, but retain most individual articles for highway routes and automobile models, most of which have a shorter history and less relevance to other topics than any of the bus routes in Baltimore. For example Ford F-Series is a separate article for a specific series of Ford cars, and then further each generation of the series has its own separate article. U.S. Route 1 in Maryland has its own article despite "US Route 1" being unsigned for large stretches in Maryland. Most Baltimore residents would be able to tell you that the Gold route (formerly the 13) is the bus route that runs on North Avenue, but the fact that North Avenue is technically a part of a US highway is not common knowledge and definitely not meaningful information to most people. I would say fair enough if as serious of an effort is being made to merge these articles into one article each, but if not, I think it's reasonable to keep the bus route ones. They are certainly more notable than highway routes considering the Maryland State Highway Administration doesn't even include Baltimore within its jurisdiction. --Middle river exports (talk) 23:38, 6 May 2022 (UTC)
- I did just notice that the routes you changed to redirects are all commuter and express bus routes. Those are not really Baltimore city bus routes and there is less to say about them; those specifically would be perfectly fine to group together in a list.
- I'll draft a list of which specific articles can be merged out of the ones in this category in my userspace and share it to clarify things. With some of the older local bus routes (lower than 100 designations; commuter/express is greater than 100), they should be merged into the specific article of another route rather than a list, so it is not obvious at the moment. For example, the content of Route 7 (MTA Maryland) belongs with CityLink Lime (BaltimoreLink) as that is a deprecated route which duplicated service on the Pennsylvania Avenue corridor. --Middle river exports (talk) 23:49, 6 May 2022 (UTC)
- Right. It does appear that many of these are well-written articles, and it's not my intention to undo all the work that went into writing them "just because". Routes with demonstrated notability in secondary sources should stay. However, any articles that basically boil down to "This is Route X, and this is where it goes" should instead redirect to a list article. Thanks! 162 etc. (talk) 16:27, 7 May 2022 (UTC)
Yes, that makes sense. I'm not sure how long it will take to bring the most relevant ones up to date, so I've been focusing on LocalLink 80 (BaltimoreLink) for the time being as its been flagged. I can probably start working to merge the articles which can be merged to a list or other article ahead of time too. --Middle river exports (talk) 16:41, 7 May 2022 (UTC)