User:Stuart.Jamieson/Bus Routes

Wikipedia:WikiProject Buses

This is an essay. It contains the advice or opinions of one or more Wikipedia contributors. This page is not an encyclopedia article, nor is it one of Wikipedia's policies or guidelines, as it has not been thoroughly vetted by the community. Some essays represent widespread norms; others only represent minority viewpoints.

Bus Routes are a frequent subject of divergent opinion when considered for deletion. Opinions presented at Bus route AfDs in general range from the claim that all routes are inherently notable^[1] to the opposite claim that no routes are notable.^[2] Between these extreme—and unsupported—opinions, lies a broad middle ground: some routes (and lists of routes) are notable, some are not.

While claims are often made at AfD that all/no routes are notable, historically such deletion arguments have tended toward supporting the Delete argument. As of June 2011, at least 95 articles having a title including the words "Bus Route" or "Bus Routes" have been taken to AFD.^[3] From those AFD's 44 were Deleted,^[4] 20 were Kept ^[5] 2 were merged to another article ^[6] 14 were redirected to another article ^[7] and 16 failed to find consensus.^[8] A further AFD was withdrawn and the article Userfied. More recently however AFDs on Bus Routes and Route lists have been tending to close with No Consensus and this essay will attempt to weigh up some of the arguments used in these AFDs and seek a policy based approach to addressing the points raised.

WikiProject Buses previously attempted to establish a guideline for defining notability for routes - The Bus route list guide advised that if the bus routes in an area were descended from street(tram) cars, an article could be appropriate, if the route, or route system did not exist at all until the 1990s, it is probably not notable. However this guideline has not established a standards-based definition of notability for routes and has since fallen into disuse.