Talk:Interstate 495 (Capital Beltway)

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Contents 1 What's in a Name? 2 Capital Beltway, not I-495 3 Interstate 495 (Washington, D.C.) 4 Bridge dates 5 Signage 6 Non-compliance flag 7 Future Aspirations

[edit] What's in a Name?

There appear to be a variety of disparate methods for referring to spur or loop Interstate routes.

1. A single article titled with the Interstate route number with sections about each of the tertiary routes (e.g., Interstate 205, Interstate 235). This appears to be the most common at this time.
2. In cases where there is a particularly notable segment, or which may be known by a different name, the article may contain a link to a separate article on that segment (e.g., Interstate 110 and California State Route 110).
3. There are articles that are titles with the route number but are disambiguation pages (e.g., Interstate 495).
4. Coupled with the preceding are articles that are titles with either disambiguated route numbers (e.g., Interstate 295 (Florida)) or with unique non-Interstate names (e.g., Capital Beltway).

Personally, I prefer #1 (coupled with #2 to allow development of additional information where warrented). I do not like having articles like Capital Beltway or Interstate 295 (Florida) appearing in Category:U.S. Interstate Highway system--it disrupts the otherwise uniformity of the numbering. That's not to say the Capital Beltway article should be moved. I suggest that the Interstate 495 article be formatted more like #1 with a link to the Capital Beltway article. The Capital Beltway article would NOT be in Category:U.S. Interstate Highway system. I'd prefer it not be in the various Category:Interstate highways in STATE, although it should be in Category:Transportation in STATE.

This question is more general than just this article, but I could locate a more appropriate forum at this point. Perhaps there is a wikiproject about Interstates. older≠wiser 13:36, 20 Jul 2004 (UTC)

For the record, I've created Category:Three-digit Interstate Highways to keep the main category from getting too big as I split the Interstates into separate articles. --SPUI (talk) 20:48, 21 Feb 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Capital Beltway, not I-495

Yesterday I moved Interstate 495 back to Capital Beltway. There are numerous "Interstate 495s." Please discuss moves like this before carrying them out. I'm restoring this page -- Interstate 495 (Capital Beltway) -- again, since this is an unusual and nonstandard page title. Thanks, BCorr|Брайен 11:56, 20 Jul 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Interstate 495 (Washington, D.C.)

The move to this title was a poor decision as it gives the impression that the highway is in the District. Even though a small, less then even a mile, portion is in the district the majority of the highways lies in Maryland and Virginia. I am going to change the name back to Capital Beltway or maybe Interstate 495 (Capital Beltway), which it should have stayed as in the first place. --User:Boothy443 | comhrÚ 20:20, 21 Feb 2005 (UTC)

However, it's a bypass of Washington, D.C., so that's the primary state/district it's grouped with. Putting it anywhere other than Interstate 495 (Virginia), Interstate 495 (Maryland) or Interstate 495 (Washington, D.C.) makes it differently named than other Interstates (and thus it looks weird in the categories). Though I'd also support Interstate 495 (Capital Beltway), given that this is somewhat of a special case. --SPUI (talk) 20:42, 21 Feb 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Bridge dates

• 1964 under ramp from MD 650 north
• 1963 over MD 650
• 1967 over Northwest Branch
• 1958 under MD 193
• 1959 under US 29
• 1959 over Brunett Avenue
• 1959 over Sligo Creek Parkway
• 1960 over Sligo Creek
• 2002 over Sligo Creek Trail
• 1958 over MD 97
• 1964 under MD 391
• 1959 under railroad
• 1964 under Linden Lane
• 1964 over Stoneybrook Drive
• 1964 over Kensington Parkway
• 1964 over MD 185
• 1964 over Cedar Lane
• 1958 over branch of Rock Creek
• 1960 under MD 355
• 1990 under I-270
• 1962 over MD 187
• 1962 under Fernwood Road
• 1962 under Greentree Road
• 1996 over I-270 Spur
• 1962 under MD 191
• 1962 under MD 190
• 1962-1964 over Cabin John Parkway
• 1964 over Cabin John Creek
• 1962 over Seven Locks Road
• 1962 under MD 191
• 1963 over MacArthur Boulevard
• 1963 over Clara Barton Parkway
• 1963 over Potomac River

[edit] Signage

• South/west at I-95 [1][2] (may have been different before I-495 was removed and re-added on I-95)
• East/south on I-270 [3] - no idea how MD 187 is handled
• North/east at I-95/I-395 [4][5] (probably not different before I-495 was removed and re-added on I-95)
• West/north at Woodrow Wilson Bridge [6][7] (may have been different before I-495 was removed and re-added on I-95)

The Outer Loop is West from I-95 in Virginia to the Woodrow Wilson Bridge. It's North 95/East 495. After the bridge, it's North 95/495 until the I-95 split. Then it's West 495 until MD 187. There, it becomes 495 South (The signage on 187 says "East 495: Baltimore/Silver Spring; South 495: Northern Virginia/Fairfax"). It's South 495 until I-95 in Virginia.

The Inner Loop is North 495 from I-95 in Virginia to MD 187 in Bethesda. West 495 to I-95 in Maryland, South 95/495 to the Woodrow Wilson Bridge, and South 95/West 495 (if I remember correctly) from the Woodrow Wilson Bridge to the Springfield Interchange. If you want pictures, I drove the whole darn thing today. Well, the Outer Loop at least. --MPD01605 (T / C) 06:38, 19 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Non-compliance flag

How precisely is this article outside of project compliance? The only thing that comes to mind is the article's name, which is discussed below; what else could be wrong with it? Is it the exit list? -TheOneKEA

I'm not sure. I'm working on the exit list right now, I'll have that done by later today. I'm not sure what else. --MPD ^{T / C} 17:38, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

I can do the exit list if need be; I've been busily reformatting exit lists all over the place and have a good routine for it now. It would be nice though if someone would say what else is wrong with this article, other than the absence of a route description. -TheOneKEA

The article has sections not specified by WP:IH. The sections, specifically the traffic and trivia sections, should be incorporated into other areas of the article. Other than those two sections and the exit list, as MPD mentioned above, the article looks fine. --TMF ^{Let's Go Mets - Stats} 21:13, 30 January 2007 (UTC)

OK. I've rearranged the article structure as part of the addition of a few other sections, and provisionally removed the marker. Hopefully it is compliant now. EDIT: This of course is based upon the fact that the exit list will be updated soon - technically the article is still noncompliant until MPD fixes it. -TheOneKEA

The cities/towns section should be renamed "Major cities" to comply with WP:IH and the counties section should be removed once the counties are added into the new exit list. --TMF ^{Let's Go Mets - Stats} 21:55, 30 January 2007 (UTC)

Understood. The way I did it is the way that the Roads in Maryland WikiProject does it - I'll check the U.S. Interstate Highways WikiProject to find the differences. -TheOneKEA

Done with the exit list. Phew, my arm hurts. --MPD ^{T / C} 23:58, 30 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Future Aspirations

Why is there a warning at the beginning of this section saying that it may be of a speculative nature? Everything that is says is completely incontrovertible truth and merely reflects construction that is mostly finished already. This warning label should be removed. Furthermore, there are more future aspirations for this road such as possible interchange reconfiguration and HOV and/or HOT lanes to be added. Even those are not truly of a speculative nature as those can be referenced on the VDOT website. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by BHolmberg (talk • contribs) 04:17, 7 February 2007 (UTC).

I agree: it's not very speculative anymore; and there's certainly more speculative information that deserves to be added. I am not too familiar with any Beltway projects other than the pending upgrade to the FedEx interchange to full 24/7 access, consideration for HOT lanes and/or ETL, and the extremely unlikely Beltway widening in Maryland. If I get a chance, I'll see if I can scrounge together some info, but it's not among my priorities at the moment, so I'd say that this section definitely fits the be bold ideal -- have at it! :) --Thisisbossi 04:53, 7 February 2007 (UTC)

If you want to beef up this section with more information, this site will do nicely. -TheOneKEA