MyWiki:WikiProject Highways/Assessment/A-Class Review/Dartford Crossing

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Dartford Crossing

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The following discussion is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.


{{Wikipedia:Featured article tools|1=Dartford Crossing}} Dartford Crossing (edit | talk | history | links | watch | logs) review

Suggestion: Promote to A-Class
Nominator's comments: I improved this article to good article status about two years ago. We knew at the time that the automatic charging scheme was going to mean changes, and these were covered, but as the crossing appears in the news pretty much all the time, a moving target is hard to hit. I'd like some ideas of what information is missing in the article, and what we can do to beef it up a bit. Also paging Dr. Blofeld who had a hand in getting it to GA in the first place, and nags me every now and again to give FAC another go. ;-)
Nominated by: Ritchie333 (talk) (cont) 11:56, 5 August 2016 (UTC)
First comment occurred: 02:44, 6 August 2016 (UTC)

Review by Fredddie

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Review by Fredddie
  • I'll look it over. Typically, I go through each section and point out things or ask questions. Bridges are not my strong suit, so there might be more questions than if it were just a road. –Fredddie 02:44, 6 August 2016 (UTC)
Infobox and lead
  • I think the infobox is missing some information (though I could be swayed on the last two)
    • That it crosses the River Thames
    • Bridge span and tunnel lengths
    • Something I've seen on American bridge and tunnel articles is something like "Carries: 8 lanes of A282" (see Rock Island Centennial Bridge for an example, nevermind the MOS:ICON vio)
    • Daily traffic
    I wouldn't mention A282 (though that is the official classification, sources consider it de facto part of the M25 and is mentioned as such on BBC traffic and news sources (random example), but the other information is okay. The problem at the moment is the article is uses {{Infobox building}} as there's no suitable infobox that caters for a crossing that is both a tunnel and a bridge, so I shoehorned that in as a compromise. Under normal circumstances, I'd throw the infobox out per WP:DIB, but there is a major benefit here in that the picture and the map give the reader an instant indication of what and where the crossing is, far better than text. How can we get out of this logjam? Ritchie333 (talk) (cont) 12:32, 6 August 2016 (UTC)
    Aha. I meant to check which infobox is there, but I never did. I think we could use {{Infobox}} as a one-off. I'll try something out in a sandbox and ask what you think. –Fredddie 15:13, 6 August 2016 (UTC)
  • The website redirects to another page about Dart Charge. Do you think that's still appropriate to be the "official website"?
    Highways England changed the website sometime in 2015 (certainly some time after the GA passed), a quick search reveals pretty much the only obvious page on a search is one advising of the charge. I've taken it out for now. Ritchie333 (talk) (cont) 12:32, 6 August 2016 (UTC)
    OK. –Fredddie 15:13, 6 August 2016 (UTC)
  • In the lead, it should mention that one direction uses the tunnels and the other uses the bridge. If this wasn't a 2-year-old GA, I'd suggest that as a DYK hook.
    I can accommodate that, though in the event we went for traffic figure related hooks. Ritchie333 (talk) (cont) 12:32, 6 August 2016 (UTC)
Location
  • What is the clearance beneath the bridge? The only reason I ask is because I could see someone mistaking 137m as the clearance and not the tower height.
    I've dropped that in as a footnote, sourced to the Port of London Authority. Ritchie333 (talk) (cont) 16:15, 7 August 2016 (UTC)
  • Do any of the alternative route proposals talk about the future of Dartford Crossing? I mean, would the tunnels close for rehabilitation? If there has been no discussion so far, that's fine.
    There's been no mention and I can't believe that would ever happen, even with the Lower Thames Crossing in place. In 2014, the crossing was closed when I was trying to get from Kent to Suffolk and the gridlock around Dartford and up to the Blackwall Tunnel was unbelievable; I think the delay was about 4-5 hours. A journey from anywhere from East Anglia to Brighton, for instance, would not use the LTC. I saw a report in the paper today that one of the tunnels is being closed between midnight and 5am some time next week, so it'll probably be done piecemeal. Ritchie333 (talk) (cont) 16:15, 7 August 2016 (UTC)
Charges
  • Could you explain better how someone pays for the charge without a prepaid account? Paying by text message is somewhat of a novelty here in the US (the Red Cross is the one organization I can think of that accepts payments/donations via text frequently) so I'm left wondering how you do it? Do you just send a message to the number with your number plate? Is there any confirmation after crossing that the transaction was successful?
    I don't think text message is supported anymore, but as far as I know they replied with an automated message and you gave them a card number, expiry date and security code, and the payment was processed. As I expected / feared, the sources for the old DART-Tag scheme are dead, so I've moved that into the "History" section. Online payment is being strongly promoted by signs everywhere saying "find us online", so I've dropped that in the article. Ritchie333 (talk) (cont) 16:15, 7 August 2016 (UTC)
  • If I lived nearby, the £20 unlimited crossings option sounds like a bargain. Are there any data that show how many locals use the annual fee options? No worries if there are not.
    Indeed there is, so I've put it in. Ritchie333 (talk) (cont) 16:17, 7 August 2016 (UTC)
  • Do you think the Charging scheme subsection would fit better in the Charges section instead of the History?
    As I've reorganised things a bit per the above comments, this might be a bit moot now. The basic idea of the layout (and I think this came up in the GA review), is that the article body starts off with the things readers are most likely to want to know; where is it, how much does it cost, how do you pay, then goes into historical detail afterwards. Ritchie333 (talk) (cont) 16:15, 7 August 2016 (UTC)
History
  • On a longer section like this, I like to see a two or three sentences summarizing the section to come before the first subheader. There is no policy or guideline behind requiring a section lead; I just think it's a good practice.
    Can you give me some examples. As far as I can see, Blackwall Tunnel, Vauxhall Bridge and Woolwich Ferry (all GA or FA Thames crossing articles) don't do this. Ritchie333 (talk) (cont) 16:42, 7 August 2016 (UTC)
    I was going to suggest looking at other articles on the ACR page, but seeing as they're inconsistent, I've stricken this one. –Fredddie 17:27, 7 August 2016 (UTC)
  • Should we inflate all the costs to current figures? I think you'd have to use UKNGDPPC, but that hasn't been updated in five years.
    I've dropped in conversions using {{inflation}} where I think it's appropriate, which hopefully covers it Ritchie333 (talk) (cont) 09:57, 8 August 2016 (UTC)
  • "..., costing £13M." needs a better home. It doesn't flow with the rest of the sentence.
    I've restructured the sentence. Ritchie333 (talk) (cont) 16:38, 7 August 2016 (UTC)
  • "The towers are about 61 metres (200 ft) high, ..." contradicts the claim that the bridge is 137 metres high in the infobox and the Location section. Unless the 61m height is measured from the deck of the bridge. Either way, that should be clarified.
    The article was wrong; the height of the bridge deck is 61m which correlates with the maximum clearance at mean spring water tide being slightly below this. The tower height is 137m. I have corrected the text. I think this issue has been excacerbated by sloppy journalism like "Essex Police said the man’s car pulled up on the bridge, which is 137m (450ft) up at its highest point, before he climbed the safety barriers and threatened to jump" which is misleading. Ritchie333 (talk) (cont) 16:38, 7 August 2016 (UTC)
  • So a charge is a clever accounting trick that is definitely not a toll? Charges are not subject to VAT?
    Pretty much; you don't actually pay a "toll" when using the crossing; it is a congestion charge and uses the same symbol as the London congestion charge. Actually, that fact should probably go in the article somewhere. Ritchie333 (talk) (cont) 16:38, 7 August 2016 (UTC)
Traffic
  • In the first paragraph, do you think the exact totals are necessary? Could we reword it to say "Over 1.4 billion vehicles..." and "over 49 million vehicles..." without changing the meaning? I'm OK with the daily figures.
  • Same thing with the financials, could they be rounded to even millions?
I think this is a good argument to be made for the lead, certainly, but in the body of the article, if we have precise figures, I think it would be good to mention them. I can easily see a counter-argument the other way, saying "The article says over 1.4 billion figures ... haven't we got the exact figure in a source"? @Dr. Blofeld:, what do you think? Ritchie333 (talk) (cont) 10:25, 15 August 2016 (UTC)
  • Why do some mph figures use {{Convert}} inline, while some use a footnote?
There was an edit war over this a while back, where an argument was made that a 50mph limit is not exactly 80mph and hence misleading (it is illegal to drive at 70.00001mph on a motorway as brilliantly satirised here). However, the more recent improvements have used {{convert}} without any problems, so I am going to assume there's an implicit consensus for that and they're all using the template now. Ritchie333 (talk) (cont) 10:25, 15 August 2016 (UTC)
  • How many times has the bridge closed due to weather?
Lots ;-) While that news search has several duplicate items, I can see at least five closures going back less than a year on the first page. Ritchie333 (talk) (cont) 10:25, 15 August 2016 (UTC)

That should do it. Overall this article is very informative without boring the reader, which is no easy task. Nice work. –Fredddie 21:50, 14 August 2016 (UTC)

Thanks for the review. The only seriously outstanding issue at the moment is the infobox. Did you get a mockup completed? Ritchie333 (talk) (cont) 10:25, 15 August 2016 (UTC)
  • Support. I am satisfied with the replies to my questions and changes to the article. –Fredddie 03:51, 23 August 2016 (UTC)

Image review by Rschen7754

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 Done --Rschen7754 16:47, 20 August 2016 (UTC)
  • As Kevon kevono is inactive and unable to support or oppose, I have collapsed the comments. --Rschen7754 07:04, 6 December 2016 (UTC)

@Clarion Collar: Can you please discuss your changes as part of this review? I picked through your changes and the one good one was that the speed limit was mentioned twice, which I've trimmed; everything else mixed up information so the casual reader would have to wade through the entire article to find information most useful, as opposed to just the beginning; this came up in this review and the previous GA review two years ago. Also, do not remove reliably sourced information without consensus, it can be seen as disruptive. Ritchie333 (talk) (cont) 22:14, 13 October 2016 (UTC)

Comments by Clarion Collar

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  • Support issues resolved. As far as a nbsp script, I would ask around (say, at WT:MOS or WT:FAC) - I usually do it by hand. --Rschen7754 03:00, 8 December 2016 (UTC)

Review by Moabdave

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Thanks. The changes you made resolved all of my previous concerns except for the above mentioned word "restrictions". Please see my suggestion above to see if that works for you. However, I did find one additional issue:

  • "the Dartford Crossing is class C" The previously linked ADR (treaty) article lists classes by number that apply to the goods. The article mentions nothing about letter classifications on highways. You did add enough context so that "class C" is understood. However, if you are familiar enough with the subject, perhaps a quick addition to the article ADR to include the letter classes would clear thing up. I know that's over and above the scope of this article, so I won't oppose, just a suggestion to improve the pedia if you're in a position to do it. Dave (talk) 19:09, 5 August 2017 (UTC)
I've dropped a section on British tunnels into the ADR article, so hopefully at least people won't get lost when clicking on the link. Ritchie333 (talk) (cont) 18:30, 6 August 2017 (UTC)

My apologies for taking so long to get back to this. Hopefully I'll be more responsive next time. Dave (talk) 19:09, 5 August 2017 (UTC)

Well the review's been open, what, a year now, so a couple of weeks won't hurt! Anything else? Ritchie333 (talk) (cont) 18:30, 6 August 2017 (UTC)
Support promotion with the above changes. Good luck. And I have to say, not many people know this (be they in the USA or elsewhere) but the US congress declared the USA to officially use the metric system in the early 1970's. The problem is they never put in an enforcement mechanism, so no changes ever actually happened. I remember when I was in 3rd and 4th grade watching all these government promotional movies saying how by the time I got into high school everything would be in meters and liters. Yeah, about that.... ;) 23:01, 6 August 2017 (UTC)
They tried it here. Result: I still buy milk and beer by the pint, and get nailed for driving at 35 miles per hour in a 30 limit. --Redrose64 🌹 (talk) 23:32, 6 August 2017 (UTC)
All technical drawings have been done in metric for decades. If you go into B&Q and ask for a "5/16 drill bit" (or at least to anyone younger than me) you'd get a confused look for a minute while they quickly convert that to millimetres in their head. Incidentally, young editors on here might not remember that shilling and florin coins were in active circulation until at least up to the late 1980s, and I think even half a crown was legal tender until the ½p coin was deprecated. (Oh, and thanks for the review Dave!) Ritchie333 (talk) (cont) 09:58, 7 August 2017 (UTC)

After the removal of the source check as a requirement [4] this review can now be successfully closed. --Rschen7754 17:53, 3 December 2017 (UTC)

The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.