Which state do roadgeeks know the least about?

[hotdogPi]

I would probably say New Mexico.

(Everything under this line was added after the original post.)

* Less populous than every surrounding state, despite being just as large in area
* One major metro area (Albuquerque), which has just I-25 and I-40
* No 3dis or state route freeways that I know of
* Very few members, if any, from New Mexico on this forum
* Most of what New Mexico has also applies to Arizona

[kphoger]

Tlaxcala

[thspfc]

Just based on what I see and don't see on this form, I'd say NM, VT, NH, ME, NE, WY, and MT. So pretty much the states you'd expect.

[Roadgeekteen]

Neither Dakota had a state thread until I created one for North Dakota.

[formulanone]

Pretty sure it's a tie between ecstasy and denial.

[Scott5114]

There's actually a somewhat mathematical answer to this, believe it or not. Wikipedia editors assess articles by their completeness. The Wikipedia road editors are rather data-driven, and so I created a statistic (called Ω) that indicates, in numerical form, a region's average article quality. 0 is all articles being perfect and complete. 6 is having no information other than a few lines about its terminus and length.

So of course there's a map.


The states we know the least about on Wikipedia are New Mexico, North Dakota, West Virginia, New Hampshire, and Tennessee.

[kphoger]

NE

You know, for a state that lies right smack-dab in the middle of I-80, it's crazy how few posts there are on here about Nebraska's highways.  There is hardly ever any mention of its Link and Spur routes, for example.

[Roadgeekteen]

NE

You know, for a state that lies right smack-dab in the middle of I-80, it's crazy how few posts there are on here about Nebraska's highways.  There is hardly ever any mention of its Link and Spur routes, for example.

Not many people live there.

[NWI_Irish96]

NE

You know, for a state that lies right smack-dab in the middle of I-80, it's crazy how few posts there are on here about Nebraska's highways.  There is hardly ever any mention of its Link and Spur routes, for example.

Nebraska is one of the states where I have driven only on interstates, and I imagine that's true for a lot of people.

[STLmapboy]

There's actually a somewhat mathematical answer to this, believe it or not. Wikipedia editors assess articles by their completeness. The Wikipedia road editors are rather data-driven, and so I created a statistic (called Ω) that indicates, in numerical form, a region's average article quality. 0 is all articles being perfect and complete. 6 is having no information other than a few lines about its terminus and length.

So of course there's a map.


The states we know the least about on Wikipedia are New Mexico, North Dakota, West Virginia, New Hampshire, and Tennessee.

This seems a bit subjective. There doesn't seem to be much of a quality difference between this NM article and this MI article, for example.

[thspfc]

NE

You know, for a state that lies right smack-dab in the middle of I-80, it's crazy how few posts there are on here about Nebraska's highways.  There is hardly ever any mention of its Link and Spur routes, for example.

Nebraska is one of the states where I have driven only on interstates, and I imagine that's true for a lot of people.

Yeah, and the fact is, there's just not much there of interest to a roadgeek. The link and spur routes are cool, and Omaha has a couple nice freeways, but that's about it.

[Scott5114]

This seems a bit subjective. There doesn't seem to be much of a quality difference between this NM article and this MI article, for example.

There is a list of criteria that try to take as much subjectivity out of the process as possible. A set of editors go through and audit the assessments for accuracy every couple of years or so to ensure that they are all correctly assessed according to the criteria. In the particular case of these two articles, the Michigan one has been vetted by a second editor through the Good Article program, giving it a higher rating.

For very short highways, the differences are not as pronounced. The differences are more noticeable on longer routes; compare a 33-mile NM highway (stub, score of 6) to one in Oklahoma (featured, score of 0).

[Hot Rod Hootenanny]

Idaho

[webny99]

The states we know the least about on Wikipedia are New Mexico, North Dakota, West Virginia, New Hampshire, and Tennessee.

Based on the colors on the map, I think you mean Kentucky instead of Tennessee?

[webny99]

I think New Mexico is the correct answer, and it's probably not specific to roadgeeks. It seems like a very under-discussed state across the board. What does anyone know about New Mexico, honestly?

After that, probably Idaho, Montana, and North Dakota.
Montana also seems weirdly under-discussed now that I think of it.

[Scott5114]

The states we know the least about on Wikipedia are New Mexico, North Dakota, West Virginia, New Hampshire, and Tennessee.

Based on the colors on the map, I think you mean Kentucky instead of Tennessee?

TN = 5.298
KY = 5.250

The map may be slightly out of date.

[Max Rockatansky]

New Mexico is pretty damn up there.  Steve Tibet's New Mexico page is still by far the best place to go for information on State Highways.  So much of the state inventory doesn't even have a Wikipedia page.  It doesn't help with New Mexico that the state maintains so many weird roads out in the middle of nowhere.  The maintenance standards in New Mexico tend to be way behind neighboring states.  The Farm to Market System IMO is better known than the New Mexico State Highway System.

[STLmapboy]

How much is there to discuss about NM really? I've been there; the roads system is unspectacular. Us traffic signal fans could have some good discussion about their exclusive use of vertical traffic signals, the sign enthusiasts could lament NMDOT's inability to use the proper Zia sun symbol. They don't have many construction projects on the docket. So there ain't a ton to do (except bemoan their always-crappy signage, of course).

[Max Rockatansky]

How much is there to discuss about NM really? I've been there; the roads system is unspectacular. Us traffic signal fans could have some good discussion about their exclusive use of vertical traffic signals, the sign enthusiasts could lament NMDOT's inability to use the proper Zia sun symbol. They don't have many construction projects on the docket. So there ain't a ton to do (except bemoan their always-crappy signage, of course).

I disagree, there is some pretty kick ass mountain highways and lots of former US Routes that have huge historical significance.  I was never lacking for something interesting to find in the three years I worked in New Mexico.  It's one of the few states that I wish that I have more time to revisit.  The aspect of it being largely uncharted in the road community is even more enticing.  Yeah, I guess it's boring if you're into things like freeways and modern projects but to me those usually all that exciting anyways. 

[Bickendan]

NM does have non-interstate freeways - NM 423 in Albuquerque, NM 599 around Santa Fe, and the US 84/285 freeway going north from Santa Fe.

Tlaxcala

You have intrigued me, sir. I see your Tlaxcala and raise you West Bengal.

[Max Rockatansky]

NM does have non-interstate freeways - NM 423 in Albuquerque, NM 599 around Santa Fe, and the US 84/285 freeway going north from Santa Fe.

Tlaxcala

You have intrigued me, sir. I see your Tlaxcala and raise you West Bengal.

US 70 East of Las Cruces also. 

[jakeroot]

There's actually a somewhat mathematical answer to this, believe it or not. Wikipedia editors assess articles by their completeness. The Wikipedia road editors are rather data-driven, and so I created a statistic (called Ω) that indicates, in numerical form, a region's average article quality. 0 is all articles being perfect and complete. 6 is having no information other than a few lines about its terminus and length.

So of course there's a map.


The states we know the least about on Wikipedia are New Mexico, North Dakota, West Virginia, New Hampshire, and Tennessee.

Just for the record, a ton of the WA articles have been edited extensively, and likely created, by our own Bruce (aka SounderBruce); credit where credit's due, as he's spent loads of time on research and writing up many WA-related articles. Many have been featured. If I had to guess why WA is as green as it is, I would guess that it's because of him.

Couple other things:

(1) what's the color for American Samoa and the Mariana Islands? Looks purple.

(2) why are MI and DE so dark? Lots of roadgeeks from those areas? Or another roadgeek who is also heavy on the wiki edits?

[Road Hog]

By all rights Arkansas should be among the lesser represented, and yet it punches above its weight. Perhaps because of the sheer size of its uber-bloated state network.

[formulanone]

How much is there to discuss about NM really? I've been there; the roads system is unspectacular. Us traffic signal fans could have some good discussion about their exclusive use of vertical traffic signals, the sign enthusiasts could lament NMDOT's inability to use the proper Zia sun symbol. They don't have many construction projects on the docket. So there ain't a ton to do (except bemoan their always-crappy signage, of course).

I disagree, there is some pretty kick ass mountain highways and lots of former US Routes that have huge historical significance.  I was never lacking for something interesting to find in the three years I worked in New Mexico.  It’s one of the few states that I wish that I have more time to revisit.  The aspect of it being largely uncharted in the road community is even more enticing.  Yeah, I guess it’s boring if you’re into things like freeways and modern projects but to me those usually all that exciting anyways. 

And that's the bulk of discussion on these boards, anyhow: mostly interstates and major US highways, and comparatively little about that state's local route system. A state Route/Road/Highway system gets discussed mostly by the few who know about it, or the network around some of the larger cities, famous attractions, and around national parks. There are also many members who stick to the local or state threads and rarely post in anything outside of that realm.

There's more active members from some states than others, so the bulk of discussion will lean towards the routes concentrated in those places. There's not a lot of active members from New Mexico, Montana, Mississippi, but plenty in some of the larger cities and states with more activity from members. We're rarely lacking in topics from most of the Northeast US, California, Florida, North Carolina, Texas...but there's also a lot of discussion about places like Arkansas and Delaware because there are more active topics.

[Max Rockatansky]

How much is there to discuss about NM really? I've been there; the roads system is unspectacular. Us traffic signal fans could have some good discussion about their exclusive use of vertical traffic signals, the sign enthusiasts could lament NMDOT's inability to use the proper Zia sun symbol. They don't have many construction projects on the docket. So there ain't a ton to do (except bemoan their always-crappy signage, of course).

I disagree, there is some pretty kick ass mountain highways and lots of former US Routes that have huge historical significance.  I was never lacking for something interesting to find in the three years I worked in New Mexico.  It's one of the few states that I wish that I have more time to revisit.  The aspect of it being largely uncharted in the road community is even more enticing.  Yeah, I guess it's boring if you're into things like freeways and modern projects but to me those usually all that exciting anyways. 

And that's the bulk of discussion on these boards, anyhow: mostly interstates and major US highways, and comparatively little about that state's local route system. A state Route/Road/Highway system gets discussed mostly by the few who know about it, or the network around some of the larger cities, famous attractions, and around national parks.

There's more active members from some states than others, so the bulk of discussion will lean towards the routes concentrated in those places. There's not a lot of active members from New Mexico, Montana, Mississippi, but plenty in some of the larger cities and states with more activity from members. We're rarely lacking in topics from most of the Northeast US, California, Florida, North Carolina, Texas...but there's also a lot of discussion about places like Arkansas and Delaware because there are more active topics.

To that end I really wish that I was able to recover more from my 2013 hard drive crash.  There was so much locally in New Mexico that was worth covering but it's kind of hard to convey it the way I want sans photos.  I would probably rate New Mexico well into the top 15 as a state in terms of having a scenic road network.  How that gets overlooked or the sheer fact we don't have more New Mexico people in the road community is bizarre to me.