Roadside Park Consistency
Michigan has 80+ MDOT-maintained roadside parks and scenic turnouts, spanning both the Upper and Lower Peninsulas. They are found on state and US highways, and typically are seasonal, open Apr-Nov. Usually found at a scenic natural feature, they provide parking, and most provide toilet facilities and picnic areas. These are not Rest Areas(see the Rest Area wiki page). The State of Michigan maintains a list of MDOT roadside parks here, and on the MiDrive map.
Place Categories
- Park (under Outdoors) should be set as the primary category.
Naming Standards
The standardized name format has been optimized for both instant and regular search results.
- The name begins with "Roadside Park" to facilitate the instant search results, which are based on the first words of the search term.
- The name of the park comes next in the place's name, following a hyphen (-). The proper name is the official MDOT name, found in the links in the opening paragraph.
- Example: "Roadside Park - Michigamme"
Other Guidelines
- If the park has 2 entrances (e.i. a loop), the PLR should be broken into 4 segments, and locked at 3. This is to avoid confusing routing instructions created by PLR name inheritance when the park is routed as an intermediate stop. Example: Traveling on M-28, user receives instruction when entering the park, "In 1000 feet, turn right on M-28". The desired instruction is "In 1000 feet, turn right".
- Include a (concise) description using text from MDOT, along any other relevant info (such as "Closed for winter, only open Apr-Nov").
- Use the MiDrive link for the website, and MDOT main contact for the phone number.
- Follow all other guidelines for Places.