All communities in states along the historic Route 66: Illinois, Missouri, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California.
Route 66 was renamed Will Rogers Highway after the death of that enormously popular humorist, writer, radio and film star. As 2026 is the 100 anniversary of Route 66, I think it would be appropriate to add “Will Rogers Highway” as an old_name in the tagging. Most of the tagging today includes old_ref “Route 66.” It might be possible to do a mass edit to add “Will Rogers Highway” to those. What does this community think? Elliot? Baloo?
If it’s anything like Historic Route 80, I imagine the tagging on the ways and relations for Historic Route 66 is broadly inconsistent. And there are likely a lot of phantom road segments belonging to demolished, abandoned, or disused segments of the highway that were used for historical alignments.
Adding an honorific name tag is a small step. How about making an effort to clean up the rest of the highway?
Clearly there are many “abandoned or disused” segments of Route 66 and many more that simply are under I-40 or I-10 (here in the west). But I don’t see the fact that those segments are included in OSM data as something to be “cleaned up.” Most are clearly marked as such. In my opinion, the abandoned and disused segment should be part of OSM data because of the history of that road. Personally, I find it fascinating to see the different routes for Route 66 compared to the modern interstates.
As for the relations for Route 66, that is beyond my technical expertise in OSM.
There’s a distinction to be drawn between historical pavement that still exists and which may or may not be usable and historical alignments of the road where there is no trace left of the roadway.
The former may still be mapped in OSM as features that exist on the ground. The latter belongs entirely in OHM.
The driveable sections, using a loose definition of driveable, stop and start along the route, especially where it is near the current I-40. Many sections of Route 66 were used as the basis for I-40, mostly because the right of way was well-established and the route followed a way across the country where it was relatively easy to build a highway. I could see putting a complete version of the original 1926 Route 66 on OHM, and the many variations over the years. Maybe it is already there. But to remove the many short sections now under I-40 to OHM would be difficult and would create a stream of unconnected sections. As it is now, with the sections under an interstate, such as I-40, shown as dashed lines, show the original route.
Much of U.S. 66 is in OHM, thanks to a handful of dedicated mappers who see the value in being able to tell a coherent history. This is a work in progress that could use more help from knowledgeable locals and history buffs. Some of the route relations are in good enough shape to appear as route shields on OpenHistoricalMap Americana.
Why would a series of disconnected sections be problematic in OSM? OHM should be responsible for informing users about which sections of I-40 replaced a U.S. 66 alignment. The relation in OSM should be about the route currently designated as Historic Route 66. Routers need this information to guide users in some localities like Flagstaff, where the designation is prominently signposted, not so that someone can tour the entire former route end to end with precision.