A fact from U.S. Route 66 in Illinois appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the Did you know column on 8 October 2007. The text of the entry was as follows:
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Truncated 1976 to Gardner, 1978 to Normal, 1979 into Missouri
By 1969, US 66 was on I-55 from Missouri past IL 203 [1]
A 1968 Illinois Tollway map shows US 66 with I-55 from south of Plainfield to Burr Ridge, then along Joliet Road, IL 43, Ogden Avenue and Jackson Boulevard/Adams Street to Michigan Avenue (or maybe beyond via Michigan Avenue, Congress Street, Columbus Drive and Jackson Drive - why that way?)
A 1973 IDOT map has US 66 on I-55 wherever I-55 exists except at Springfield, Bloomington and Chicago. This matches present I-55 from St. Louis to east of Staunton, north of Litchfield to south of Springfield, maybe around Pontiac and Dwight, and southwest of Gardner to Burr Ridge. At Springfield, US 66 runs via Adlai Stevenson Drive and Dirksen Parkway, merging with I-55 north of Sherman. At Bloomington, US 66 runs via prsent Business I-55. In Chiago, it looks like it ends at Michigan Avenue, which is the east end of US 14 (Michigan and Jackson).
So, except possibly at Lincoln, US 66 probably used I-55 everywhere except Springfield, Bloomington and Chicago at decommissioning. --SPUI (T - C - RFC) 10:26, 3 May 2006 (UTC)[reply]
The correct designation for roads in the U.S. Route System is U.S. Route XX, *not* US XX as many people here have written it. I know it's tempting to use shortened route names on second mention, but it's just plain WRONG. Look to the route shield itself for the information: Route 66's formal former name (I say former because it's no longer officially part of the U.S. Route System) is U.S. Route 66 -- or, more specifically, the former U.S. Route 66, or Historic U.S. Route 66 as the newer signs now indicate, or just plain Route 66. But it's never correct to write US 66. Please don't change my edits once I've corrected text to reflect this formal usage. I am a professional journalist and book editor, and I prefer to use the correct terminology, which bows to standard English usage (BTW, the AP Stylebook agrees with me: it, too, uses the formal designation). Thank you. Mrtraska (talk) 17:53, 4 August 2014 (UTC)[reply]
No, it's not wrong, and The AP Stylebook disagrees with you, as do many Featured Articles on US Highways.
highway designations Use these forms, as appropriate in the contest, for highways identified by number: U.S. Highway 1, U.S. Route 1, U.S. 1, State Route 34, Route 34, Interstate Highway 495, Interstate 495. On second reference only for Interstate: I-495.
When a letter is appended to a number, capitalized it but not don't use a hyphen: Route 1A. (italics and bold heading in original, other bolding added)[1]
Taking a look at the more recent edition of The Chicago Manual of Style, which now disfavors periods in abbreviations much like MOS:ABBR:
9.51 Numbered highways. State, federal [sic] and interstate highways are designated by arabic numerals. Names for state routes vary from state to state. See also 8.55
US Route 41 (or US 41)
Illinois Route 50 (or Illinois 50; IL 50); Route 50
If we were to look to the highway markers, the originals used "US" above the number: File:US 66 Illinois 1926.svg is the original example for Illinois; the 1948 version differed only in using a more modern typeface. The more recent historic route signage, File:US 66 (historic).svg also uses "US" on the shield. Things like File:ROUTE 66 sign.jpg were never used on the highways themselves, and they are a souvenir-type item.
In short, "US 66" is not "wrong". Imzadi 1979→ 22:12, 4 August 2014 (UTC)[reply]
Also, ((jct)) consistently uses "US #" (or "US-#") in all situations (the hyphenated variation follows some individual state DOT practices) because that's how these highway designations are abbreviated in the real world. Imzadi 1979→ 23:53, 4 August 2014 (UTC)[reply]
Since the first sentence of the article is "U.S. Route 66 (US 66, Route 66) was..." and ((jct)) consistently uses the "US #" form, as do hundreds of other articles on the English Wikipedia, there's no need to constantly spell out the full name in the text. We wouldn't repeatedly refer to "William Jefferson Clinton", or even "Bill Clinton" on every subsequent mention when a simple "Clinton" will normally suffice unless there's the possibility for confusion with Hillary or Chelsea. Just as we wouldn't do that with a person's name, we don't need to do that with a highway's name either. I've restored "US 66" where removed, and left the form where it wasn't removed in lower sections of the article.
References
^Goldstein, Norm, ed. (1998). The Associated Press Stylebook and Libel Manual (33rd ed.). New York: Associated Press. p. 96. ISBN0-917360-16-8.
^The Chicago Manual of Style (16th ed.). Chicago: University of Chicago Press. 2010. pp. 480–1. ISBN978-0-226-10420-1.