User:Ljthefro/Sandbox3

Article titles
The standard article naming convention (where the page is located) for Interstate highways is "Interstate [number]", and the convention for U.S. highways is "U.S. Route [number]". State highway articles are generally titled in the form "[State] [road type] [number]" (e.g. Missouri Route 13, Oklahoma State Highway 3, New York State Route 17). Kansas and Michigan are the exception to this general trend, due to those states' DOTs naming their highways as "K-[number]" and "M-[number]" respectively. Each state's convention is listed at the page linked above. Naming conventions were determined after a long period of conflict, so ignoring or proposing drastic changes to these conventions is contentious.

Exception: Interstate highways in Alaska and Puerto Rico are listed under Interstate Highways in Alaska and Interstate Highways in Puerto Rico.

Names in prose
Highway names in the main body of the article can either be written out fully or abbreviated in a shortened form.

For state highway names in prose, the name of the state should generally be left off when it is not part of the "official" name and its use is straightforward (i.e. "Route 76", not "Missouri Route 76"). The official name to be used when writing out state highway names can be found here. If use of an official highway name in the prose would cause confusion (i.e. talking about a state highway in another state), the article title or another disambiguated form may be used for clarity.

When abbreviating a highway name in prose, an accepted best practice is to first establish the official name before using the shortened form. This is typically achieved at first appearance in the text by writing out the full official name of the highway followed immediately by the shortened form in parentheses. Any subsequent reference to that highway, or any other route of the same type, can use the abbreviated form. See the example below, from the lead of New York State Route 28.

New York State Route 28 (NY 28) is a state highway extending for 281.69 mi in the shape of a "C" between the Hudson Valley city of Kingston and southern Warren County in the U.S. state of New York. Along the way, it intersects several major routes, including Interstate 88 (I-88), U.S. Route 20 (US 20), and the New York State Thruway twice. The southern terminus of NY 28 is at NY 32 in Kingston and the northern terminus is US 9 in Warrensburg...

The name of a bannered or special route generally takes the form "[road type] [number] [banner]" (e.g. U.S. Route 40 Alternate, M-28 Business). If shortening the name of a bannered or special route, the same abbreviation rules apply. Use the standard abbreviations ("Alt.", "Bus.", "Byp.") as the shortened form; the all-caps equivalents ("ALT", "BUS", "BYP") are also acceptible. Banners with fewer letters (such as Loop, Spur and Truck) need not be shortened.

Names in infoboxes and junction tables
Text for the names of intersecting highways found in an article's infobox or junction table should always use an abbreviated or shortened form, especially when accompanied by route marker images ("shields").

For Interstates and U.S. Routes, these are typically abbreviated as "I-[number]" and "US [number]", respectively. Short forms for state highways vary, so use an abbreviation common to the state in question. Always use the abbreviated form of special routes in the infobox or junction table as outlined above.

Displayed text for links
When linking to another highway article, be sure the displayed link shows the highway's "official" name, especially in cases where the official name and article title are different. Displayed text for links to other highways in the prose may be written out fully or shortened as outlined above.

Highway names appearing next to route marker images in an infobox or junction list should always be shortened; using Jct will automatically format the shield image and link properly. Roadlink also abbreviates highway links properly, but without producing shield images.


 * Linking with the pipe trick

You can use the pipe trick to aid in forming a link. For instance, to link to the article with the title Florida State Road 50, type  to get State Road 50. As long as the redirect from State Road 50 (Florida) to Florida State Road 50 exists, the link will be equivalent to typing. There is nothing wrong with linking to a redirect; do not "fix" these "pipe-tricked" links.

Direct links using the article title can be used for situations where the context is not clear or for describing highways ending at state lines. For instance, one may be writing an article about roads through swampland in the United States and want to talk about SR 50 in Florida. In that case, you can write "The Cheney Highway, part of Florida State Road 50, crosses the St. Johns River swamp." Or you can word it differently: "The Cheney Highway, part of State Road 50, crosses the St. Johns River swamp in Florida."

Creation of redirects
Redirects from the official name (as indicated at WP:USSH) to the article should be created at the same time a new state highway article is created. Redirects from the official name are of the form [Official name] [route number]. Often, the official name is ambiguous and will need to be disambiguated. Following standard Wikipedia disambiguation rules, the convention for disambiguation of an ambiguous official name is to follow the above format with the state name in parentheses, e.g. [Official name] [route number] (State name).

Lists to help you make these redirects are at WikiProject U.S. Roads/Redirects.