Talk:M-222 (Michigan highway)

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Changeover details

I found two articles about the M-118 to M-222 change. The first is from the Kalamazoo Gazette, but with the way the Advance Media/Newsbank archive search results are set up for non-registered users, there is little information that can be gleaned, not even so much as an article title; however, there's just enough to tell that it might be useful. It's dated July 12, 1988, and the archive link to access it is here (search with "M-118 M-222" in 1988). The second, a Battle Creek Enquirer article from May 19, 1989 (see OCR text), doesn't offer much but does note that the M-222 designation appeared "this year". I won't change the WP article right now and will wait for someone with an Advance account to access the Gazette article. Mapsax (talk) 22:09, 20 May 2021 (UTC)

From the Gazette search, there is a classified ad that appears in the search results from October 22, 1988, that lists "M-222 (formerly M-118)", so if the general public was referencing the changeover in advertisements, it's likely that it was already changed by that time in 1988. There's another search result from the Gazette from November 10, 1988, for an article on an accident noting similar verbiage. I can access the full page from the Enquirer, and yes it has that text, but the Gazette results on page 2 have a similar article snippet about a traffic detour from the same date that says "take M-222, also known as old M-118". That sounds to me like imprecise language on the reporter to mean "changed in the last year" instead of indicating it was changed in 1989. Imzadi 1979 → 22:38, 20 May 2021 (UTC)

Playing devil's advocate: It's also possible that MDOT prompted businesses to start calling it M-222 in 1988 via media even though the official change might not have taken place until 1989. At this point there are probably enough resources to get a precise date. In any case, I started the research today to put a RS to the M-118/118th Street confusion conjecture, which the Gazette article appears to address. Mapsax (talk) 23:04, 20 May 2021 (UTC)

I pulled the articles from the Gazette. The July 1988 article says "will be renamed M-222", and the November 1988 article refers to the highway as "M-222 (formerly M-118)" on first reference, and M-222 for all all mentions. To me, that says it was changed in the intervening period. Searching for just M-118 or M-222 in the Gazette show's M-118 in primary use through a September 1988 article, and classifieds use M-222 in primary use in October 1988. Specifically, ads switched from M-118 on October 12 to M-222 on October 19. Imzadi 1979 → 23:36, 20 May 2021 (UTC)