Road Signs: Time to change to Metric?

[Bill_56]

Originally Posted by NewVolvo

From memory I think Autocar is one mag that refuses to stop doing their measurements/power measure in Metric or even Nm, despite many customers/readers protesting.

Perhaps time for them also to enter the 21st century and realise that what worked 30 years ago, no longer works!

Why not go the whole hog and descend into meaningless nonsense, witness Clarkson's 'torques'.

I shouldn't criticise, Clarkson and his 'torques' draw a big audience. But I sincerely hope I never have to live near a nuclear power station designed by a member of that audience, whether imperial or metric.

[GMad]

What a lot of people seem to be missing here, is the fact that this country already is and indeed, has been metric for some years now.
The hardware is one of the few things that hasn't been changed, because let's face it, no Government, blue, red or orange, is going to want to spend the money on changing everything, road signs being the biggest expense.
If any road user feels the need to have a totally metric journey, everything is there for them to be able to do just that.
Fill your motor up with litres of fuel, use the kph portion of your speedometer and simply convert miles to kilometers. I see no difficulty and of course have no problem with anyone who chooses to do this.
As for me, well I'll be sticking with using both systems, simultaneously.
Filling my car/s with litres of petrol, driving for miles on my seventeen inch wheels, whilst abiding to the imperial speed limit and of course all of this will be done in a car (unless it's my Trans Am), that is screwed together with metric nuts and bolts

[arcturus]

Units don't really mean all that much, they are really relative. When we fill up with gas how many of us put in £40,£50 etc. Distance,how long to get there. When we go for a pint do we want exaxtly that or a few beers?
My 144 speedo is in K's, my 940 is in mph. No problem switching between the two.

[steadvex]

I don't know if this applies to anyone else, but I noticed when driving abroad doing a 130kmph certinaly 'feels' more satisfying than doing 70mph...

ok I know 130 is faster, but even doing a nice 110 just has that mental thing going on that your going quicker.

saying you got to 200kmph also sounds better than doing 130 to me...

Saying that whenever I play a racing game I always set it to mph.

Maybe this countries population just needs to realise being different for the sake of it isn't always good.

Is it just an aging population refusing to change their ways? especially with all this anti eu stuff going on, if people just thought about why it can be better instead of just going no, its change its bad, maybe we wouldn't be as screwed up as we are, personally i'd love an eu central government, then we wouldn't have to worry about people like david Cameron pushing things through without thinking of the consequences, not to mention the billions saved in NOT paying all the bloody mp's along with their expenses...

but yea, I think its time we changed, I don't think it would be easy, but there would be advantages, as for disadvantages I can't think of any other than personal pride.

[NewVolvo]

Just to keep the record straight, in many EU countries one does not:

1. Buy a TV in metric sizes (except Germany I think who uses both metric and inches), it's all inches.
2. Buy "one 50cl of beer pls" but usually only say "one large one pls" (a UK pint is 56.8cl).
3. Shoe sizes in EU (UK excluded) are not in cm btw.

[Gazdok]

Originally Posted by Essexboydave

.... need new speedos and that doesn't come cheap. There is also the other issue of just how many road signs would need changing and how much our taxes would go up when the government use that as an excuse to raise more money from drivers!

This change is long overdue. It will happen over the next 10 - 20 years. This expense could be used to get the UK out of a quadrupple depression.

Next to be followed by right hand traffic. Good chance to improve the fast aging roads.

[Axionknight]

Originally Posted by Daim

Then you buy in different measurements...

1 can of beer = 0.33l
1 glass of beer = 0.4l

I'm glad I don't drink where you drink, the thought of such paltry measures make Axion a sad sad cookie :P

[Blandy15]

Why do we always have to change to suit everyone else whats wrong with being different.Most jobs i have been all the trades still measure in feet and inches cant see whats wrong with it.

[Harvey1512]

Originally Posted by Blandy15

Most jobs i have been all the trades still measure in feet and inches cant see whats wrong with it.

Mainly as its an illogical system that has not been taught in schools for 40 odd years. If we are going to be metric, and we swapped over a LONG time ago, then we should do it properly, not half hearted. Part keeping a system because people over a certain age are comfortable with it is not a great reason. The world moves on.

[Blandy15]

Harvey its not just oldies im 36 and a lot of the boys on site use inches why cant europe change and use inches why do we all have to be the same look at the euro great idea.