Road Signs: Time to change to Metric?

[tofufi]

Originally Posted by canis

If you like metric units - use them. All I'm asking for is the choice. Why is that not allowed? Why is the display of imperial units prohibited? In what way is a metric-user's life improved by denying them?

Er... it is allowed?

https://www.gov.uk/weights-measures-...kaging-the-law

You can display an imperial measurement alongside the metric measurement but it can’t stand out more than the metric measurement.

[Honest Al]

[QUOTE=Thanatos;1365478]Does that mean we need to drive on the opposite side of the road as its the same as the rest of Europe.

I heard a rumour the other day (from a very reliable source) that the Government are proposing we change over to driving on the "other" side of the road as in the States, but to save money they are going to make us do it in alphabetical order. No one said whether alphabetical meant the name of the owner/ driver or the make/ model of vehicle
Personally I cannot see how it will save money, however the Government are always right, so who am I to complain

[Honest Al]

I heard a rumour the other day (from a very reliable source) that the Government are proposing we change over to driving on the "other" side of the road as in the States, but to save money they are going to make us do it in alphabetical order. No one said whether alphabetical meant the name of the owner/ driver or the make/ model of vehicle
Personally I cannot see how it will save money, however the Government are always right, so who am I to complain[/QUOTE]

With reference to the RHD/LHD quandary, I have had a thought about the Collins type of atlas I am sure 99% of us must surely have in our vehicles.
I live in Cheshire and quite often make journeys up to Edinburgh or Glasgow.
The problem arises when I am coming back home, it is very difficult to read an atlas upside down.
What I would suggest is that the back half of the atlas has all the same maps in the same order, but with all the place names printed upside down, so that you can easily read the placenames when you are coming home. It would also solve the problem of all the junctions being on the wrong side of the motorways as you make your way south.
What do you think, comments on the back of a £5 note please ??????

[DaveNP]

Reading upside down was a trick I learnt at school (to see what the teacher was putting in the letter to my parents). But reading sideways as I travel East to West and back again, that's a whole new skill set.


sorry couldn't get my fountain pen to work on these new fangled plastic fivers.

[Grimble]

There's always a bit of an awkward silence from the metric brigade when I use the same argument that in the interests of understanding and clarity, everybody should speak English, after all, it is the most widely spoken language globally.

[ASt85]

Originally Posted by Grimble

the most widely spoken language globally.

Most widely spoken language by number of native speakers
Mandarin (1197 million)
Spanish (406 million)
English (335 million)
Hindi-Urdu (260 million)
Arabic (223 million)
Portuguese (202 million)
Bengali (193 million)
Russian (162 million)

....and for everything else there's google translate // babelfish & etc. Franglais or indeed Changlais instruction "manuals"..but then Manuel was from Barcelona and I'd better go and beat the 1100 🤨

[Grimble]

Originally Posted by ASt85

Most widely spoken language by number of native speakers
Mandarin (1197 million)
Spanish (406 million)
English (335 million)
Hindi-Urdu (260 million)
Arabic (223 million)
Portuguese (202 million)
Bengali (193 million)
Russian (162 million)

....and for everything else there's google translate // babelfish & etc. Franglais or indeed Changlais instruction "manuals"..but then Manuel was from Barcelona and I'd better go and beat the 1100 🤨

I think you need to read my words a bit more carefully. I said most widely spoken GLOBALLY. Most of your figures above are based on very few countries with very large populations.
Like it or not English is the global lingua-franca (love the irony of that phrase).

[GreenBrick]

I want speeds to be done in hexadecimal so I can do 96 when all those who don't understand are still driving at 60mph.

Inches are far better than decimal/metric. Feet can divide up so easily, as 12 is a much better number than 10. Also fractions are easier than mm, for example half of 3/8 is 3/16. What are those in mm?

[ASt85]

Even more impressive than a Denary 60mph is a binary 111100mph!! There again as Hex 3C it sounds as though it should be legally "tort" with the aid of a rotating mirror and a lot of care as elsewhere it might be thought as three times the speed of light. So if we multiply by that denary 60 by 3600 we get 34BC0 hex......but then of course there's the gain in mass to take into account.

Thankfully it was a Tesla that was put into space and as we all know 1Tesla is equal to one Weber per square metre then the answer is quite clearly to move from computerised fool(sic) injection to a reliable carburettor then we'll all get to exceed the limits of reality.

Bring on the hyperspace by-pass...best get my hat, coat and exit stage with the guessing stick...........

[ksmi]

Originally Posted by Honest Al

I heard a rumour the other day (from a very reliable source) that the Government are proposing we change over to driving on the "other" side of the road as in the States, but to save money they are going to make us do it in alphabetical order. No one said whether alphabetical meant the name of the owner/ driver or the make/ model of vehicle
Personally I cannot see how it will save money, however the Government are always right, so who am I to complain

With reference to the RHD/LHD quandary, I have had a thought about the Collins type of atlas I am sure 99% of us must surely have in our vehicles.
I live in Cheshire and quite often make journeys up to Edinburgh or Glasgow.
The problem arises when I am coming back home, it is very difficult to read an atlas upside down.
What I would suggest is that the back half of the atlas has all the same maps in the same order, but with all the place names printed upside down, so that you can easily read the placenames when you are coming home. It would also solve the problem of all the junctions being on the wrong side of the motorways as you make your way south.
What do you think, comments on the back of a £5 note please ??????[/QUOTE]

So can I recap? we take it in turns to cross over and drive on "the other side"
Alphabetically artics would be one of the first to cross over,interesting!!!!!
would certainly reduce congestion,
Ref.the upside down maps, I have invented an automatic solution to this problem, 1st. you get hold of a scrap microwave oven,swmbo hasn't noticed ours has been "borrowed" yet. take the top and sides off,attach map to turntable,Voila. if you have a convertible,you can leave top and sides on in case of rain.
It would be a nice? change from being bored by Boaty ,winging about Brexit.

Regards,Keith