Road Signs: Time to change to Metric?

[DaveNP]

There was a programme on telly a while back where they looked at the idea of doing away with road markings and signs and left traffic to sort itself, around town it did actually seem to work, I don't recall them giving any reasons but I suppose that without all the markings and signs people actually had to put some thought into their driving and the standard improved, some years back I heard a similar theory put forward for mini roundabouts- nobody knows how to use them so we all slow down.

[Harvey1512]

Your reasoning is correct. Apparently this has been done in a few places in Holland very successfully. Fine in smalltowns but could be carnage in busy places. Interesting idea though.

[NewVolvo]

Originally Posted by Harvey1512

Your reasoning is correct. Apparently this has been done in a few places in Holland very successfully. Fine in smalltowns but could be carnage in busy places. Interesting idea though.

Would be great to see at the Magic Roundabout in Swindon.....

[Daim]

Originally Posted by DaveNP

There was a programme on telly a while back where they looked at the idea of doing away with road markings and signs and left traffic to sort itself, around town it did actually seem to work, I don't recall them giving any reasons but I suppose that without all the markings and signs people actually had to put some thought into their driving and the standard improved, some years back I heard a similar theory put forward for mini roundabouts- nobody knows how to use them so we all slow down.

The idea was, to make all participants in traffic equal. So cyclists, cars, busses, taxis, pedestrians, skaters, etc. are all treated the same. Everyone has the same rights. The road and paths aren't separated and there is a speed limit of I think 10 km/h (should be around 7 mph). This works well but can only be done in smaller towns. You couldn't have London or so running that. And it wouldn't work on motorways or dual carriage ways...

They tried an experiment like that in Münster near Bielefeld here. The result was: it worked, but car drivers found it very struggeling and bus drivers complained that people wouldn't take notice of them...

[Harvey1512]

Can you see the classic BMW driver giving "equal status" to other people on the road? . [/CODE]

[GMcL]

Can't help but think this thread was started just for a bit of mischief.

If they were serious about this kms milarky then why fit Volvo's with speedometers showing miles and tiny kms markes in units of 20 ? Why not start at 10 ? At least then we'd know where 30, 50 and 70 are in kms when driving in European Urban areas or is it to deliberately get the Brit to drive 10k under/over the limit ?

No all European registered cars only read in kms. We have a Citroen C4 GP which switches between kms and miles when the units are switched between l/100kms and MPG.

How do Europeans cope when changing tyres with metric, percentages and imperial? Steam must be coming out of their ears.

I'll have some 225; 101.25; 432.8 or 225/45x17 ?

[NewVolvo]

Originally Posted by GMcL

Can't help but think this thread was started just for a bit of mischief.

If they were serious about this kms milarky then why fit Volvo's with speedometers showing miles and tiny kms markes in units of 20 ? Why not start at 10 ? At least then we'd know where 30, 50 and 70 are in kms when driving in European Urban areas or is it to deliberately get the Brit to drive 10k under/over the limit ?

No all European registered cars only read in kms. We have a Citroen C4 GP which switches between kms and miles when the units are switched between l/100kms and MPG.

How do Europeans cope when changing tyres with metric, percentages and imperial? Steam must be coming out of their ears.

I'll have some 225; 101.25; 432.8 or 225/45x17 ?

Most cars that has speedo's on Kms have them indicated at 20, 40, 60 etc. There are lines inbetween so no need to have 30 or 50 marked.

Here's my 780 which came from Sweden to show what I mean:


As for Tyres, TV's, Speaker sizes etc most countries in Europe measure in Inches. What I know differs Germany, for example, on the sizes of TV's having both sizes.

[GMcL]

Just to clarify when I was talking about kms increments I meant the tiny indications in the middle of the MPH speedometers, not the EU speedos..

On our UK motorbike the kms are unreadable in blue and don't start until 70kmh as the cut out for the distance travelled gets in the way.

[arcturus]

Shouldn't be too dificult to remember the convervions. ie 30mph=50kph. 60mph=100 kph etc Just like learning two times tables. I have cars in both mph & kph. have no problem

[GMcL]

I wasn't saying it was a problem, what I was too subtly hinting at was as most European urban areas appear to have limits of 30, 50 & 70 then why do the manufacturers not have to clearly mark these to avoid any confusion?

They appear to want to control everything else in everyone's life, I can't believe they've missed something when they keep banging on about speed kills ad nauseum.