Comments on: Know your speeds - the voice of experience

by: Frederick Heath-Renn

Sun, 22 Jun 2008 21:04:56 +0000

It makes it significantly easier to remember that

20 + 30 = 50
30 + 50 = 80
80 + 50 = 130

by: Charlie Pearce

Wed, 16 Jan 2008 11:56:33 +0000

In answer to Michael Hawkshaw’s point, I don’t think this is an insurmountable problem unless speed limits are raised to 200 km/h. I don’t know many bulbs the dot matrix displays use, but you only need two columns to add a “1″ and a space. On a hypothetical set of two 5×7 characters, 130 could be shown as:

@_@@@ _@@@_
@____@ @___@
@____@ @___@
@_@@@ @___@
@____@ @___@
@____@ @___@
@_@@@ _@@@_

by: Michael Hawkshaw

Sun, 23 Sep 2007 20:28:38 +0000

As I was driving under the overhead gantries on the M25 and M42, I noticed that the variable speed limit signs only seem capable of displaying up to two characters, therefore would have to be replaced should are roads be converted to km/h as the maximum speed limit they could show is 99. Isn’t this a little short-sighted of the DfT?

by: Daniel Jackson

Sun, 29 Jul 2007 16:16:46 +0000

Rule of thumb:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_Autobahns

The distance to the vehicle in front (in metres) should be at least half the speed (in km/h) at all times (e.g. at least 60 meters at 120 km/h). This corresponds to a “lead time” of just under 2 seconds. As a reference: The white-and-black reflection posts to the right have a distance of 50 m to each other. Again, the fact that the car in front is illegally occupying the left-hand lane when the right-hand lane is free is not a valid excuse.

I can’t envision this simple relationship in FFU.

by: Alex Bailey

Wed, 25 Jul 2007 11:11:58 +0000

Tabitha, like many others in the anti-metric camp, love to use cost as a deterrent to conversion. Has she thought though about the additional cost we pay as motorists because the motor industry has to manufacture speedos specially for the UK market? What about the extra paid out for speed cameras specially converted to use MPH? (Gatso are Dutch and Truvelo are South African so their home markets are metric). I’m sure SatNavs would be cheaper if they didn’t need to have miles on them and (despite what the DfT seem to think in their estimates of changeover costs) maps would probably be cheaper too as map publishers would be able to use the raw metric data from Ordnance Survey instead of having to convert to imperial.

And while we’re on costs… look at the money that the government want to waste on trials for road-pricing schemes which are extremely unpopular with voters (as the recent Number 10 poll and the current campaigns in Manchester show), these are considerably more expensive than metric conversion would be. Even the DfT’s inflated estimates are only a small fraction of what it’s going to cost the country to hold the 2012 Olympics!

And none of this takes into account what it has cost to educate every schoolchild since the late 1960’s in a subject which they are being denied the opportunity to use.

by: Julie

Tue, 24 Jul 2007 00:17:24 +0000

Here in Sydney the major roads have a 70 km/h speed limits. Some people have a device in their motorcars - an alarm goes off when the car is above 70. A good way to avoid speeding fines. Also aren’t motorcars destined for the UK market have dual marking on their speedometers? So you would not need to convert.
I would also like to add, here in Aus we have your British motorcar programs TOP GEAR and 5th GEAR. The preseneters review a car and say it has X amount of Horse Power, and can do X amount of miles per gallon!!
I just think why do our networks buy such rubbish. I want to throw something at the tellie.

by: Derek

Fri, 20 Jul 2007 10:59:16 +0000

I would like to echo Robert’s comment. If anyone needs ‘metric lessons’ it is the senior staff at the UK Department for Transport (DfT). Since 1965, when the UK Government gave its support to the move to metric units in British industry, over 40 countries have made the changeover to metric road signage. There must surely be enough experience around the world to show the DfT how to do this job safely, efficiently and economically.
But they should not delay, because first-hand knowledge will be lost. Or is this the DfT plan?

by: Robert

Fri, 20 Jul 2007 10:55:04 +0000

I doubt anything I write will change the mind of Tabitha Jones but I will give it a try.

Like it or not the UK is part of a much bigger world. Everyday 10,000 lorries driven by drivers from outside the UK drive on our roads. Everyday 1000’s of buses and lorries driven by british drivers drive elsewhere in the EU. In my mind this alone is excellent cause for one system of speed limits EU wide.

I’m 35 and was educated in metric, as were the majority of drivers on UK roads. Our roads are designed using metric measurments and signs are placed using metric measurments. It’s not surprising that more and more information signs put up by private companies use metric distance and not imperial. They want the majority of people using our roads to understand the message the sign is presenting. It’s time the DfT got their act together and joined the rest of us in the 21st century.

by: Dave Brown

Fri, 20 Jul 2007 09:35:25 +0000

I think if we’re going to discuss the costs of a change over, and the waste of money then it’s the DfT that’s wasting money already. Roads are designed and built in metric units. Maps are marked in a metric grid. But for the last 3 decades the DfT has continued to place obsolete yard/mile signposts all over our roads. That is where the money has been wasted.

I grew up in this country, and I was taught at school that distance is measured in metres. When I learned to drive I had to learn about a different system that measures short distances in multiples of 0.9144 m and a long distances in multiples of 1.609344 km. I know that was used for a long time in the UK, but can anyone really claim to understand it?

by: Ezra Steinberg

Fri, 20 Jul 2007 00:00:38 +0000

The previous comment [from Tabitha Jones] makes we wonder how they managed to pull off the change-over to metric signage in the Republic of Ireland? All that seems to have gone without a hitch.