“I am 16 years old and yet I find it easier to picture 14 feet rather than 4.7 metres in my head. Imperial should be kept, as it is understood by a majority of the public. Why should we change to suit foreign drivers?”

In 1883 the United Kingdom signed a commitment to switch over to using the metric system – a system that had two over-riding advantages over then imperial system

1. It was under international control and therefore not tied to any one country.
2. It is a coherent system.

Since that date (in fact even before that date), British scientists played a leading in setting up SI, but our politicians have leant over backwards to appease various whingers and as result the man in the street needs to learn two systems of measure, not just one. The result is that those members of our society who have trouble with numbers are doubly disadvantaged and as a consequence Britain has one of the highest levels of innumeracy in the developed world.

Mathew, I notice that you are 16. You might have just completed your GCSEs or maybe you are going into your GCSE year. In either case you should familiar with Ohm’s Law. When the units were agreed by an international commission in 1881, they adopted the British proposal ahead of other proposals. The real beauty of the British proposal was that the watt was the unit of power which was identical for both mechanical and electrical systems. Thus a kettle can be rated at 2 kW and a motor car engine at 55 kW and the energy consumed by both can be compared directly. Moreover, if you go on to do “A” Level Physics, you will come across the equivalence of the watt (and the joule) in different contexts time and time again.

I think the answer to this problem is simple - mandate dual imperial/metric signs and then phase out the imperial signs by a fixed date. All new high vehicles should show their height & width in the cab in metres only. In the unlikely event a driver doesn’t understand the measure, the company can teach him/her. Shouldn’t take long! This should pay for itself very quickly by the sounds of it!

I also believe we should complete the conversion to metric on the roads and get the public on board through an information campaign. I don’t believe that people would find it difficult. I’m living in Germany now and after driving around for a few weeks, I have no trouble with thinking in km and km/h. Previously I could only think in miles and mph.

I feel much more comfortable using a simple system that I was taught in school, and it also means I can compare more things with each other, which ironically means I feel more at home here. I really don’t understand this emotional attachment towards and old system of measurement.

Firstly thank you for your contribution. The Metric Views team are keen to hear from young people whatever your opinions may be.

You may be right about the overall popularity of imperial measures although I happen to know of young people who favour metric and find imperial difficult.

However that’s not really the point. Shouldn’t we in Britian be thinking about which is the better system? Do you appreciate that metric is more logical and easier to work with than imperial? For example if you were asked to calculate an area with the dimensions given in feet and inches how would you compare that with doing the same in metres?

As to the question you pose about foreign drivers, is it fair to say we are really being required to change just for their benefit? Wouldn’t we all benefit both us and them? You must be aware of the predominence of metric in your school lessons. Wouldn’t it be more sensible to make use of that instead of having to adapt to imperial outside of lessons?

Please do come back on this we’d like to know what you think.

The majority of people who travel in their small cars travel the same routes routinely and blindly travel without even paying attention to the signs. If they hadn’t had a problem before why all of a sudden because the a sign changed?

If it was due to a driver of a larger vehicle on an unknown road, I could see this happening but on the other hand, if all of these UK drivers learned metric in school since the ’70s and have experience in metric in other areas, then how could they pretend not to know metres? If they approach the sign and don’t know if their vehicle will clear, why don’t they stop and look at their car manual to check the height of the vehicle and then compare it to the sign?

If the metre and the yard are suppose to be taken as equal now, then the person can simply change the word metre to yards mentally and then pretend to understand the sign. There really is no excuse for causing an accident from pretending not to understand the sign.

If every person who strikes a bridge and claims they did not know metric was heavily prosecuted for damages and word got out, one would see those type of accidents become reduced to zero overnight. After 40 years of metric exposure from school, work and shopping, there should be no excuse for not knowing it and punishment when you cause damage from pretending not to know it.

Metric signage on roads should have been put into place in the 1970s. We need to go fully metric asap, especially as those of us age 40 or under only really understand metric. I have no idea how high 14 feet is, for example, but I can picture 4.7 metres, which I have seen on some height restriction signs.

The metric measurements must be added to all the other signs as well. And get rid of the stupid imperial ones, we do not need those any more.