The UK Metric Association dismissed as “unrepresentative and old hat” the findings of an AA/Populus panel, showing that a large majority of AA members are opposed to metric road signs in the UK. (This press release was issued for use after 00:01 on Saturday, 2 August 2008).
According to Legible London, an initiative led by Transport for London, all existing pedestrian direction signs in London will be replaced by 2015 with new wayfinding signs. The enamelled monolith-style signs will have maps as well as directions and distances in “minutes”.
An article published on the Guardian web site on 20 June describes US research on the public perception of vehicle fuel efficiency in relation to the units used.
An incident on 17 June, in which a foreign lorry struck a low bridge near Cannock, the third such incident since April, has prompted the police and Network Rail to call for metric signs to be shown on all bridges in the area.
The Department for Transport (DfT) continues to ignore the clear advantages of the adoption of the international norms for road signage, namely the use of metric units, while potentially preventable accidents occur on our roads.
A reader of Metric Views has drawn our attention to a paragraph in the DfT Traffic Signs Manual that allows distances shown as ‘yards’ on some traffic signs to be measured in metres. We wonder if this idea on interchangeability has spread beyond the DfT.
The US web site METRICation US has an amusing story about a speeding Irish driver whose fine was reduced when he convinced the Judge that his speed in km/h sounded higher than it was.
The full story is to be found at: http://www.metrication.us/content/crazy-judge
UKMA issued the following news release at 18:05 on 28 December:
UKMA occasionally receives letters from visitors to the UK expressing amazement at our dysfunctional muddle of measurement units. The following is typical (with thanks to JP for allowing us to use it):
The age of high speed rail finally reaches London on November 14th, when the final section of High Speed 1 - or HS1 to its friends - opens, to complete the link from London to Paris and Brussels. This will cut the travel time to just two and a quarter hours, and even less to Brussels, by allowing high speed operation on the final 39 km of route from near Gravesend in Kent into London. But why have the media missed the opportunity to use even more impressive big numbers?