New Call for Metric Road Signs

Luseac

Luseac

Luseac

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Former Labour leader Neil Kinnock has put his weight behind a report which says Britain could go metric with its road signs within five years.

Lord Kinnock says in an introduction to the report by the UK Metric Association (UKMA) that the continued use of miles in Britain was the "most obvious example of the muddle of measurement units" in the country.

The report says there would be many benefits from converting road signs to show kilometres, metres and km/h (kilometres per hour).

These would include drivers getting consistent information, easier calculation of fuel consumption and speed limits more finely tuned to local road conditions, it says.

But the AA said a changeover would take far longer than five years and the Department of Transport said it had no plans to convert.

Lord Kinnock says in the report: "Our imperial road signs are perhaps the most obvious example of the muddle of measurement units in the United Kingdom.

"If the recommendations of this report are followed, Britain can join the modern metric world - and do so by the time that the all-metric Olympic Games open in London in 2012."

In its report, the UKMA calls on the Government to name an early date for making the change, which it says can be done economically and safely.

The UKMA says that the conversion of road signs was originally intended to be part of metrication when it started in 1965 and should have been completed by 1973. However, it was put on hold in 1970 and then never reinstated.

The Association argues that this has left a system where most of Britain is officially metric leaving road signs as a "confusing" exception
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What a waste of money, the Government today said it would cost £800million and that there are no plans in place to change to kmph.
 
What I like is speeds and longer distances (i.e. a mile plus) in miles and shorter distances (like "400 metres to next exit") in metres :p
 
Surely with current policies there'll be no need to change the signs. They'll just change the speed limits instead.
 
rare said:
Whats the point? :/
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So people from australia like me dont have to sit there trying to work out how far it actually is to get from place to place :p

Its about time to :D
 
lol how can they have MPH and KPH side by side, 112.65408 KPH for a motorway lol.

Seems like an excuse to round all speed limits up to the nearest 10 to me :D
 
Skiddley said:
lol how can they have MPH and KPH side by side, 112.65408 KPH for a motorway lol.

Seems like an excuse to round all speed limits up to the nearest 10 to me :D
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Dont be silly they will round down.
 
You know that the first person to get caught at 100mph is going to say that the road sign said that was the speed limit. :p

Tbh. I think it is a waste of money. They might as well also convert to driving on the left, at least then the driver will get the benefit of more space in some smaller cars for their feet.
 
Just done it hear in Ireland. Went okay, none of that "sure it says 1002 malarchy. Couple problems with signs in the wrong places (a 100km on a bog road was one)
 
Or they might consider having the equivellent of 80mph on some stretches of motorway where it is very safe to. [unlkiley :( ]
 
Skiddley said:
lol how can they have MPH and KPH side by side, 112.65408 KPH for a motorway lol.

Seems like an excuse to round all speed limits up to the nearest 10 to me :D
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It will be rounded down to 110KPH. Its the maximum speed limit down here until you go to the northern territory :)
 
-Mic- said:
The max here i beleive was rounded up to 120kph
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That would be right, we get ripped off 10kph :mad:

I wasnt around in imperial time down here so i never experianced the change over :p
 
Slime101 said:
Or shaft us all and keep them the same, 30mph becomes 30kph :( and 70mph becomes 70kph - just what all the stupid speed activists would love.
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Yeah 44mph on the motorway is going to happen. :rolleyes:
 
It's a great idea. Everything else we do is metric. How long has it been since childeren were taught miles, yards, feet and inches in school? 20 years? More?

I bet most people under 30 couldn't tell you off the top of their heads how many yards there are in a mile. Pretty damn sure they can tell you how many metres in a kilometre though.

Current system is stupid.
We buy our fuel in litres and then measure economy in miles per gallon. We estimate the mass of our cars in tonnes but measure their speed in miles per hour.

Bring it on I say.
 
iCraig said:
Yeah 44mph on the motorway is going to happen. :rolleyes:
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It carries about as much logic as changing the system in the first place. We all know what miles are, and what mpg is but how many people know what km/l is compared to mpg, or how far 120km is compared to miles???

Also ALL uk speedo's read primarily in miles per hour - so are we all going to have to squint to read the silly small numbers inside the dial or are the governement going to replace them all free...i mean impose a law that means we pay to have them changed :rolleyes:
 
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