New Call for Metric Road Signs

cymatty · 23 Feb 2006 at 18:09

A mix of imperial and metric is more complicated, and illogical.

Not really seems to work ok.

Zip · 23 Feb 2006 at 18:11

cymatty said:
Not really seems to work ok.

Have you tryed living any other way to find out whats easyer :rolleyes:

Fusion · 23 Feb 2006 at 18:11

cymatty said:
Not really seems to work ok.

The horse and cart 'worked ok'.

cymatty · 23 Feb 2006 at 18:13

Zip said:
Have you tryed living any other way to find out whats easyer

Well ok we shall spend £800 million not on schools or hospitals but on changing road signs so that we can go metric, great idea.

While not change the side of the road we drive on to fit in with Europe as well.

Scottland · 23 Feb 2006 at 18:17

cymatty said:
Well ok we shall spend £800 million not on schools or hospitals but on changing road signs so that we can go metric, great idea.

While not change the side of the road we drive on to fit in with Europe as well.

The EU can pay for it then

cymatty · 23 Feb 2006 at 18:18

Scottland said:
The EU can pay for it then

To busy giving money to the French.

Zip · 23 Feb 2006 at 18:18

cymatty said:
Well ok we shall spend £800 million not on schools or hospitals but on changing road signs so that we can go metric, great idea.

While not change the side of the road we drive on to fit in with Europe as well.

Changing the side of the road you drive will take much more then changing road signs.
All he cars will need to get a full LHD conversion and i can see a lot of people just loving that :rolleyes:

Changing road signs and adjusting to the metric system doesnt even rate with " While not change the side of the road we drive on to fit in with Europe as well."

You sound like what we call a whinging pome :mad:

cymatty · 23 Feb 2006 at 18:20

Zip said:
You sound like what we call a whinging pome

I am, i like MPH and dont see a reason to change.

Vertigo · 23 Feb 2006 at 18:23

-Mic- said:
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)

I was chatting with a customer of ours in Ireland a couple of years back about this. Their entire business is making road signs and they were rubbing their hands with glee at the changeover.

I said that surely the government could save a fortune by recycling some of the signs, for example using the old 50mph signs in the 30mph signs as they would surely become 50kph. He said this wasn't possible as the government had dictated that all the new signs would have "kph" on them to avoid confusion.

cymatty · 23 Feb 2006 at 18:26

A spokeswoman for the Department of Transport said it had "absolutely no plans" to change the signs - a move which she said would cost several million pounds.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4741894.stm

Good

Fusion · 23 Feb 2006 at 18:29

Ireland managed the change easily enough. Also, I don't believe the £800 million figure can be quoted to any degree of accuracy, sounds like scaremongering to me.

Car manufacturers advertising in the Uk have already begun the change. Power figures are quoted in PS (metric horsepower), torque in Newton Metres. Fuel consumption is given in both MPG and litres/100 km. This hasn't always been the case. Change is coming

Mic · 23 Feb 2006 at 18:30

Vertigo1 said:
I was chatting with a customer of ours in Ireland a couple of years back about this. Their entire business is making road signs and they were rubbing their hands with glee at the changeover.

I said that surely the government could save a fortune by recycling some of the signs, for example using the old 50mph signs in the 30mph signs as they would surely become 50kph. He said this wasn't possible as the government had dictated that all the new signs would have "kph" on them to avoid confusion.

Yup, tbh our goverment (specifically the Transport department) is an absolute shambles. A 5 year old monkey could run it better. Irelands roads are in a mess, roadworks everywhere(which isnt so bad as their trying to upgrade the road system, but them coming back every 2 months to chuck a ton of tarmac in the same hole isnt)

Enfield · 23 Feb 2006 at 18:31

It would make things sound worse too, for example. Imagine if you where doing 80Mph (130Kph) on the motorway and get caught. It would sound a lot worse than it is because the 70Mph works out to be 113Kph which makes it sound like a much bigger difference

clv101 · 23 Feb 2006 at 18:33

Rilot said:
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.

I agree... however I can think of better ways of spending the money so I'd rather they didn't bother just for that reason.

Fusion · 23 Feb 2006 at 18:36

Enfield said:
It would make things sound worse too, for example. Imagine if you where doing 80Mph (130Kph) on the motorway and get caught. It would sound a lot worse than it is because the 70Mph works out to be 113Kph which makes it sound like a much bigger difference

Alternatively, the motorway limit is likely to become 120 km/h, in which case being 10 km/h over isn't as bad.

Enfield · 23 Feb 2006 at 18:41

Fusion said:
Alternatively, the motorway limit is likely to become 120 km/h, in which case being 10 km/h over isn't as bad.

Ah right yeah, but going over the speed limit by 10mph will make it look worse in Kph

Zip · 23 Feb 2006 at 18:43

Enfield said:
Ah right yeah, but going over the speed limit by 10mph will make it look worse in Kph

Your 0-60 times will improve

Fusion · 23 Feb 2006 at 18:45

Enfield said:
Ah right yeah, but going over the speed limit by 10mph will make it look worse in Kph

If you're going over the new 120 km/h limit by 10 mph, you're doing 84.5 mph, whereas before you'd be doing 80 mph, so you get better value for money

Of course, being a budding physicist, I reckon we should measure velocities in MS^-1

Neb · 23 Feb 2006 at 19:06

I actually got a reason for liking this system, 10% on the km/h is more than the 10% on the mph, so you would actually be able to go slightly faster through the speed camera's (If they also get changed.)

MrMoon · 23 Feb 2006 at 19:29

if it aint broke dont fix it