Comments on: Prospects for metrication progress under the new government

By: Hughster

Hughster — Mon, 25 Jul 2011 20:56:25 +0000

This might be relevant:

http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/+/http://www.dti.gov.uk/consumers/buying-selling/weights-measures/Metrication/publicsector/index.html

DTI advice published in 1997 (yes, under a Conservative administration) states quite clearly:

“From 1 October 1995 information given to or requested from the general public and private sector organisations which includes expressions of quantity should be given/requested in metric units (eg public procurement tender specifications, planning application dimensions, volumes of sales, etc). The only exceptions to this general rule are imperial units that may continue to be used as the primary system of measurement in the circumstances outlined in Appendix 1 to this Note.”

Appendix 1 states:

“Imperial units of measurement to be used without time limit … ii. mile, yard, foot and inch for road traffic signs and for related distance and speed measurements”

Does this not only exempt mi/yd/ft/in for communications pertaining to road traffic signs (which are after all imperial), not general information about the road network?

By: Ezra Steinberg

Ezra Steinberg — Sun, 09 Jan 2011 06:20:42 +0000

With a little bit of political will it is quite feasible for the UK to finish metrication in short order.

This point was brought home to me again today when I was listening to a call-in program on NPR (National Public Radio). While most of the callers are residents of the USA, this particular caller was from Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. The host was a bit surprised to be hearing from a Canadian and remarked that Halifax is reputed to have relatively mild winters compared to rest of Canada (Note from Ezra: aside from the Vancouver, British Columbia area), and then asked her what the current temperature was. When she told him it was -5 and the host responded “That’s not mild at all!”, she explained that she was using degrees Celsius. The host told her that that was about 25 degrees Fahrenheit, to which she replied “Well, that doesn’t mean anything to me.”

I have talked to other Canadians who are actually working down here in the States and who confess that they still have trouble understanding Fahrenheit even though they have been living down here for some time. If Canada, with its own continuing muddle due to a previous Conservative government putting the brakes on metrication mid-stream and with its proximity to the USA, can raise a generation that understands only degrees Celsius (because the media never uses Fahrenheit) and kilometers (since all the road signs use km and km/h), then surely the UK could finish metrication in short order if it encouraged the media to stick to metric and converted all the remaining road signs to metric as well.

Sadly, this government shows little or no inclination to finish the job. Thus is muddle madness maintained.

By: Ken Cooper

Ken Cooper — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 22:22:26 +0000

Paul

I would suggest that the “Chunnel” hasn’t really made much difference in this regard. The trains actually work in exactly the same way as the previous (and current) ferry services in that you drive on, sit around for a while, then drive off on the opposite side of the road.

When you drive away from any ferryport, the authorities are more concerned with ensuring that everyone remembers to drive on the correct side of the road. As previous posters have suggested, the Northern Ireland/Eire border may be more fruitful grounds for introducing metric measure as the primary measure on UK roads.

By: Paul Trusten, VP, U.S. Metric Association, Inc.

Paul Trusten, VP, U.S. Metric Association, Inc. — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 04:58:32 +0000

As I pondered the latest metric news from the UK and the government’s statements about imperialization, I wondered: what about the Chunnel?

In one sense, Great Britain is no longer an island. There is a ground connection between it and continental Europe. Since the opening of that remarkable tunnel across the channel, hasn’t there been increased pressure on the UK to complete highway metrication, that pressure being in the form of a flow of motorists and other transport from Spain, France, Germany, et al.?

By: Michdung

Michdung — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 11:54:49 +0000

My understanding of the reports I read was that the Minister has called for statistics that had been set to refer to incidents per km were to be ‘updated’ to refer to miles. The argument appears to be that they are irrelevant when the mile is still the standard measure of distance within the UK. Examples of such statistics quoted in the Daily Mail were accidents per kilometre on the major road routes, air kilometres flown by aircraft etc. I have to admit that I can see his point – it is tedious to have figures quoted in one unit when that doesn’t relate to the ‘norm’ for that particular KPI. However, it’s such a shame that he didn’t grasp the nettle and decide that it was time to give the mile the elbow instead of the km.

By: Ezra Steinberg

Ezra Steinberg — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 01:20:31 +0000

One also has to wonder what will become of the plan to require metric height and width restrictions alongside Imperial to reduce the risk of bridge strikes. Will this be scrapped as a result of the Minister’s attitude towards metric?

One of the links off of the DfT’s web site discusses motorcycle safety and the use of helmets. This sublink shows you how to fit the helmet properly by measuring your head correctly:

http://sharp.direct.gov.uk/content/how-fit-your-helmet

Note that a table is displayed after the initial animation with head circumferences given only in centimeters. Will this site have to dump the metric measurements and give them only in Imperial?

How far will this intransigence go, one has to wonder?

By: Ezra Steinberg

Ezra Steinberg — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 21:46:44 +0000

So, does this mean all communications about measurements that are originally in metric will have to be translated to Imperial? How will engineering work and published specifications be affected? What does the UKMA see as the likely consequences (especially the unintended ones)?

By: michael

michael — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 21:12:12 +0000

This story is also reported in the Daily Wail, with gleeful reports of the ‘end of the road for the Labour kilometre’. As if to remind us of the truly British heritage of the mile, the Mail explains that the mile is Roman in origin and relates to a 1,000 strides of a Centurion.

By: derek

derek — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 16:22:51 +0000

If the ‘Express’ story is true, then it suggests that the Transport Secretary believes that it is sensible to have only one measurement system, not two. Indeed, with a huge hole in the public finances, two systems are probably a luxury that his department and the UK can no longer afford. As we know, all roads and the vehicles on them are built to metric standards, as are new rail vehicles, signalling systems, ports and airports, ships, many new aircraft, and almost anything else constructed or manufactured today outside the USA. So I fear his reported decision would make life more difficult for him, add to costs, and maintain the isolation of the DfT from the rest of government and from most of the rest of the world.

Now if he has gone the other way…..

By: John Steele

John Steele — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 15:01:14 +0000

We welcome the UK to the early 18th century. (The US recent took metric measure out of the MUTCD too)

http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/179560/This-U-turn-on-metric-is-miles-better
METRIC measurements of distance have been banned by the new Transport Secretary in official communications dealing with Britain’s road, rail and air network. . . .