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Tag Archives: Department for Transport
DfT rejects industry view on metric signs
The Department for Transport (DfT) has given in to anti-metric lobbying and backtracked on its earlier proposal that imperial-only height and width restriction signs should be replaced with dual metric/imperial signs within four years. This climbdown is despite the responses … Continue reading
Who should pay for metrication of road signs?
The Department for Transport have claimed that converting road signs to show metric units would be an unjustifiable diversion of resources from other priority areas. So is there an argument that the costs should be met from some other budget? … Continue reading
Review fails to address major traffic sign issues
A three-year review of traffic signs has failed to address major problems with the UK’s signs.
Posted in Law, Road signs, Transport
Tagged bridge strikes, Department for Transport, DfT, dual-unit, imperial road signs, metric road signs
19 Comments
Spotlight falls (again) on the high cost of construction in the UK
The magazine New Civil Engineer (NCE) reports this week on a recent conference in Barcelona which highlighted the wide difference between the cost of infrastructure in the UK and on the continent. So it seems that the inflated 2006 estimate … Continue reading
Posted in General, Road signs, Transport
Tagged construction-costs, Department for Transport, high-speed-rail, metric road signs
5 Comments
Spain discredits DfT’s case against metric signs
The Spanish government this week exposed the Department for Transport’s case against adopting metric road signs in the UK as flawed. While the DfT maintains that it must allow an average of around £1400 to change our road signs, Spain this week changed all its motorway speed limit signs for an average cost of just €41, or £35.
Continue reading
Posted in General, Road signs, Transport
Tagged Department for Transport, DfT, metric road signs, metric speed limits
9 Comments
How decimalisation succeeded while metrication stalled
The media like nothing better than an anniversary, so it was predictable that the 40th anniversary of “decimal day” – 15 February, 1971, when the UK finally gave up its archaic and inconvenient coinage and currency – would get a … Continue reading
Posted in General, History, Media, Road signs
Tagged decimalisation, Department for Transport, metrication, weights and measures
13 Comments
“Half of that mince, please”
Two little anecdotes illustrate the difficulties still being experienced by customers because neither the Government nor “consumer advocates” will try to help them adapt to metric units in the supermarket.
Posted in Consumer affairs, General, Law
Tagged consumer, Department for Transport, metrication, weights and measures
23 Comments
‘Optimism bias’ falls from favour
In November 2005, the UK Department for Transport (DfT) produced an estimate of the cost of converting road traffic signs for speed and distance measurements to metric units. Optimism bias accounted for between 26% and 33% of the total overall … Continue reading
Posted in Road signs, Transport
Tagged Department for Transport, imperial road signs, metric road signs
14 Comments
Southwark goes back to the 1980s
The London Borough of Southwark appears to relish its role as the setting for the BBC’s 1980s retro series Ashes to Ashes, which was filmed on location in the borough. Just a few hundred metres from filming locations, which were … Continue reading
Posted in Road signs, Transport
Tagged Department for Transport, DfT, imperial road signs, metric road signs, Southwark
10 Comments
DfT prefers imperial units to pedestrian safety
Signs indicating the emergency escape routes in tunnels are of critical importance to the safety of tunnel users, given the particular hazards of fire and smoke within tunnel environments. Sadly, the government’s irrational position on units of measure even extends … Continue reading
Posted in Road signs, Transport
Tagged Department for Transport, DfT, metric, Network Rail, Transport for London
25 Comments