Hi Pat - thanks for the link. Yes, the UK is in a measurement mess (as is my other country of citizenship, Canada). Here in the UK, on the roads I encounter miles (only encountered elsewhere in the world in the USA, perhaps the odd Caribbean country), yards (encountered NOWHERE else in the world), and so on. At least Canada has converted its roads (1977), although it is far behind the UK in other areas.
I do believe that the vast majority of the public in the UK want to complete the process. I see example after example of metric used where there is no official or even organizational pressure to convert - e.g. a farm near us has a hand painted sign on the roadside "Fresh free-range eggs 100 mtrs [sic] ahead". On the other hand, we visited a farm last weekend (UK farm open day), and encountered an odd mix of units - we went on a tour in a trailer pulled by a tractor of the entire farm, and were told about a field being so many acres of wheat, excluding a six metre exclusion zone around its perimeter. How the young kids on that tour made any sense of that I don't know. Glob's article is correct about the UK press - not just the tabloid, but the higher quality broadsheet press as well. The Sunday Times will default to feet rather than metres, although you will more often see metric used by contributors rather than their own journalists, which says something. I still cringed though regarding an article a couple of weeks ago about driving in mainland Europe - EVERY reference to speed limits in each country was given using kph. UGH!!! I wrote a letter to the editor saying that, as the ST prides itself on its literacy, perhaps it should apply the same standards to its numeracy. The letter was not published. Regards John F-L ----- Original Message ----- From: Pat Naughtin To: U.S. Metric Association Sent: Saturday, June 13, 2009 7:05 AM Subject: [USMA:45228] Why the UK must relaunch and finish metrication Dear All, In reading this blog: http://globonsomeday.blogspot.com/2009/06/why-uk-must-relaunch-and-finish.html I was intrigued with the thought that in the UK: Ironically roads and road signs are designed, built, and positioned using metric units and have been for decades, yet the information on the signs themselves are required to be mostly imperial which must be really inconvenient for road contractors as well. Cheers, Pat Naughtin Author of the forthcoming book, Metrication Leaders Guide. PO Box 305 Belmont 3216, Geelong, Australia Phone: 61 3 5241 2008 Metric system consultant, writer, and speaker, Pat Naughtin, has helped thousands of people and hundreds of companies upgrade to the modern metric system smoothly, quickly, and so economically that they now save thousands each year when buying, processing, or selling for their businesses. Pat provides services and resources for many different trades, crafts, and professions for commercial, industrial and government metrication leaders in Asia, Europe, and in the USA. Pat's clients include the Australian Government, Google, NASA, NIST, and the metric associations of Canada, the UK, and the USA. See http://www.metricationmatters.com for more metrication information, contact Pat at pat.naugh...@metricationmatters.com or to get the free 'Metrication matters' newsletter go to: http://www.metricationmatters.com/newsletter to subscribe.
