I thought that the trend in Canada to use time to measure distances was an artefact of
having two different measurement systems.
For highway distances I most people talk in hours. In most of Canada it is usually
quite accurate to assume that 1 hour = 100 km. In fact it takes me 12 hours to drive
to my hometown in Ontario and the distance works out to be 1150 km. Most farmers in
Saskatchewan (young and old) still talk in miles. This is because of the grid-road
system in the province that has a range or township roads measured off in a 1 mile
grid. I like to think of it as a 1600 m grid.
In the city most people use "blocks" (one intersetion to the next), "doors" (one
building to the next) and usually in reference to a landmark (eg. "Go three blocks
down, and it's the second door on the right just past the playground"). I tell people
that my house is 150 m from the corner on the north side of the road and I usually get
a blank look in return. I then say "Half way down on the right, with the green door."
and then I see the glimmer of understanding. Nobody uses their odometer or
trip-odometer to measure distances in the city.
greg
Saskatoon SK Canada
>>> <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> 2000-11-08 21:02:53 >>>
This was part of the discussion on a railroad-oriented list. Note comment on
general awareness in the last paragraph.
Carleton
>
> I'm one of the very few people who still think in terms of miles instead
of
> travel time. I consider Roanoke to be 45 miles away, not "an hour" or "45
> minutes." That depends on not only how fast you drive, but also on traffic
> and weather conditions. But it's always 45 miles.
>
> With longer distances, it becomes even more confusing to hear someone say
> "about eight hours." On the western prairies, that might be 500 miles. In
the
> Northeast, it's more like 250.
>
> Of course, most people have no conception of how far a mile even is. I'll
bet
> a majority of Americans haven't even walked a mile within the last six
months.
>
