2002-11-04
----- Original Message ----- From: "Han Maenen" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "U.S. Metric Association" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Monday, 2002-11-04 01:50 Subject: [USMA:23104] Re: Letter to the Editor > I have tried to explain, repeatedly, that things like 65 and 95 km/h should > be temporary and that it should stop when the limits are changed at last. Temporary measures are only asking for trouble. First of all, temporary can easily become permanent. And if there is a decission to change temporary signage to permanent you then add in an additional cost factor. Something anti-metric types would feed on. No country converted to metric signage in a two step format. In fact, to keep costs to a minimum, Canada covered the old signs with adhesive paper with the new speeds imprinted on them. There is no reason why Ireland can not follow the example of others. > There are enough cops who would tag someone for going just over the limit. > Nowadays many visitors come to Ireland on car ferries, large cruise liner > like ships that carry hundreds of cars. There are car ferries between France > and Ireland; many others take their cars through Britain. Yes, many visitors > do take their cars to Ireland as car hire is very expensive there. So, it > makes sense to keep as close to the legal speed limits as possible. To-day > metric speed limit figures are only given for the benefit of visitors. If I > had a car and took it to Ireland I would NOT do 100 km/h in a 60 mph zone, > but I would keep the needle halfway between 90 and 100 km/h. It just does > not touch Irish people now. That would be your choice. But, keep in mind the danger you are putting yourself and others into. Trying to find that mid-point may take a fews seconds longer to find. Those few seconds could be the difference between staying on the road and ending up in a ditch. Or hitting someone. > When the limits are changed at last, all this 65 and 95 km/h business is > over once and for all, when it is done sensibly, as I proposed in that > letter. It was clearly stated there that the speed limits should be in tens > of km/h as they are now in tens of mph. I do know, that in the USA there are > 25 mph speed limit zones; I saw that often on TV. Because a mile is over 1.5 times longer than a kilometre it makes sense to sign miles in 5 mile per hour increments. This would be very close to 10 km/h increments in metric. John > > Han
