Indeed, there should be NO signs erected with temporary metric speed limits. Everything should stay the same on the roads as it is until M-Day- miles per hour only. What I meant, is using these equivalents in printed material for visitors. It is still much better to see 95 km/h than 96 km/h, 65 km/h than 64 km/h in a tourist brochure.
Han ----- Original Message ----- From: "kilopascal" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; "U.S. Metric Association" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Tuesday, 2002-11-05 0:49 Subject: Re: [USMA:23104] Re: Letter to the Editor > 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 > > > >
