Dear John,
My response to your request is below your thorough outline for Canada.
I have also sent a copy of our correspondence to the USMA.
On 2009/01/14, at 9:00 PM, John Frewen-Lord wrote:
Pat:
I was reading the USMA site regarding conversion of the US's road
signs to metric, and I noticed that an open question was passed to
you on what Australia did.
I know that Oz and Canada took different routes on this. Back in
the late 70s when Canada converted its signs, I sat on a
construction industry sector committee, and did get to learn a bit
of how the roads committee was working, and of course witnessed the
actual process first hand.
Essentially (and going from memory - it was over 30 years ago!), the
Canadian solution was to use a stick on reflective speed limit
sign. These were applied right across the country in a single
night! (On 1978 Labour Day - spelt with a 'u' in Canada.) I
believe university students were employed as summer jobs for them.
Considering the size of Canada, and the fact that - like Oz - all
roads including freeways had speed limit signs at frequent intervals
(every 2 km on roads with a limit of 100 km/h or more, on each side
of each carriageway), this was no mean feat!
Prior to that, and as a practice run, all the speed limit signs were
washed so the new signs would stick properly, and (covered up until
the night) small km/h plates were bolted to the posts under the main
sign. This solution worked very well, and few of the stick on signs
were prematurely replaced - some were still there after 15 and even
20 years later.
Distance signs were replaced more gradually. Again, the miles
values had stick on km values placed on top, and a small 'km' plate
bolted on top above the km values. In general, small distance signs
were repositioned over time to enable more accurate km values to be
used. In the case of large overhead gantries on freeways, where
repositioning was impractical, it was decided that inacuracies up to
200 m could be tolerated (so that 1/2 mile became 1 km rather than
800 m), although there were exceptions - such as when there were
separate exits for each direction on an intersecting road (say one
exit for Keele St North and another exit for Keele St South), in
which case the actual m values were used, rounded to the nearest 100
m. Signs warning of a hazard etc were given to the nearest 100 m
(e.g. road narrows 300 m ahead).
At this time (and following standard North American practice),
freeway intersections were renumbered, the number corresponding to
the km point from the beginning of the freeway (e.g. for Highway 400
going north from the northern edge of Toronto, the begiining point
is its intersection with Highway 401, and the first exit would be
Finch Avenue, exit number 4 - i.e. 4 km north of the 401).
Car instrumention was legislated from the beginning of the year
(1978), with (if I remember correctly), 30 April 78 being the
deadline for all new cars to be sold with metric instruments
(odometers in km, speedometers with km/h predominant, and,
optionally, mph secondary - as is still the case today). Existing
cars were not officially converted, though most people - as I did -
added stick on km/h numbers on top of the mph numbers (few cars then
had dual calibrated speedometers). As virtually all cars sold in
the US have had dual callibrated speedometers for many years now,
conversion should require little extra work in this regard.
Official forms, rental car forms, car servicing forms and the like
were for a number of years printed with km and miles boxes for the
odometer readings, and the appropriate one filled in. That practice
has disappeared.
At the same time, gasoline pumps were converted to litres, and this
promoted a quick conversion to expressing fuel economy in L/100 km.
Something to be considered as part of the US's conversion. Today,
no Canadian even thinks of mpg (especially as there was always
confusion between US gallons and Canadian (Imperial) gallons).
Anyway, Pat, I hope that the above may add some pointers in how the
USA could approach the conversion process - they are not the first!
Regards
John
In response to your request, I can do no better than to quote from
Kevin J Wilks, Metrication in Australia (1981). Here is the relevant
section.
##
Road Traffic Regulations
One of the most important and publicly visible of the metric changes
was the change in road speed and distance signs and the accompanying
change in road traffic regulations. M-day for this change was 1 July
1974 and, by virtue of careful planning, practically every road sign
in Australia was converted within one month. This involved
installation of covered metric signs alongside the imperial sign prior
to the change and then removal of the imperial sign and the cover from
the metric during the month of conversion.
Except on bridge-clearance and flood-depth signs, dual marking was
avoided. Despite suggestions by people opposed to metrication that
ignorance of the meaning of metric speeds would lead to slaughter on
the roads, such slaughter did not occur.
A Panel for Publicity on Road Travel, representing the various
motoring organisations, regulatory authorities and the media, planned
a campaign to publicise the change, believing that public education,
not the confusion that would result from dual sign posts, would be the
most effective way of ensuring public safety. The resulting publicity
campaign cost $200 000 and was paid for by the Australian Government
Department of Transport.
In addition, the Board produced 2.5 million copies of a pamphlet,
"Motoring Goes Metric", which was distributed through post offices,
police stations and motor registry offices.
For about a year before the change, motor car manufacturers fitted
dual speedometers to their vehicles and, after 1974 all new cars were
fitted with metric-only speedometers. Several kinds of speedometer
conversion kits were available.
As a result of all these changes, conversion on the roads occurred
without incident.
Coordinated with the road change, tour guides, road maps and street
atlases were produced in metric and, of course, traffic regulations in
each State were amended to metric measurements.
The opportunity was also taken to change the design of road signs to
conform to internationally recognised standards.
The change to metric on the roads quickly led to changes in the units
used by motor car enthusiasts and engine power in kilowatts (kW)
quickly replaced horsepower and newton metres (Nm) replaced foot
pounds as the unit of torque. The kilometre, though mispronounced
kilom'etre more often than not, soon become the unit of distance and
the 'k', as in "doing 100 k", became the jargon for kilometre.
After consideration of all aspects, the litre per hundred kilometres
(L/100 km) was adopted as the preferred unit of fuel consumption. This
was the system most frequently used in metric countries. The
arithmetical process was neither harder nor easier than that of
calculating miles per gallon or kilometres per litre and was more
universally meaningful. As it is a compound unit, the public has found
this a more difficult conversion to which to adjust than miles to
kilometres or gallons to litres.
Claimed fuel consumption was stated in L/100 km by all Australian
motor car manufacturers and its use as a unit was gradually established.
##
Cheers,
Pat Naughtin
PO Box 305 Belmont 3216,
Geelong, Australia
Phone: 61 3 5241 2008
Metric system consultant, writer, and speaker, Pat Naughtin, has
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