I find it hard to believe that the average American wouldn't know what a motorway is - or would not be able to perceive what it is. It's a fast road for non-learners and vehicles with engines above 50cc (in a nutshell).
All the signs are imperial - but there are markers by the side of the road which have numbers that tie in with metric amounts. MArtin has shown one of this in a graphic. They are not used by drivers but are used for emergency purposes. What makes our roads even more interesting is that 'm' can mean miles (eg "Services 23 m"). Date: Fri, 30 Jan 2009 19:13:11 -0800 From: [email protected] Subject: [USMA:42640] Re: Small item seen on TV To: [email protected] Martin, Do road engineers use metric units or English units in the UK? Why are some of the signs metric and others in miles? Is there some logic to this? Why not be completely one way or the other? Are these markers used on all roads or just some roads? What type of road is a motorway? Jerry From: Martin Vlietstra <[email protected]> To: U.S. Metric Association <[email protected]> Sent: Sunday, January 25, 2009 1:15:32 PM Subject: [USMA:42545] Re: Small item seen on TV Another weird and wonderful twist about British road signs is that those that are intended for use by motorists are in miles while small marker posts on the side of the roads that are intended for use by road engineers are in kilometers are posted at 100m intervals. A real mess you might say. However, with the advent of the mobile telephone, the emergency services found that very few motorists realized that positions on motorways could be pinpointed to within 100m by referring to the small marker posts, so new Driver Location Signs have been introduced, which are posted at 500m intervals. See http://www.highways.gov.uk/business/14730.aspx for a picture of both. You will notice that the word “kilometre” does not appear anywhere on that page, though there is a small mention of the word on the associated FAQ page. The sign on the off-ramp from the motorway to my home town shows 55.7 in large letters. From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Jeremiah MacGregor Sent: 25 January 2009 17:55 To: U.S. Metric Association Subject: [USMA:42540] Re: Small item seen on TV Mike, >From your description I would understand it to be that metric is used >everywhere but on road signs. But road signs must be both if Martin said he >was 55.7 km from London or did he just do a conversion? So people do speak in metric and don't really need to have things dumbed down as some one put it earlier. Your comments about pilots in the US explains why the last time I flew in a plane, the pilot hesitated before saying the temperature. He must have been trying to translate it from what was on his screen. Jerry From: Michael Payne <[email protected]> To: U.S.. Metric Association <[email protected]> Sent: Sunday, January 25, 2009 12:29:23 PM Subject: [USMA:42533] Re: Small item seen on TV I visit the UK perhaps 6-10 times a year, the people that I know in the UK tend to talk in meters/metres when referring to a new house size, etc. If you go into a UK hardware store it's almost all metric, supermarkets have gram scales, prices might be marked as pence/pound but normally pence/gram, it's weighed in grams. Fuel is sold in liters, road signs are all in miles and miles per hour but all road work is done in meters. In general it seems like a big mess which is why here in the US we need to do it differently, Australian/New Zealand and South Africa did a very good transition in the 60's and 70's. Most young people in those countries don't know non metric units. I'm a pilot, when I fly into the UK the atmospheric pressure is in hPa, the visibility is in meters, the runway length is in meters/feet. Temperature is Celsius, it's also Celsius for all pilots in the US . Call 703 661 2990 here in the US to listen to the weather pilots get at my local airport. Mike Payne ----- Original Message ----- From: Jeremiah MacGregor To: U.S. Metric Association Sent: Sunday, 25 January 2009 17:16 Subject: [USMA:42529] Re: Small item seen on TV When you say the UK is bi, do you mean they use both metric and English equally,? 50 % ? Or is there more of a leaning towards one or the other? How are both use equally without causing confusion? Say for instance in the medical field. Would a doctor speak metric and a nurse respond in English? It must make for some strange communications. Jerry From: Stephen Humphreys < [email protected] > To: U.S. Metric Association <[email protected]> Sent: Sunday, January 25, 2009 11:40:08 AM Subject: [USMA:42515] Re: Small item seen on TV Because the UK is not metric (it's 'bi') and in the case of tyre pressures there are not laws forcing the use of metric. Date: Sun, 25 Jan 2009 08:00:18 -0800 From: [email protected] Subject: Re: [USMA:42494] Re: Small item seen on TV To: [email protected] ; [email protected] Stephen, I interpreted the statement to mean that bar and kPa were the most common. It doesn't mean the is no psi, it just means it isn't very common. If the UK is metric then why would psi dominate and not kPa? Jerry From: Stephen Humphreys < [email protected] > To: U.S. Metric Association <[email protected]> Sent: Sunday, January 25, 2009 10:27:02 AM Subject: [USMA:42494] Re: Small item seen on TV Except in the UK (which is part of Europe ) where PSI dominates. Maybe you meant "Mainland Europe" From: [email protected] To: [email protected] Subject: [USMA:42439] Re: Small item seen on TV Date: Sat, 24 Jan 2009 15:22:34 +0000 The most common units of measure for tyre pressures in Europe are bars or kPa. (100 kPa = 1 bar). From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Jeremiah MacGregor Sent: 24 January 2009 14:59 To: U.S. Metric Association Subject: [USMA:42430] Re: Small item seen on TV Harry, Aren't they suppose to be in pascals or something along that line? Jerry From: Harry Wyeth < [email protected] > To: U.S. Metric Association <[email protected]> Sent: Tuesday, January 20, 2009 11:39:58 PM Subject: [USMA:42388] Small item seen on TV A minor point of interest: on PBS's US broadcast of the BBC World News tonight, in a piece re the resumption of natural gas to Europe, there was "footage" showing close-ups of presssure gauges on pipeline fixtures out in the snowy fields. One showed pressure in kg/cm2, and the other in "bar". HARRY WYETH Share your photos with Windows Live Photos – Free Find out more! Windows Live Hotmail just got better. Find out more! _________________________________________________________________ Windows Live Messenger just got better .Video display pics, contact updates & more. http://www.download.live.com/messenger
