"It's miles and yards, not miles and feet" OK pedant :-)
"I've yet to see my first sighting of a 'km' sign in my travels up and down the UK " You're probably right...though what I was referring to mostly was bridge hrights, which I have often seen in metres as well as yards (and I'm sure in feet too, actually). But metric road signs have been spotted quite a bit on UK public roads, as a certain loony-tune anti-EU organisation insists on chopping down all those they find. "I've also not seen the use of km in newspapers - except for one paper called 'Metro' " Sunday Sun, Daily Mirror, Daily Star...at one time or another, these newspapers have used metric to describe distance, height and length. "In practice the normal daily's will even 'translate' a distance which would ordinarily definitely be in km to miles (eg a report from France). Like domestic BBC new items." Well...not in practice, but it has been known. Marathons are broadcast in full on the BBC with virtually no reference to imperial. "I don't see how UK cars could make use of distances in a system drivers cannot use on their instrumentation (unless they import a car from abroad - 'grey imports' - although I have seen many subarus bought this way which have had their instruments changed to 'mph only' presumably for the more stricter MoT stations). " Many cars, like my Mothers, has both MPH and km on the same speedometer. ----- Original Message ----- From: Stephen Humphreys To: U.S. Metric Association Sent: Sunday, February 14, 2010 10:32 PM Subject: [USMA:46649] RE: And, by the way...... It's miles and yards, not miles and feet. (apart from - as you said - feet for width and height). I've yet to see my first sighting of a 'km' sign in my travels up and down the UK (and we've travelled extensively). Apart from anything UK cars use what's called a 'milometer' - a British morphing of the term odometer and miles. I don't see how UK cars could make use of distances in a system drivers cannot use on their instrumentation (unless they import a car from abroad - 'grey imports' - although I have seen many subarus bought this way which have had their instruments changed to 'mph only' presumably for the more stricter MoT stations). I've also not seen the use of km in newspapers - except for one paper called 'Metro' which actually has a policy of using metric(!) but even with that they'll bracket imperial (apart from, bizarrely, snow depth which they quote in inches but then bracket 'cm' - maybe they think inches are metric!). In practice the normal daily's will even 'translate' a distance which would ordinarily definitely be in km to miles (eg a report from France). Like domestic BBC new items. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ From: [email protected] To: [email protected] Subject: [USMA:46644] And, by the way...... Date: Sun, 14 Feb 2010 20:42:06 +0000 .....although, again, admittedly rare, newspapers and books in the UK have been known to use kilometres as well as miles. Yes, all signposts on UK public roads are legally required to read in miles and feet (although this is not always the case) but some publcations, particularly newspapers, will happily mix kilometres with miles ----- Original Message ----- From: Stephen Davis To: U.S. Metric Association Sent: Sunday, February 14, 2010 8:32 PM Subject: [USMA:46643] Re: Burma "I can assure you that almost all publications, and other media outlets, would use miles over here. Based on the non-metrication of our roads I'd guess." Except for private roads of course, which can use metric signs if they wish. And though it is admittedly pretty rare, you can find mixtures of metric and imperial on British road signs....bridge heights, for example, can often be in metres other than, or as well as, feet. A statement on the sorry mess that measurement is in this country, unfortunately. ----- Original Message ----- From: Stephen Humphreys To: U.S. Metric Association Sent: Saturday, February 13, 2010 7:10 PM Subject: [USMA:46629] Re: Burma Not sure. Some publishers use kiolmetres for international books. Perhaps it's something like that. Like the way 'BBC World' would say 'The accident happened 3 kilometres from the junction' with the exact same feature being broadcast as 'The accident happened 2 miles from the junction' in domestic BBC stations. You mention it as a excerpt - was the spelling 'metER' as you mention or 'metRE'? I can assure you that almost all publications, and other media outlets, would use miles over here. Based on the non-metrication of our roads I'd guess. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 13 Feb 2010 18:34:26 +0000 From: [email protected] To: [email protected] Subject: [USMA:46627] Re: Burma But then how does that explain why they gave the distance only in kilometers and not both kilometers and miles? -- Ezra ----- Original Message ----- From: "Stephen Humphreys" <[email protected]> To: "U.S. Metric Association" <[email protected]> Sent: Saturday, February 13, 2010 5:40:34 AM GMT -08:00 US/Canada Pacific Subject: [USMA:46622] Re: Burma Ezra:"I noted in one of their (free) excerpts from another part of the book that they referred to the length of a particular railway journey in kilometres, which I presume was done for the benefit of their (UK) readers." Surely you mean 'miles' (UK tracks being in miles and UK citizens usage). km would be there for Australia for example. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Not got a Hotmail account? Sign-up now - Free -------------------------------------------------------------------------- We want to hear all your funny, exciting and crazy Hotmail stories. Tell us now ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Not got a Hotmail account? Sign-up now - Free
