Hi: Back in 2015-November, I had sent a note to Caltrans (California Department Of Transportation) about adding metric units to signs. There had been some dual unit signs put up back in the 1980s but none since and new distance signs were replaced with legacy miles only signs. I didn't forward this right away due to my being busy with other tasks. Anyway, I dug it up and here is their response. ....Parker Willey Jr.San Jose, CA
----- Forwarded Message ----- From: "Howe, Don E@DOT" <don.h...@dot.ca.gov> To: "pawil...@pacbell.net" <pawil...@pacbell.net> Cc: "Tong, Duper C@DOT" <duper.t...@dot.ca.gov> Sent: Wednesday, November 25, 2015 2:41 PM Subject: FW: Caltrans web feedback page <!--#yiv7437808691 .yiv7437808691EmailQuote {margin-left:1pt;padding-left:4pt;border-left:#800000 2px solid;}-->To: Parker Willey jr.pawil...@pacbell.net Dear Mr. Willey: Thank you for your e-mail. There have been various efforts to transition to the metric system over the years. The US Department of Transportation is where Caltrans receives a goodly majority of its highway funding. They have the following website thatidentifies the Federal Highway Administration's position on going to the metric system: https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/publications/publicroads/98septoct/metric.cfm Two key sentences from this web article states: "The FHWA Metric Conversion Plan does not require changing the legends on highway signs to metric units. In fact, FHWA is currently prohibited from nationally mandating sign conversion." Therefore, given this prohibition, before we at the California Department of Transportation take any other initiatives to approach any changes from going from how signs are presented only in English units (foot-pound) towards metric units, it is importantto identify that Congress has removed all requirements and funding support from this initiative, and we in California are moving ahead, especially with signs, using English units. Thank you for your interest in this matter. Sincerely, Don HoweChief, Traffic Signs BranchOffice of Traffic EngineeringDivision of Traffic Operations, MS 36California Department of Transportation(916) 654-2634 * don.h...@dot.ca.gov -----Original Message----- From: Tong, Duper C@DOT Sent: Wednesday, November 25, 2015 1:01 PM To: Howe, Don E@DOT Subject: Fw: Caltrans web feedback page Please respond this request. ----- Original Message -----From: Web Admin@DOTSent: Wednesday, November 25, 2015 12:38 PMTo: Tong, Duper C@DOT; Anderson, James R@DOTSubject: FW: Caltrans web feedback page Can one of you route this to the right person for a response? Please & thanks. -----Original Message-----From: pawil...@pacbell.net [mailto:pawil...@pacbell.net] Sent: Wednesday, November 25, 2015 10:40 AMTo: Web Admin@DOTSubject: Caltrans web feedback page Below is the result of your feedback form. It was submitted by pawil...@pacbell.net on November 25th, 2015 at 10:39AM (PST). URL: http://message: 2015-11-25 Hi: I have been interested in our country moving from legacy measures to the metric system. I was wondering about highway distance signs. Some distance signs put up in the 1980's showed both kilometers and legacy miles as distance to other locations. More recently, new distance signs seem to omit kilometers. Can I ask why? If replacement signs show both measures, then they don't have to be replaced when we go metric. Also what can be done to expedite the change to modern metric highway signs in California and the United States? The United States could greatly reduce the trade deficit and barriers to trade by going metric. Thank youHappy Thanksgiving...Parker Willey Jr.San Jose, CA email: pawil...@pacbell.net -------- Env Report --------REMOTE_HOST: REMOTE_ADDR: 149.136.20.169HTTP_USER_AGENT: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; WOW64; rv:42.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/42.0
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