On 5/17/05, Ray Saintonge saintonge@telus.net wrote:
Tony Sidaway wrote:
I do NOT remember any political "explosion" at all. Just apathy.
Things are slightly different in the UK, where Europeanization is a bit of a political football. Tell British drivers they must stick to a 50kph speed limit and there's liable to be a lot of political fallout, if not actual damage, concerning road crash statistics.
The difference between the Canadian and British experience on metrication is a bit like removing a band-aid. Do you pull it off quickly or slowly? The British started a few years before us, and are still experiencing pains over it. Most of the visible changes here were finished in less than a decade; the British have been at it for over 40 years, and without the need to do so under the shadow of the tail from a very imperial bald eagle.
Ec
Then there's the Irish system. Start introducing metric-only distance signage, without removing the old Imperial (or old-English/old-Irish) mileage signs, and continue to use mph speed limit signs for a decade or two.
Then suddenly with a few months warning announce speed limit change from mph to kph, and change every sign in the country overnight.
Continue to only very slowly replace old mileage distance signs from the earlier half of the last century.
Yep - pretty Irish.
Zoney
P.S. To be honest, the signage in Ireland is only there at all at all for the sole purpose of directing tourists into the countryside where they get lost and spend money on our Aran sweaters and Celtic/Leprechaun trinkets. It works.
P.P.S. OK, it's also for the Dubliners too who don't learn where Cork, Kerry, Galway, Sligo, etc. (anything outside the M50) are really located.