From: "Tony Sidaway" minorityreport@bluebottle.com
Road signs haven't switched because it would be very difficult and dangerous as well as politically explosive.
Actually, in the seventies, there was a widespread systematic effort to add distances in kilometers to road signs. I think it may have been an Interstate highway requirement. Many signs DID get changed, enough for them to become a reasonably familiar sight. Cars produced during that time period had both miles per hours and kilometers per hour marked on their speedometers, although odometers continued to read in miles.
I'm not completely sure what happened subsequently.
I do NOT remember any political "explosion" at all. Just apathy.
I believe that the requirement was dropped and that the dual-system signs were just gradually, in the natural course of sign replacement, replaced with signs giving distances only in miles.
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.
On 5/17/05, Tony Sidaway minorityreport@bluebottle.com wrote:
I do NOT remember any political "explosion" at all. Just apathy.
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.
Cripes. In Australia it's the LAW that you must stick to a speed limit. If you go over whatever the posted limit is, you risk the cops checking your speed and sending you a polite but expensive greeting card.
Doesn't matter what the limit is. They get antsy if you go over it.
On Tue, May 17, 2005 at 09:13:01AM +1000, Skyring wrote:
On 5/17/05, Tony Sidaway minorityreport@bluebottle.com wrote:
I do NOT remember any political "explosion" at all. Just apathy.
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.
Cripes. In Australia it's the LAW that you must stick to a speed limit. If you go over whatever the posted limit is, you risk the cops checking your speed and sending you a polite but expensive greeting card.
Doesn't matter what the limit is. They get antsy if you go over it.
I think he's referring to the fact that British drivers might have problems with limits measured in kph instead of mph.
-- Chad Perrin [ CCD CopyWrite | http://ccd.apotheon.org ]
Chad Perrin said:
I think he's referring to the fact that British drivers might have problems with limits measured in kph instead of mph.
Anybody who has seen One Foot in the Grave, just imagine a nation of Victor Meldrews and then what would happen if you told them that the mph they'd used all their lives weren't good enough.
On 5/17/05, Tony Sidaway minorityreport@bluebottle.com wrote:
Chad Perrin said:
I think he's referring to the fact that British drivers might have problems with limits measured in kph instead of mph.
Anybody who has seen One Foot in the Grave, just imagine a nation of Victor Meldrews and then what would happen if you told them that the mph they'd used all their lives weren't good enough.
This would be the same Victor Meldrew who coped with the change to decimal currency?
Nobody but antique coin dealers uses pounds shillings and pence any more.
On Tue, 17 May 2005, Skyring wrote:
On 5/17/05, Tony Sidaway minorityreport@bluebottle.com wrote:
Chad Perrin said:
I think he's referring to the fact that British drivers might have problems with limits measured in kph instead of mph.
Anybody who has seen One Foot in the Grave, just imagine a nation of Victor Meldrews and then what would happen if you told them that the mph they'd used all their lives weren't good enough.
This would be the same Victor Meldrew who coped with the change to decimal currency?
Nobody but antique coin dealers uses pounds shillings and pence any more.
And [[Aristasia]]ns.
Skyring said:
Cripes. In Australia it's the LAW that you must stick to a speed limit. If you go over whatever the posted limit is, you risk the cops checking your speed and sending you a polite but expensive greeting card.
Don't get me on about British drivers. They're horrid, like a lot of spoiled brats.
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
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.
On 5/17/05, Zoney zoney.ie@gmail.com wrote:
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.
Tony Hawks in "Around Ireland With a Fridge" and the late Pete McCarthy in "McCarthy's Bar" have words to say about Irish signs and getting lost. I think they are all in favour of it, actually!
Zoney wrote:
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.
Perhaps the leprechauns should be put in charge of highway signage.
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.
My crude impression of the map of the Irish roads system was that it was designed so that it would be difficult to travel between two west coast communities without going through Dublin. :-)
Ec
On 5/17/05, Ray Saintonge saintonge@telus.net wrote:
My crude impression of the map of the Irish roads system was that it was designed so that it would be difficult to travel between two west coast communities without going through Dublin. :-)
Ec
We recently had Canadian friends over to our home (in Wicklow, Ireland) and whenever we took the car down the small byroads, (the ones you might not see on a map) the two of them were just gripping their seats and squealing as if they were in a rollercoaster - it was hilarious!
Cormac