Safe Speed Forums

Is there any good reason for retaining miles as the standard unit of measure?

I tend to think in metric distances for nearly everything - a 10mm spanner, I am just short of 2m tall, our living room is 7m long - but I drive at 30 miles per hour and my journey to work is 20 miles.

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COAST Not just somewhere to keep a beach.

A young loner on a crusade to champion the cause of the innocent, the helpless, the powerless, in a world of criminals who operate above the law.

The cost of replacing just about every single sign in the country, when the buggers can't even stump up to make the road surfaces safe. Is there any good reason to change?

Being an engineer I tend to think in metric too. However, I find it very difficult to gauge someones weight in Kg or height in Metres. Maybe it's my age.

PS. I also find Litres per 100Km very difficult to understand.

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Malcolm W.
The views expressed in this post are personal opinions and do not represent the views of Safespeed.

It's also something it's hard to see any government choosing to do as it would cause a lot of controversy and gain precisely zero votes.

In Ireland it was seen as something that made the country more "European" and less "British", which obviously wouldn't be the case here.

It would also inevitably be used as an excuse for the wholesale reduction of speed limits.

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"Show me someone who says that they have never exceeded a speed limit, and I'll show you a liar, or a menace." (Austin Williams - Director, Transport Research Group)

Any views expressed in this post are personal opinions and may not represent the views of Safe Speed

I can see the current government warming to the idea.

The way I see it (and this goes for metrification in general) is that its the same quantity no matter what unit you use to measure it. I weigh myself and measure my height in imperial, but at work I use mostly metric (I still have to be fluent in feet and inches because some of the drawings I work with are 40+ years old.)

The only thing that changing the unit of measurement acheives is mass confusion. I understand how fast 30mph is, but if you told me that the limit was 50kph I would be baffled. With something as important as speed limits, that level of confusion is absolutely lethal. I'm not a tradisionalist as such, I just don't see the point of altering something that the majority of the population understand just for the sake of Europe.

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Science won over religion when they started installing lightning rods on churches.

Wash your mouth out.

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Make everything as simple as possible, but not simpler - Einstein

I'm only 27, so was brought up mainly metric, however there is just something about some of the imperial units and the numbers they give that just somehow feels right even if how you get there is bonkers. Metric OTOH, while technically superior, the numbers just aren't as good. It's impossible to explain it scientifically.

I guess it's just an inch is a useful distance when working with certain sizes of objects (eg. speaker sizes or grid markings on a map) you need a lot more centimetres to acheive the same, and the next unit up is completely useless. Same goes with stones for measuring people's weight. Imperial units are just more convinient so long as you don't have to convert between them.

Of course, with Americans giving driving directions in feet and weight in pounds, both of which seem daft to me, I guess we'll be going metric eventually.

We went metric in 1966 and the worst part is that we now have speed limits in 10kph increments which means lots of different limits. I know yours are in 10mph increments (in general) but that equates to 16 and a bit kph.

Imagine increments is 6mph and you will start to get my point.

So leaving the motorway at 70mph you are confronted with a 64mph limit which then reduces to 58mph and then to 52mph, 46, 40, 34, 28, 20.

So you could easily have 9 different speed limits to choose from. As our top limit is 110kph and our lowest limit is 40kph we only have 8.

Now imagine that you could be fined 60 quid and 1 point for doing 2mph over any of those limits, 80 and 3 points for doing more than 6mph over the limit and finally you can lose your license for a month AND get 4 points AND get a 120 quid fine for the ghastly crime of doing 15mph over the limit. Now, who wants to come and live in Victoria, Australia?

Where your cops might turn a blind eye to someone travelling at 85mph on a motorway we would lose our licence for a MONTH AND get 4 points added to our license. (12 points means 3 months ban with points wiped or 1 month ban and points remain - 1 more point in the next 12 months and you get another 3 months ban)

Higher speeds mean more points and longer bans.

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Ross

Yes I'm a hoon, but only on the track!!!!

Sorry sir...

*hangs head in shame*

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Science won over religion when they started installing lightning rods on churches.

Damn. I missed a vital fact.

There are reasons but I don't think any of them are particularly good reasons.

The only reason that holds any weight with me is the one of inconsistency but (as with the English Language) perhaps this is something we should celebrate rather than abolish?

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COAST Not just somewhere to keep a beach.

A young loner on a crusade to champion the cause of the innocent, the helpless, the powerless, in a world of criminals who operate above the law.

There is a very cheap get-around on that one (for speed limits anyway) but I dare not even mention it because "they" have a habit of taking up stupid ideas.

Oh god, don't even go there. In fact please delete this thread now before someone in charge figures it out.

Please , this is the United Kingdom of Great Britain - not some off shoot of the United Federation of Europe, much as Messure Chirac, Herr Schroeder ( always felt suspicious of a politician named after a source of air) and Herr or is it Mesure Blair would like to see it.
We used to measure weight in pounds etc till they got their silly way , lets keep our independance and origonality and measure distance in miles, and our speed in MPH , and be proud to be different, before we have to earn our keep from Europe in dodgy Euros and pay tax to the non elected european parliament.

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lets bring sanity back to speed limits.
Drivers are like donkeys -they respond best to a carrot, not a stick .Road safety experts are like Asses - best kept covered up ,or sat on

i borrowed the wifes car yesterday driving along a dual into a camera site, i saw the van there flashed and waved then looked at the speedo, it read 82

ooooops

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now retired

i knew i was not traveling over 70, just by the speed of the passing road furniture, why 82 the stupid cow (my wife) had altered the digital display to accomadate BST, and switched MPH to KPH

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now retired

So you managed to get that far without looking at it? You relied on senses other than the speedo to determine what was a safe speed at which to travel for the conditions at the time?
Remind me why the numerical speed at which you are traveling is important again?

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Andrew.

[quote="Ziltro

Remind me why the numerical speed at which you are traveling is important again? [/quote]

82 kph whats that about 65mph, perfectly adequate for the conditions at the time rain, of course i could say i am capable of driving way over the limit and could aquaplane perfectly well into something that has stopped

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now retired

phew .. for a moment there i thought i'd totally missed the speed limit changing with GMT/BST for a whole 10years

(not sure about the flashing mind)

i think someone else has forgot to alter the clocks to BST,

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now retired