Bring back the miles signs on the road?

ircoha · 11-09-2007 01:08PM #1

EU drops the plan for all metric by 2009: so should we go back to British/American miles.
eg Boston or London or Berlin?

Rob_l · 11-09-2007 01:12PM

no to return to imperial measures makes no sense at all

should we go back to shillings while we are reverting
back to pounds and ounces too

Tar.Aldarion · 11-09-2007 01:12PM

No, the miles system makes no sense.

Wossack · 11-09-2007 01:14PM

My car gets 40 rods to the hogshead, and thats the way I likes it!

JC 2K3 · 11-09-2007 01:15PM

No... where's the sense in that?

I'm 18 and have never been taught anything about the imperial system, same as the rest of my peers. Makes sense for the government to use the measurement system it teaches.

Terry · 11-09-2007 01:19PM

Just because the British want to be a pain in the hole of the EU, doesn't mean we have to join them.

The metric system is much neater.

Tar.Aldarion · 11-09-2007 01:20PM

Let's use leagues or wheels.

baztard · 11-09-2007 01:23PM

Out with the old...

Archeron · 11-09-2007 01:25PM

Furlongs and bushels for me.

Spyral · 11-09-2007 01:26PM

people still use it.. for example on clothing and such

seamus · 11-09-2007 01:28PM

Even if someone decided that it was actually a good idea, most of the country doesn't have any concept on the system. It's not taught in schools and hasn't been taught in schools for at least 20 years.

I know roughly how long a mile is, I know roughly how long a foot is, I know roughly how heavy a stone is. But I don't know how many feet/yards in a mile, how many pounds in a stone, or indeed how heavy a pound is.

Tar.Aldarion · 11-09-2007 01:34PM

I know all of those things, they make no sense though, they are not even. Still I prefer to measure my weight in stone.

Rob_l · 11-09-2007 01:35PM

Tar.Aldarion wrote:

I know all of those things, they make no sense though, they are not even. Still I prefer to measure my weight in stone.

I also prefer to measure my weight in stone but everything else in kilo's

Terry · 11-09-2007 01:43PM

seamus wrote:

Even if someone decided that it was actually a good idea, most of the country doesn't have any concept on the system. It's not taught in schools and hasn't been taught in schools for at least 20 years.

I know roughly how long a mile is, I know roughly how long a foot is, I know roughly how heavy a stone is. But I don't know how many feet/yards in a mile, how many pounds in a stone, or indeed how heavy a pound is.

Off the top of my head:
1 mile is a mile long.
1 foot is a foot long or 30 cm.
1 stone is 14 lbs. 16 oz in a pound.
1760 or so yards in a mile. multiply by three for feet.
1 pound in 454 grammes.

For miles to km you divide by 5 and multiply by 8.

Mind you, I went to school way back in the 80's.

There's a site I used to use. I'll see if I can find it.

Remember that some american measurements are different to imperial.

mikemac · 11-09-2007 01:47PM

Metric system rules.

Afaik a USA gallon and a UK gallon are different so that complicates things.

The UK are stuck in the past and see the introduction of the metric system as a threat to their sovernity (spelling?)

TPD · 11-09-2007 01:52PM

I dont like the American way of counting liquid volume in ounces. If its actually the wieght theyre counting, then 40 ounces of one beverage could be more than 40 ounces of a thicker drink, which doesnt make sense to me.

8k2q1gfcz9s5d4 · 11-09-2007 01:55PM

baztard wrote:

Out with the old...

in with the nucleus

Terry · 11-09-2007 02:05PM

http://convert.french-property.co.uk/

Wossack · 11-09-2007 02:07PM

Terry wrote:

...
There's a site I used to use. I'll see if I can find it.

...

just searching google aint bad actually, for example

'1 yard in cm'
'1 stone in kg'

etc

I was quite impressed when I just tried it randomly one time looking for a converter (does currency too)

seamus · 11-09-2007 02:10PM

micmclo wrote:

The UK are stuck in the past and see the introduction of the metric system as a threat to their sovernity (spelling?)

The British have these hilariously steadfast patriots who would in all seriousness rather die than see Britain give up the pound, or use the metric system.

When the debate over the euro came up in the UK, there was a small band of loonies who set up outside the houses of parliament, decked out in Union Jack clothes, with large Union Jacks, and blown up pictures of Sterling tender. "No to the Euro" and all that.

The UK parliament is afraid of upsetting these people for some reason.

Terry · 11-09-2007 02:23PM

seamus wrote:

The British have these hilariously steadfast patriots who would in all seriousness rather die than see Britain give up the pound, or use the metric system.

When the debate over the euro came up in the UK, there was a small band of loonies who set up outside the houses of parliament, decked out in Union Jack clothes, with large Union Jacks, and blown up pictures of Sterling tender. "No to the Euro" and all that.

The UK parliament is afraid of upsetting these people for some reason.

I remember seeing that on the news.

There were also some interviews with old people who didn't want it changed because they were afraid of being ripped off.
I never understood why they couldn't just phase it in slowly like they have done here.

The main example used in the interviews was butcher shops. They wanted to buy their sausages by the lb. Over here we had both units displayed for years and still do in some places.
Even today sausages are still sold in lbs, but they are just marked 454 G.

Same people who complain about tv shows really. Nothing better to do.

Mahatma coat · 11-09-2007 02:25PM

the one handy thing about the old system is that the speedlimit is 1 mile a minute, easy calculations

, rest of the base systems made no feckin sense tho

giveth · 11-09-2007 02:29PM

Mahatma coat wrote:

the one handy thing about the old system is that the speedlimit is 1 mile a minute, easy calculations , rest of the base systems made no feckin sense tho

That's why we should do away with the 24 hour clock and have a metric time system...
100 hours in a day, 100 minutes in an hour, etc.

Then, 100kmph speed would be 1 km every minute!

On second thoughts, maybe not!

Wossack · 11-09-2007 02:31PM

Mahatma coat wrote:

the one handy thing about the old system is that the speedlimit is 1 mile a minute, easy calculations , rest of the base systems made no feckin sense tho

geez, I just used my speedometer to work out my speed - the stopwatch and odometer combo just seemed so clunky to me

kevmy · 11-09-2007 02:44PM

The English are just purely and utterly afraid of change.

IMO if there is one thing that separates our way of thinking from their way of thinking at the present moment in time it is that. WE have embraced change over the last 20 years and found it to be good for us so we like change and associate it with progress. The English on the other hand over the past 50 years have associated change with a lessening of their voice in the world (downfall of imperialism, enlargement of Europe etc.) They see change as unerringly bad.

Dyr · 11-09-2007 03:43PM

Miles are better than kilometers and I'm not drinking ein .57 liter of brau thanks very much, I'll stick to me pints

Still we're good little europeans and we do like to roll over and let the EU rub our belly with it's jackbooted fist

watna · 11-09-2007 03:47PM

I don't think there'd be much of a point putting the signs in miles per hour when distances on signposts are in km.... unless you want that changed though, which is pretty pointless. Europeans can be wierd about measurements too. In Austria we use packets of sauces that say add 3/8 of a litre of water. How on earth do you do that? The point of litres is that it's in tens! In the end my dad converted it to ml... was very strange though!

E92 · 11-09-2007 04:21PM

You should never go backwards. Putting up miles on the roads is exactly that - going backwards. What should happen is that the UK, well at least Northern Ireland should adopt km/h for speed limits asap. I think it was very stupid of the Government to change over to km/h while Northern Ireland stuck with mph.(as cars in kilometres don't have mph on the speedo, whereas cars in miles do have km/h).

I measure my height in feet and inches and weigh myself in stones and pounds.

And I always use miles per gallon too. I measure distances in miles too(but speeds are a mixture of mph and km/h, at least I know that 5 miles=8 km). Usually if its something to do with cars, its imperial(wherever the Brits use imperial, I will follow suit, except when they measure cars in inches), and no one orders 568 mls of Beer, its always a pint.

Other than that, I always go with the flow, eg a horse races are measured in miles and furlongs, so thats what I'd use, but races are always done in metres, so I'd always use metres; on the other hand Golf is done in yards, so I always use yards for Golf.

When you go abroad, its so much easier if you know the metric system(bar the US and UK, but as most of us know the old fashioned system, this is hardly a problem).
When people announce that its 80 degress I always tell them that the hottest place in the world is only 50(or even 45), so how is that possible.(I know they are using Fahrenheit but time has to move on and we all use Celsius these days, actually I dont ever remember temperatures being measured in Fahrenheit here ever).

And now, I'm after reading that our gallons are different to American gallons, at least a litre is a litre everywhere so that is definately another reason not to use old fashioned measurements where possible.

On a personal level, I'm delighted with the news that old fashioned measurements will last a bit longer than 2009, for 2 reasons.

The first is that as a car enthusiast, I'd have to know what litres per 100 km are(and I don't), so I can still use mpg, which is good:D .

The second is that at least I can still ask for a pint and not say, 'I'd like 568 mls of Millers please'.:D

anotherlostie · 11-09-2007 04:25PM

It would be crazy to go back; at least now we have a consistent system with both the distance signs and the speed limits in km/hr, whereas for years you were told it was 200km to Dublin, but the speed limit was 60mph (although if you had to hit the M50 on the way, that should be 6mph). And I was educated in the 80's too, and know that multiply by 1.6 will convert miles to kms, but still it was ridiculous.

Mind you, I have been driving my car in Norn Iron recently, and the mph signs with the speedometer in km/hr made me slow down more than I would normally have done previously! So hopefully Big Ian Paisley will announce that they are going to convert the signage up there to create a united Ireland in that sense:D .

cornbb · 11-09-2007 04:26PM

Metric system ftw

(except when it comes to measuring beer)

The Brits like things like the Imperial system and pounds sterling because it reminds them of better times.

Stephen · 11-09-2007 04:49PM

Three cheers for metric \o/

Also, Bambi: They wear boots on their fists? :eek:

Bring back the miles signs on the road?

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