Metric Britain

I find it particularly annoying when finger posts, directional signs and maps quote distances in times instead of actual measurements. Saying that Westminster Cathedral is 4 minutes away by foot is a little bit idiotic. What if I don't have a watch? What if I walk substantially slower/faster than everyone else?  This problem is particularly acute in London, where many maps encircle areas that are within a particular distance – quoted in minutes of course.  The problem with using minutes on finger posts and directional signs is simple: a minute is not the same to everyone. An elderly person may cover 40 metres in a minute, a short person may cover 60 metres in a minute and a tall person (like myself) can easily cover 120 metres in a minute.  To make matters even more confusing, there is no record as to what speed one is expected to walk at to match the times posted on these signs. So pedestrians are left completely in the dark about the actual distance they actually need t...

A few years back, I recall there being an uproar spurred on by the BMWA over Islington Council's decision to use exclusively metric units on some road signs. These included height and width restriction signs, as well as speed bump warnings.  The vandals removed and defaced many of the signs and mounted pressure on Islington council to replace them with imperial-only signs.  This has left the borough with a series of width restriction signs that are labelled as  6'6" , when in fact they mean 2.0 metres. (In most other places these are dual-unit signs) Considering that vehicle dimensions are specified in millimetres in manuals, anyone without a calculator is at risk of doing damage to their vehicle.  I managed to find one sign (see below) that escaped the ravages of the BMWA. However, this sign is not without its flaws.  The sign states Humps for 600 mtrs.  According to the BIPM, there should never be any abbreviation for the metre – or any metric unit for th...

This post departs slightly from the core theme of the blog. However the airport capacity crisis faced in London is a result of the same problem: The the government's inability to make quick decisions on the matters likely to have a considerable impact on Britain’s future as a modern, strong and growing economy. The DfT published their strategy with the vision for expanding Heathrow airport back in 2006 and announced the expansion three years later. The expansion project would have consisted of a new 2,200 metre runway, a sixth terminal and a high-speed railway hub. Local residents and councils opposed the plan on the grounds that it would destroy local communities. The expansion would require the demolition of the village of Sipson and over 700 homes. In addition to this, the local residents who would not have to forego their homes would then have to endure more noise pollution and poorer air quality due to the increased air traffic. Upon being elected in 2010, the Conservative...

Before my most recent trip to Birmingham, I was told that it is an architecturally uninspiring and characterless city. However, it seems that the city is highly undersold. Admittedly, there are parts of the city which are dingy, but it is evident that a lot of investment has gone into the city in recent years. Shiny new buildings dot the skyline and complement the historic baroque buildings, to some extent even allowing one to overlook some of the less attractive edifices from the 60s. One of my favourite things about the city is how car-friendly it is in comparison to London. With wide roads and lots of affordable parking, it's a stark contrast to London's narrow and winding streets, but it still maintains pedestrian-friendliness. As I'm not an employee of visitbirmingham.com, I'll get to the point of this blog post: signs on the canal. Upon descending from broad street to the canal, I was met by a sign showing all of the landmarks from that point specified in me...

There is one thing that I like to do when I get bored. This is usually get on a bus or train and venture to some far-flung place. My most recent adventure only took me as far as the opposite side of London, but I came upon a discovery that would please the few readers of this blog that are out there. A directional sign at Putney Station, which used metric units. (See photo) The sign was directing commuters to East Putney underground station, which it mentioned as "1 kilometre" away. Besides the fact that it would have been preferable to use the international standard symbol (km) rather than the whole word, it was still refreshing to see. My feeling of excitement subsided immediately after leaving the station. Right outside the door, there was a large finger post stating that east Putney was 2/3 mile away. This is yet another classic example of the British metric muddle.

The people on the other side of the metric spectrum have had a tendency to deface metric signs and replace them with archaic measures (miles and yards and all that rubbish) I've already posted about this in Lee Valley. However, I've found somewhere where signs (exclusively) in metric units exist that has not been struck by the antichrist. This is in Maritime Greenwich. Whilst knots and nautical miles may be preferred for ships, ( I have my personal opinion on this ) finger posts in the area— well known for its nautical history— seem to prefer the usage of metres to archaic yards. Quite frankly, the majority of people alive in Great Britain understand a yard as a metre and have been educated in the metric system, so it seems a joke that maths classes feature almost exclusively the use of metres and km/h but we're stuck with miles per hour and yards in street signs and finger posts. It's quite clear that none of the political parties has any intentions of changin...