Pro-Metric Campaign

DfT Traffic Signs Manuals Chapter 4.. metres and miles per hour..

2010-04-18T20:08:00.002+01:00

Whilst reading through the Department for Transport's Traffic Signs manual (chapter 4), I came across something rather striking. Striking, as in the fact that stopping distances are in metres, with speeds in miles per hour. Now the reason why this is striking, isn't because I've not seen this before. Everyone who has read the Highway code would already have seen the muddled miles per hour - metres stopping distance many - a - time.

However, I came to realise how difficult it must be to calculate stopping distances in miles per hour, since mathematically, deceleration is done in metres per second squared, hence to calculate the stopping distance, miles per hour will have to converted to metres per second. 1 m/s = 2.23693629 mph [compare with 1 m/s =3.6 km/h]

I won't bore you with more mathematical calculations, as I've seemed to be doing a lot of recently, but, I'm sure the stopping distances shown in the DfT's manual (and the highway Code) are somewhat wrong. The only way to fix this, for the sake of accuracy would be to move towards km/h and eliminate miles and all it's forms.

Emissions and metrication... (and apologies)

2010-04-03T15:16:00.004+01:00

Dear all,

I am sorry I've been inactive with this blog for a while. I am currently studying a few months in Spain, so I've been in the "metric" world. However I went back home last week for a few days, and realised something rather interesting ...

---Start post---

Anyone looking at a car advertisement would be able to notice that emissions are never given in imperial units. It's solely given in gram(me)s per kilometre (g/km).

Now we know that this presents a problem, if:

a) road signs are in miles
b) fuel consumption is in miles per gallon [or even L/100km]

Why?

for example you're driving in a car with emissions of 100 g/km, for a distance of 385 miles.. how much CO<2 will be emitted?

100g * (385*1.6)km = 61600 g (61.6 kg) . This is still an approximate figure, because I rounded down the conversion factor between miles and km.

now if the distance were in km, look at the accuracy and precision.
100 g/km for a distance of 620km (same distance), we get
100 * 620 = 62000 g (62 kg) of CO<2.

If people are so concerned about meeting emissions targets and the like, why not make it easier to accurately calculate ones emissions?

You could use ounces per mile of CO<2, to be in accordance with the current system of miles on the road, but of course ounces are impossible to work with for anything that is scientific.

Hence the best solution to this would be to implement metric distance signs, and do something useful with the signs in miles, like recycle them as paperclips.

Why I hate multimap...

2009-12-19T16:34:00.002Z

They show no metric scales... They only show miles/yards and that crap.. see below

The inconsistency of the BBC, but an improvement nontheless!

2009-12-15T23:40:00.003Z

A few months ago, the BBC would feature wind speeds in miles per hour only... recently, they have included a tap that allows you to toggle between miles per hour and km/h (as well as degrees C and degrees F [absolute rubbish in my opinion])

What was strikng when they first put the tabs up is the way they mentioned km/h as KPH in the tab, annd weather reports and forcasts.

As you know, at the moment it's an icebox in London, so I went on the BBC to check the weather... I discovered that now, in weather reports, wind speed is written km/h, rather than the ghastly KPH thing, however the button that one uses to toggle inbetween ... is still the same (see image below).

Thank God for small mercies... hopefully in future, they'll do away with mph and Fahrenheit...does anyone actually USE fahrenheit anyway?

Why, Unlike the Rest of the Civilised World, has the United Kingdom not Adopted Metric Road Signs?

2009-10-27T23:50:00.001Z

Why, Unlike the Rest of the Civilised World, has the United Kingdom not Adopted Metric Road Signs?

km/h speed limits in LONDON!

2009-09-21T19:16:00.003+01:00

In my travels around the United Kingdom, I've seen many progressive metric signs, such as metris-only width & height restrictions, metric fingerposts and the like. However, today, whilst walking down "Millionaire's lane" I saw the light... the use of km/h speed limits here in London.

One may think of this as being too good to be true if you're a metrichead, and indeed there are some flaws:

1. The km/h speed limit is not a 'regular' number; (24 km/h rather than 25 km/h)
2. The km/h sign is not stand-alone. It is below a sign stating the speed limit in MPH (15 MPH)
3. The km/h speed sign shows uses the horrible kph abbreviation, rather than the the standardised symbol (km/h)

With that being said, we have to admit, that this is still good. People are recognising that we can not remain in the dark ages of miles and yards.

Special Report: Antigua

2009-08-07T13:46:00.004+01:00

At the moment I'm on holiday in Antigua and due to a heavy American influence here, there is a fierce usage of imperial /US customary measurements. Goods in supermarkets are sold by the pound and ounce, the speed limits are in miles per hour -national speed limit being 40 miles per hour( rounded to 65 km/h), say the word metre and it's like you're speaking a foreign language.

Excluding the use of the Litre, the metric system is practically unused in here, outside of schools, and it is not understood by a considerable majority of the people.

What's Interesting however, Antigua has officially gone metric within the last 5 years. The only evidence of this, can be seen in the direction signage, which shows distance in kilometres (and fractions thereof). I believe they were erected with distances marked in kilometres because of the Cricket World Cup in 2006. People objected to them, initially, but now have no choice but to get used to them. (Although in a country that's only 281 square kilometres, distances are not that important.)

In Britain, we have a Catalyst (the OLYMPICS) and should use that to metricate our signs. The country's been metric for all of my life, yet still miles and yards? Utterly pointless!

Fuel consumption/ fuel effinciency

2009-05-29T00:02:00.002+01:00

Miles per gallon, it's the "standard measure" of fuel consumption in the UK although the kilometre is much more widely used than the gallon. (making a metric measure more sensible!)

But I don't care about miles per gallon...

So,

in civilised terms, fuel consumption is measured in litres per 100 kilometres. (L/100km)

is this really practical?

Most British car adverts show fuel consumption in L/100km (unfortunately most times in brackets and in small print).

but why not kilometres per litre? (km/L)

personally, I think km/L is simpler to get to grips with, and more practical because you know that you'll drive y km using x L of petrol at a given fuel consumption.
(y/x km/L). eg. 6 km on 2 litres of petrol at 3km/L!

using L/100km is not as practical!

so why make life more difficult?

sure many people would rather switch to km/L rather than L/100km!

why not use km/L ?
...they do in Latin America and Japan!

Sorry for the lack of posting...

2009-05-23T23:49:00.002+01:00

I had my heart set on going out and getting some shots of signs vandalised by the imperial-loving idiots, but unfortunately, my bike has been stolen. In light of this I bought a new one, and that was also stolen. So that has put a damper on me going around trying to get shots.
In the mean time i'll just moan about the notation of km/h again..

I was reading through one of my textbooks today and there was a question stating:
"suppose an advertisement for a new model of car states that it does an average of 12 kilometres per litre (kpl)at a speed of 80kph..."

You'd think that a university text book author at least would have the intellect to get it right?

Kilometres per litre, although not the most widely accepted metric form of measuring fuel consumptution (the more common one is L/100km) is a correct and accepted form, however why kpl?
quite clearly km/l (or km/L) clearly!

and again this kph rubbish... it's km/h for crying out loud!

maybe getting rid of rubbish like miles per gallon and miles per hour would help the situation?

speaking of which, who uses the gallon anyway?

My Report is HERE!

2009-04-01T21:42:00.003+01:00

I've gotten this report on to PDF, and you can see the report here:

Why, Unlike the Rest of the Civilised World, has the United Kingdom not Adopted Metric Road Signs?

I'd also like to make a special thanks to Derek Pollard of the UKMA for providing me with information regarding this report!

"Why, Unlike the Rest of the Civilised World, has the UK Not Adopted Metric Road Signs?"

2009-03-25T19:46:00.003Z

Sorry for being away so long, i've been having tonnes of coursework to do and stuff like that.
The question above, was one that i chose for one of the pieces of coursework, and i'm going to post it on the blog, hopefully by tomorrow, or even sooner if i can convert it to PDF format as soon as possible.

I think many of you may find it interesting!

the stupidity of the AA

2009-03-11T22:53:00.003Z

I've just read the article that the AA published about their little "survey" on whether the British population prefer miles and rubbish versus kilometres and sense, and i noticed the fact that whoever wrote that article is a blithering idiot.

First sample from their article:
"Distances in kms rather than miles" - all sensible people should know by now that you never write kms. what crap is that? km! full stop... but it gets worse...

Sample # 2
"Speed limits in Kph rather than Mph" - Kph? Are you telling me that the Automobile Association are that incompetent that they don't know how to properly write kilometres per hour... km/h? [nobody cares how miles/h mph Mph M.P.H... or whatever you want to put is written]

But this one is the KILLER!

"Fuel consumption in Km/100litres"- the minor thing wrong with this is that it's km not Km obviously.. but I'm appauled bu the fact that the AA are saying that metric fuel consumption is measured in km/100L... This is a new level of stupid! We all know it's L/100km, so what the hell are the AA on about? I mean common sense... who's going to put 100L of petrol in their car in the first place?

How could the AA be so horribly wrong?
The imperial "system" really does make people stupid...

You can read the aricle here!

mileage... metric mileage?

2009-02-15T16:21:00.002Z

One thing that i've not been able to get my head round is if our cars were to swith to km/h and therefore odometers in km, what would be the word to replace mileage?

or would mileage just be quoted in kilometres? "10 000 km annual mileage allowance"?

Kilometres per hour... how do you abbreviate that? ... YOU DON'T

2009-02-15T16:06:00.004Z

Just browsing through the internet, i've seen lots of people writing ghastly things like KPH or KMPH...

Put simply, those should not be written. Kilometres per hour does not need to be abbreviated, for the simple fact that it has an internationally standard symbol... km/h (always in lower case)

Many people say KPH looks more "right" because it mathes MPH in terms of writing.. but in terms of metric notation KPH means nothing... kph however would mean kilo per hour ?... but still kilo... what? IT'S NOT CORRECT!

What's even more shocking are the weather maps in the financial times for two reasons..

Wind speeds on the UK map are shown in MPH, however on the european map right next to it, they're shown in km/h... why not use km/h for both maps?
The legend on the European map states " Wind Speed in KPH"

One would expect a quality newspaper such as the financial times to get it right... not write stupid things like KPH on a weather map.

Imperial street signs are liars!

2009-01-11T16:00:00.002Z

Looking at the image below, you see that the distance between each "200 yard" sign is actually 200m, so this means that the signs are obviously inaccurate. What's stupid is that the DfT mandates that signs be placed in distances that are specified in metric units (usually m or mm), however the content of the sign is imperial, and therefore innacurate! 200m is 218.72 yards, therefore, why not just write 200m on the signs?

If people don't understand the metre, let them learn!

We really don't need to 'dumb down' metric units for people, or there'll never be any progress in relation to full metrication! The best way to learn something is by full immersion.

(image taken from the UKMA website)

Stupidity

2009-01-01T14:20:00.004Z

This morning, i was surfing the web, and came upon this ad... what Rubbish!

Now, BMI is calculated using ones weight (actually mass) in kilograms, and height in metres.

This, however asks for height in feet and inches, and weight in stones and pounds, now this is a recipe for disaster...
a) Accuracy.. height in feet and inches is not as accurate as height in cm or(metres to two decimal places.) Also, weight in kg is more accurate because you can say,for example 72.3kg, but with stones and pounds, the smallest unit you can use is the pound.

b) Conversion.. how are we sure that they're converting to the most accurate degree? .. you can't.

The UKMA's blog Metric Views has a rather interesting article about the problem of using imperial weights.
http://www.metricviews.org.uk/2008/11/04/dual-unit-weighing-scales-can-be-harmful-to-health-official/

The Pint...

2008-12-27T19:54:00.002Z

If were to complete our metrication process, one issue would be replacing the pint.

A pint is 568ml

Now, replacing the pint with a half-litre is a sensible option, since most individual consumer drinks are in half-litres. However that would mean that 68ml of drink is lost. It s debateable whether pubs will lower prices accordingly, therefore as a suggestion to replacing the pint with a suitable measure, maybe 550ml ? or 570ml?

55o is more rounded, but 570 is basically exactly what you'd get anyway (since you really never get an exact pint at a pub)

The word "pint" need not be abolished, however metric "pint" glasses should not feature the word pint, but rather "57cl/570ml" possibly with the crown (as a heritage feature, if so desired)

Speedometers..

2008-11-03T22:20:00.003Z

On a circular, analogue dial, it's always more sensible to have smaller units (larger numbers) on the outside (km/h) and larger units (smaller numbers) on the inside (mph) as is done in most British Lorries and coaches, but for some odd reason not in cars..

If you look at this speedometer with dominant km/h and mph (km/h on the outside) you'll realise that it's quite easy to read both values.

However as most British car speedometers are now, with mph on the outside and km/h on the inside, it makes it extremely difficult to read the km/h value, since they are crammed into a very tight space.

However, km/h only speedometers are, by far easiest to read because they're nice and 'clean' no clutter or any of that... but they're very uncommon in the UK, since we use the mph as a measure of speed. I believe cars with a km/h only speedometer don't pass their M.O.T...

more bloggers..

2008-10-20T21:20:00.002+01:00

I don't think as an Individual, I can make a siginificant impact with this blog, because there's only a certain amount of stuff that I can post. So, in order to keep this blog alive and kickin', I think that there is a need for some more people to post on this blog. If you're interested, please a comment and i'll get in touch!

A better looking speed sign.

2008-10-04T16:20:00.002+01:00

I think this is a bit more proportionate than the one that was previously posted.

METRIC SPEED SIGNS! COME ON!

On the lighter side of vandalism...

2008-09-28T14:53:00.003+01:00

If only people spent their time doing things like this to signs, rather than replacing metric measurements to useless imperial ones, life would be so much funnier!

Some Signs...

2008-09-16T21:16:00.004+01:00

While Cycling the other day, i noticed three types of signs along the path...

First, an Idiot's sign... made so by idiots!

Secondly, a confused sign, .. obviously confused by the influence of the vandals... (note the use of kilometres on the other two fingerposts, while idiotic yards on the central one)

Thirdly, a useful and sensible sign! (and yes, the"m" doesmean metres)

Metric speed signs.

2008-09-07T20:16:00.003+01:00

Just a sample of what a metric speed sign might look like in the UK...

Designed it myself using the standard font used on British Road signs. (Traffic medium for the inquiring minds)

80 km/h = 50mph exactly

Won't this look so nice on a road?.. or generally km/h signs?

80 km/h seems so much faster than 50 mph!

And it would be understood by far more people.

The government simply needs to realise this!

Metric System was Invented here in Britain!

2008-08-25T10:57:00.005+01:00

That's Right. The Metric system was invented in the UK by John Wilkins in 1668.

A hundred and twenty (120) years before the French adopted the system.

He detailed a system which would have units based on internationally agreed universal measurements, and based on decimal numbers (10, 100...etc).

This means that, realistically the anti-metric campaaigners have no grounds whatsoever to resist the metric system... They say the metric system is "foreign" .. but in fact, the Roman Imperial System is what's foreign.

It's a shame we didn't adopt the metric system back then!

Here's a link showing the article on the BBC.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/player/nol/newsid_6890000/newsid_6898200/6898274.stm?bw=nb&mp

Just a little note..

2008-08-22T01:31:00.004+01:00

The UK has one of the SLOWEST national speed limit in Europe!

UK- 112 km/h (70 mph)
Most of Europe.. 120 km/h or 130 km/h

If we switched over to km/h, then we'd get the 120 km/h speed limits too!
The motorways were designed to metric standards, and for these speeds... so why not?

Even more crime from "The Vandals"

2008-08-19T00:16:00.005+01:00

A perfectly useful AND LEGAL sign that gave heights in both metres and feet, at Grove Green Road, Leytonstone was defaced by the vandals.
4.2 metres is much easier to understand for the than 13ft 9 ins... now, thanks to the idiots, who defaced the sign.. the more intelligent of us are going to be left with an absolutely useless sign.

The Vandals strike!

2008-08-18T23:54:00.003+01:00

By "The Vandals" i'm referring to the anti-metric campaigners, whether they are the "ARM" (active resistance to mertrication) or the "BWMA"

They deface our signs and try to force the intelligent Britons into an outdated and simply awkward metric system.

I've been out with my camera and here's some of the CRIMINAL DAMAGE that they have done.

Sign was on PRIVATE LAND, therefore within the Law, it is allowed state 200 metres, and rightfully it did... but the Vandals... the Antichrist of progress, plated over the "metres" with inferior and inaccurate units (yards).. this should be punished by Islington Council! someone should remove the plates and expose the true units!

Welcome.

2008-08-17T17:53:00.001+01:00

This blog is to raise awareness that in Britain, we need to more widely adopt the Metric System of Measurements.

The UK has been metric since the 60's, yet it is still illegal to post metric signs on the roads.. why?

What can we do to solve the metric crisis in our nation?

We need to stand up to the Government and put down the retards who resist metrication!