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The absurdity of the use of kph

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  First and foremost I apologise (yet again) for such a long gap in between blog posts. The return of freedom over the past year has kept me away from screens. They say it takes 66 days to develop a new habit. Running is a habit I developed over lockdown, but the return to the office (and I intend to never work from home again) and frequenting the pub has reduced frequency of this.  It is, however, not completely bleak for my physical well-being. Cramming a number of social events in after work has led to me doing a lot more walking around central London. I don’t have an Apple Watch, (other brands of smart watch exist), but my iPhone records my steps and a lot of really interesting data on my walking and running. As would be no surprise, I’ve configured everything in metric units. Thankfully, gone are the days where Apple would dictate to you , based on your location, the units of measurement you use. You have a chose whether to specify distances in miles or kilometres....
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Birmingham's Waterways

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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...
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Metric Directional Sign at Putney Station (imperial finger post outside)

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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.
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Metric Finger Posts

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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...
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The one (and only) good thing about Apple Maps

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A few posts back I lamented about the inability to use metric units on the maps feature of an iPhone. With the launch of iOS6 and the new Apple maps, this bug is now gone. iPhone users who prefer to use sensible (metric) units finally have the option to do so. It's just a shame, that the maps themselves are rubbish.
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Olympic Units

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For the Olympics, signs such as these were erected in most stations. It was nice to see the use of kilometres for distances (rather than just miles) but a a grievance which I hold is the measurement of walking distances exclusively in miles per hour. At minimum, for the sake of consistency, the speeds should have been given in km/h as well – or even better, only in km/h. Personally, I find it impossible to gauge walking/cycling speeds in mph. It's a lot easier to use metres per second, which is easily convertible to km/h - a lot more accurate too! I guess it's just the country we live in.
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km/h at Wimbledon?

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I've always wondered what it would be like to see serve speeds stated in kilometres per hour (km/h) at Wimbledon, as it is in every other tournament. Fortunately, the Olympics has given me the opportunity to see it and it is a considerable improvement! Moreover, I've not seen any bemused faces. Let's hope next year IBM decide do ditch the archaic miles per hour in favour of km/h! (and if they do, let's hope they use the correct symbol and not kph or KM/H or any other variant) MPH at Wimbledon km/h at Wimbledon To Close: CONGRATULATIONS ANDY MURRAY!! LET's GO TEAM GB!!!!
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The Olympics Have Come and Metric Signs Have Graced the Streets

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Whilst walking through London's East End, I came across some closed pedestrian crossings. To my (pleasant) surprise, the signs showing the next closest crossing were specified in metres. Although this is a positive, it shows the British muddle at its finest. With yards showing distances from underground stations (although some are in metres) and these new signs exclusively in metres, it is inevitable that confusion will be caused. In addition to this, the issue of m being used for metres, as well as incorrectly for miles also comes to the forefront. I shan't dwell on this though, as the folks at www.metricviews.org.uk tend to have this covered.
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