Stan, It was probably the other way round. Ireland (though not Northern
Ireland) changed from mph to km/h for speed limits in 2005. They replaced
all of their old UK-style speed limit signs with km/h signs over a few
days. To avoid any confusion, all the new signs had "km/h" shown on them.
They never had any km/h speed limit signs without the units clearly shown
on them. OTOH, their distance signs have been gradually changed over
several years - though, AFAIK, the new ones have the km unit symbol shown
somewhere.

Northern Ireland, in common with the rest of the UK, still have mph speed
limits shown on unitless signs and use miles on distance signs - usually
without the unit shown, but using "m" as the abbreviation for miles on some
signs and if the distance is 1/4, 1/3 or 1/2 mile.

-- 
C.

On 12 July 2016 at 01:27, Stanislav Jakuba <jakub...@gmail.com> wrote:

> You answered my question. When I was there last (a long time ago) the
> distances were in miles, but the speed limits were in km/h. Without the
> km/h shown. As a passenger in a car, I was really scared of the speed until
> the driver explained this state of affairs. I was like this apparently for
> years and nobody seemed bothered.
> Stan
>
> On Mon, Jul 11, 2016 at 8:11 PM, Carleton MacDonald <carlet...@comcast.net
> > wrote:
>
>> I rented a car in Ireland in 2009. It was a stick shift, wheel on the
>> right, drive on the left side of the road. It wasn’t difficult.
>>
>>
>>
>> We rented the car in Belfast, toured the shipyard where the Titanic and
>> the Olympic were built, drove to Downpatrick to see St. Patrick’s burial
>> site (at the Anglican cathedral there), then drove to Dublin. The minute we
>> crossed the border, I noticed:
>>
>>
>>
>> The road signs were in both English and Gaelic.
>>
>> Speed limits and distances were in km.
>>
>> I had to find a bank machine to get some euro notes.
>>
>>
>>
>> Carleton
>>
>>
>>
>> On 2016-07-11, 17:39, "USMA on behalf of Mark Henschel" <
>> usma-boun...@colostate.edu on behalf of mwhensch...@gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>
>>
>> Interesting thing about the British and their roundabouts, and driving on
>> the left side of the road.
>>
>>
>>
>> I was in a car being driven around England a few years back. The driver
>> sits on the right, but the gear shift is in the left, in the middle of the
>> car. So since they travel on the opposite side of the road, their
>> roundabouts turn clockwise,  not counter clockwise as ours do.
>>
>>
>>
>> So here we are with the driver on the right, her left hand on the gear
>> shift, right hand on the steering wheel, left foot on the clutch and right
>> foot on the accelerator, and attempting to go counterclockwise into a
>> roundabout. All the time looking right and turning left. At least in the
>> USA we can use our best hand for most of us (right handers) on the gear
>> shift and just hold the steering wheel with the left hand, look left and
>> turn right, but I imagine it is a challenge to constantly use your left
>> hand to shift gears if you are right handed.
>>
>>
>>
>> Few European cars have automatic transmissions. Even when I rented cars
>> in Germany, they were usually stick shift but diesel engines. Hmmm. wonder
>> if I got one of the cars VW cheated on the emissions with?
>>
>>
>>
>> Mark
>>
>>
>>
>> On Mon, Jul 11, 2016 at 4:15 PM, John Dunlop <jrdun...@igc.org> wrote:
>>
>> I just received a note from Queen Elizabeth.  She has declared that we
>> are flubbing democracy, and therefore, effectively immediately, our
>> independence is revoked.  Among the changes she will implement in the
>> country formerly known as the USA:
>>
>>
>> 6. All intersections will be replaced with roundabouts, and you will
>> start driving on the left side with immediate effect. At the same time, you
>> will go metric with immediate effect and without the benefit of conversion
>> tables.  Both roundabouts and metrication will help you understand the
>> British sense of humour.
>>
>>
>> John
>>
>>
>> John Dunlop
>> jrdun...@igc.org personal email
>> 612-374-2181 home phone
>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> USMA mailing list
>> USMA@colostate.edu
>> https://lists.colostate.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/usma
>>
>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________ USMA mailing list
>> USMA@colostate.edu
>> https://lists.colostate.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/usma
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> USMA mailing list
>> USMA@colostate.edu
>> https://lists.colostate.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/usma
>>
>>
>
> _______________________________________________
> USMA mailing list
> USMA@colostate.edu
> https://lists.colostate.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/usma
>
>
_______________________________________________
USMA mailing list
USMA@colostate.edu
https://lists.colostate.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/usma

Reply via email to