I agree with your last sentence completely. No one in Government wants to even be the one to suggest it. They are afraid of the political outfall. >>> "Gregory Peterson" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> 03/21/01 02:07pm >>> Hi Stan, I spoke with a fellow at the Ontario Ministry of Transportation who was actually around during the time of their metric conversion in the late 1970s. There was no overspending in the budget, no additional funding given, nor did the MTO delay any major projects. They chose to use decals in most cases, but replaced those signs that need replacing. Occasionally they replaced a sign a couple of years earlier than needed. What helped substantially is that all 10 provinces, two territories, and many municipalities got together and made a single bulk order from one manufacturer for such items as decals, signs, new drawing templates (this all predated the desktop computer). Though some of these items needed to be designed de-novo the large order kept the costs down. The MTO also took this opportunity to rexamine their building standards from the ground-up rather than just substituting 25.4 mm for every inch, 304.8 mm for every foot, 914.4 mm for every yard, and 1.609344 km for every mile. This accomplished two important goals: 1) the standards and codes were updated for modern driving conditions, and 2) converted the standards and codes to hard metric values. Again, extra funding was not provided for this exercise. Now I believe it might be illegal for all 50 state DOTs to order from the same single supplier, but even if a number of states got together to help defray the costs of small orders I'm sure it could be accomplished with equal efficiency. Ten states combined would most likely have the same (if not more) buying power as all of Canada. The current US situation would most likely be much easier especially now that so much is done on computers. Most likely the greatest expense would be the ordering of new metric software or hiring a consultant to convert manuals. US metric sign standards have already been developed, US cars have kilometres on the speedometers, all is needed is to change a few million (billion?) road signs. The biggest hurdle to overcome for US highway conversion is simply a rock solid government commitment to change. greg Saskatoon SK Canada >>> "G. Stanley Doore" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> 2001-03-20 21:46:06 >>> The National Weather Service would be the most visible and the least costly to converet. Most of what you see is software in computers and most barometers and thermometers have duel units. Road signs and road markers are very expensive. Stan ----- Original Message ----- From: Gregory Peterson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: U.S. Metric Association <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Tuesday, March 20, 2001 10:56 AM Subject: [USMA:11732] Re: What... (was: USMA digest 488) The US needs one committment to convert one obviously public institution to metric. My vote goes to the National Weather Service. Get them to use kilopascals, celsius, and millimetre/centimetre precipitation amounts and the public will see it. My second vote is for the national highways. Get the interstate highways, statehighways, county and municipal roads converted to "km/h" speeds and "km" distances. Do it now. All American cars have dual speedometers, get people to use them. Change either of these obvious "institutions" to metric and the public will see it, use it, and hopefully, grow to like it! greg >>> Adrian Jadic <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> 2001-03-17 18:42:56 >>> I must be in one of my pessimism low points (or highs.. depends how you see it). I certainly share your views and I also believe it is an achievable goal. I am not a Don Quixote myself. I did not mean to discourage, I was just asking a hopefully proactive question: ====WHAT? ...would (or could) really trigger the switch?==== Like you, I am doing my best to speed it up in any way I can, but it just helps, it doesn't trigger. Large companies, the pharmaceutical and automobile industry have switched but this is, more or less internally due to market needs. People don't see the bolts in the car nor the drawings it was made from. Cars still display mph. As for the drugs, many don't understand anyway what's written on the packages or they don't care because they are sick and want to get "fixed" (to quote an expression that my wife hears daily). We still have Thermometers in F, scales in lbs. ...and nurses Celsius-free. How about the masses, people (as John mentioned today) who are loudly crying "Never!". The healthy plumber or carpenter who are building houses for a living in "the greatest country in the world"? What would convince these guys to forget about their "two-by-four" and the half-inch pipe? Obviously, the Mars disaster due to sloppy metrication, did not trigger any mass reaction despite the financial loss. The carpenter is probably thinking: "we should have not messed with those "metrics" in the first place, our system is just fine!". NASA made a big report with a lot of brushed-up recommendations but nobody asked the Chief Engineer to resign. This tells me that even NASA is still not entirely convinced. How about if we had lost astronauts? I prefer to stop here and let everybody join the discussion if they wish to. I am convinced that sometimes it is useful to sit back and look at the big picture although it might look pessimistic. It helps me focus better. So, what would/could trigger a large scale metrication in the US? A. -----Original Message----- From: Andy Johnson [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Saturday 17 March 2001 15:29 To: U.S. Metric Association Subject: [USMA:11681] Fwd: Re: USMA digest 488 Now...if you were to convince me as a certainty that the U.S. is not going to go metric in my lifetime, then I would lose interest in the cause. I am not interested in metrication as a game or as a hobby but as a very definite achievable worthwile political goal. Elaborate if you can, if you will, about how you see it, please. As for me, I am sure we will be metric someday, and I hope I can speed it up a bit. Andy Johnson --- Adrian Jadic <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > From: Adrian Jadic <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > To: "U.S. Metric Association" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Subject: [USMA:11677] Re: USMA digest 488 > Date: Sat, 17 Mar 2001 12:42:26 -0500 > Reply-to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > I agree that anti-metric thinking is deeply > engrained in our society but, > (and I apologize for my pessimism) I believe that a > tragedy won't be enough. > > Just look at the gun laws. There was a Columbine > tragedy and several more > before and after that. Results.. nothing. > > For Australia a tragedy was enough to trigger a mass > approval of the gun > ban. Similarly, it did not take much to convince > them of the metric > advantages in spite of their English heritage. Here, > it seems we need > something more. > > The question is WHAT? Personally, I believe that > something has to shatter > the American self confidence before the many would > accept that there is time > for a serious/radical change. > > I have lived for extended periods in several > countries and only here I found > this strong mass conviction that "We are the best". > When the human spirit > reaches that level there is no place for change. > History proved this many > times. > > A. > > -----Original Message----- > From: Paul Trusten [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] > Sent: Friday 16 March 2001 22:50 > To: U.S. Metric Association > Subject: [USMA:11674] Re: USMA digest 488 > > > You are quite right; it is a risk management issue. > But I'm afraid that > anti-metric thinking is deeply ingrained in this > society, and nothing will > change until a tragedy happens. > __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Get email at your own domain with Yahoo! Mail. http://personal.mail.yahoo.com/
