> FYI, just saw this in the Daily Telegraph today. <sigh>
> Ezra
> Poll candidate took 50 metric road
> signs
It is welcome that several organisations are assuming that they must or
may make up signs displaying metric measures.
The law is quite clear that privately owned metric signs cannot be taken
down and there is an increasing number of these.
The taking down of publicly owned signs is probably seen by the public
as a minor nuisance. Individuals can hardly claim that they are
personally victimised and so it is unlikely to rate much higher in the
public eye than an amusing student prank. I can't see anybody getting
worked up by it in the way that they did over shopping transactions.
Less visibly, the positioning of signs is becoming increasingly
metricated ('xxx 109 yards'). There is little interference that can be
done about that that would get public sympathy.
The embarrassment to courts and councils and the waste of resources
might in the short term result in more care taken to ensure non-metric
signage. In the long term it might have the positive result that
councils call for the law to be changed to allow for metric signs.
I can't see the government rushing to change anything soon, but they
might get away with a regulation that allows metres to be used in
applications where motor vehicles are not involved (and hence there is
no safety counter-argument).
--
Terry Simpson
Human Factors Consultant
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
www.connected-systems.com
Phone: +44 7850 511794
