I just don't get it. If Britain's former colonies adopted metric successfully I surely don't know what is keeping Parliament from adopting SI road signs. Why do they want to be so isolated? Britain lost its empire long ago and it is to its interest to get more connected with the Continent for starters. Its just like the Eurail Pass issue. If you look at a Eurail map of Europe and see the countries where its valid the island of Britain stands out like a sore thumb. Its time for the UK to roll with the times and get out of the past. alfred
-----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Friday, April 05, 2002 10:24 AM To: U.S. Metric Association Subject: [USMA:19254] RE: UKIP removes metric signs > 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
