I believe this once again points to the problems endemic with "voluntary" metrication. The federal government (and some states) have put the rules and laws in place to permit conversion and metric usage, yet does not take the steps to require metric usage other than in a dual role. This lets the policy makers pronouce us "officially metric" but leaving the practice some sort of jumble between. For some reason, the politicians think that the Luddites out there seem to speak for all of us. Until the policy makers get the cojones to actually mandate changes such as speedometers and fuel economy, we will never see the impetus to make the change on road signs and such. It also means sticking to one's guns and not mandating one year, then repealing the next. Until we get laws that state unit pricing at the supermarket needs to be metric, I will continue to buy 2 liter bottles and have to compare the price by the quart (of course I don't actually do it that way.) Very stupid indeed. I dare say this is the same problem that both Canada and the UK experience to a lesser degree.
Well, time to get off the soap box and back to work, Phil -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of Michael Payne Sent: Thursday, September 25, 2003 8:53 AM To: U.S. Metric Association Subject: [USMA:27049] RE: Definitative Answer on U.S. Fed rule on km/h on Dashboards Reference the message from Phil Chernack below, This amendment changes the language of Table 2 to read``MPH, or MPH and km/h''. Which would agree with the "Law" below. I would imagine that a law would take precedence over a "rule" published by the NHTSA (National Highway Transportation Safety Administration). I would read that there is no justification in any rule requiring you to replace a km speedometer with one reading in miles as the primary display, as long as both units were displayed. Otherwise it would contravene the clearly worded law below. United States Code Title 15 Chapter 6. Sec. 204. Metric system authorized It shall be lawful throughout the United States of America to employ the weights and measures of the metric system; and no contract or dealing, or pleading in any court, shall be deemed invalid or liable to objection because the weights or measures expressed or referred to therein are weights or measures of the metric system. http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/15/205a.html Michael Payne > [Original Message] > From: Phil Chernack <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > To: U.S. Metric Association <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Date: 22/9/03 09:13:24 > Subject: [USMA:27029] Definitative Answer on U.S. Fed rule on km/h on Dashboards > > To All, > > Straight from the FMVSS 101 ruling: > A technical correction was issued in 2000 to "fix" the problem with the rule that stated the speedometer could display "MPH and/or km/h" which could have the result of a manufacturer putting MPH, km/h or both. The intent of the rule was to mandate MPH and allow MPH-km/h at the descretion of the manufacturer. This correction fixes that. > > http://hazmat.dot.gov/97_2718.meetingnotice.pdf > > Strange, coming from a government who has stated in law that SI is the "preferred" system of measurement. My biggest problem is that any manufacturer who uses MPH exclusively dooms the auto to being useful in the US or UK only. Even then, the UK requires both. > > Phil --- Michael Payne --- [EMAIL PROTECTED] --- EarthLink: The #1 provider of the Real Internet.
