> > I will definitely sent a letter indicating my displeasure to my > city council representative. Canada is officially metric, weather > reports are given in metric units, and children are educated in > metric. There was no reason not to include metric on that sign. >
I received a phone call from the Ottawa city department responsible for deploying the water efficiency signs that say our lawns require 1 inch of water per week. The representative said that when the signs were designed it had been discussed whether to format the signs with metric, metric/imperial, or just imperial. 25 mm 25 mm / 1 inch 1 inch The second option was ruled out because the readers would be driving past the signs, so the city wanted to make them quick and easy to read. She then said that the imperial value (1 inch) was chosen over the metric value because they felt that the target audience was more familiar with inches than millimetres, and that the majority of today's homeowners in Ottawa were educated before metric was introduced in the late 1970s. I expressed my opinion that if only one unit had to be used, then it should have been the millimetre. Further, I stated while the argument for not using metric is because people aren't familiar with it, they will never become familiar with it unless they use it. I was thanked for expressing my opinion, and that they'd keep it in mind for future decisions. Stephen
