On 2004 Jul 19 , at 10:13 PM, m. f. moon wrote:
Bill, in California, the 65 mph was "translated" in metric to 100 km/h. The
law can do what it wants to do.
That's very interesting.
I had heard there where other examples where "someone" insisted that the converted value always had to be less than (or exactly equal) to the old English value as long as the old English value was still the value that was given in the law. While it is true that the law may do what it wants, it is also true that only the legislature can pass laws.
Allowing lower officials (who actually do the converting of the signs) to make the value greater than specified in the law would be giving them the authority to change the speed limits, a power that is vested in the legislature and cannot be assumed by those lower officials. I wonder how they could get away with it!
Could it be that in California they actually changed the legal speed from 60 mph (which equals 96.54 km/h) to 100 km/h (which equals 62.15 mph)? Or was a special law passed that avoided the question by declaring that the metric speeds were only informational and approximate, and not the exact legal speed. This latter approach has been suggested in some quarters, with the plan that, eventually, the law would change to state that the metric speeds were now the legal speeds and any old English signs would be considered merely approximate and informational.
Regards, Bill Hooper Fernadina Beach, Florida, USA ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Go Metric America! Or get left behind! ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
