______________________________________________
From: Hu, Alfred
Sent: Friday, August 27, 2004 9:44 AM
To: '[EMAIL PROTECTED]'
Cc: '[EMAIL PROTECTED]'
Subject: Metric to English conversion - good luck
Hello Kevin Herritt,
I, as well as a growing number of Californians, are truly dissappointed and perhaps let down by Caltrans' ill-advised decision to revert back to the very archaic and convoluted systems of inches and pounds - a so-called "system" of measurements used very rarely in the rest of the world for good reason.
I remember corresponding to you in the past about the new Bay Bridge between Oakland and San Francisco and the newly built Alfred-Molina bridge over the Carquinez strait and you mentioned that they are built to metric specifications. This indicated California, along with New York, as being a leading state in innovative change and technology into the 21st century.
Now Caltrans has to use tremendous amount of taxpayers money to revert to an ancient system of measures and thinks that the cost is justified after the transistion just merely to cowtow to organizations that whine. Well, I wish Caltrans lots of luck.
What if in the future we begin having a different leadership in the Federal Government which will then require all 50 states to revert back to metric construction? We Californians cannot rule out that possiblity. If by then all the metric manuals and specifications have been thown down the drain would they have to be recreated? Lets hope that Caltrans is smart enough to store them somewhere just in case.
I know you are the head of metric programs at Caltrans and perhaps you may not be behind this sad decision, but to Caltrans, I and other citizens of the Golden State say lots of luck later!!
Alfred Hu - Fremont, CA
