Congratulations to you and the whole Ireland!
Predrag
Tom Wade VMS Systems wrote:
Greetings,
The Minister for Transport today announced that January 20th 2005 will be the changeover day for road speed signs.
The original date was to have been this month, but this was delayed because legislation did not pass in time for the summer recess.
The Minister's statement referred to "all road signs", although it is the speed signs (all of which are currently in MPH) rather than the small number of distance signs on minor roads that were originally scheduled for changeover by the end of the year.
The actual date is a Thursday, which is unusual if the intention is to change all the signs on the same day. More likely, they intend to replace the signs over a period leading up to this date. This will be possible as the new signs will have explicit "km/h" symbols under the number (the signs will continue to use the circular black-letter-white-background-red-edge format), so they are unambiguous. It is, however, obviously desirable to keep the mixed interval to an absolute minimum (this was one of the factors in the success of the Euro changeover, and the smoothness of that transition was noted by the Minister in his speech today).
I shall try to get more details about the switchover from the Dept, and keep the list updated.
The changeover date misses the intended deadline of December 2004 (which will require an amendment to the Statutory Instrument), but at 20 days, it is not seen as a serious postponement. For comparison, the introduction of the state wide ban on smoking in the workplace (including bars, restaurants and offices) was three months overdue, but has met with almost universal compliance, and high levels of support (even among a majority of smokers).
A public information campaign will begin towards the end of November.
I am personally delighted with this announcement. It will be a highly visible step in the well advanced conversion to metric in this country, and one for which I have been campaigning for many years. Hopefully it will also provide ammunition for the UKMA in their campaign to bring about a similar change over there.
Tom Wade
