<<I wonder why costs would be an issue? Ireland needed to revamp its speed limits in order to reduce traffic accidents.>> Yes - I now understand that two issues are being covered here, and not merely metrication. <<What would not be justified would be to have two sets of speed limits, one metric and one imperial.>> I totally agree - with most things I prefer the right to choose but speed limits should be metric OR imperial - not both. <<<but if the UK govt took the view of the Irish govt, that speed limits in some areas need revising, then they could combine the 2 and save money and hopefully save lives. In back streets a speed limit of 30 mph (48 km/h) is too fast and should be reduced to 30 km/h. >>> That requirement really is not there as it is in Ireland. Many years ago they introduced the new 20mph areas. All other limits are just right. The UK roads are the safest in the Europe (and indeed the world). I suggest that messing with this statistic in any way could be counter-productive just to give things new names. <<I know that lots of UK drivers do drive in Europe, especially France, so why have 2 different speed limit units, when 1 will do for all countries?>> Ireland and the UK are very different places. It would cost many many millions to change the UK signs. We have 100's of thousands of more miles in the UK than in Eire. Also there are about 60 million of us compared to about 3 million of them. And for what real reason? The people aren't asking for it - we have the safest roads - it'll cost a bomb - it *could* cause safety issues - it won't aid trade - there are no quality issues - etc etc And what would the positive be? To have street signs that looked a lot like european ones. I also don't buy the argument that UK should adopt the Euro so that we "don't have to exchange when we go into europe". Similarly there are many arguments against that notion that render the idea pointless. I thnk that at some point some people should support metric but realise that there are areas that really don't need to be touched. Take the politics out of the argument
