A better summary of the situation with regards to the motorway and other
highway signage is, I would say, contained in this observation:
stan
Re: ARM and the Case of the Illegal Metric-only Signs on the M25
October 17 2005, 8:39 AM
Maybe all this shows:
(1) The ARM message is transient and quickly forgotten
(2) The TSRGD is confusing and ambivalet over the accepted use
of units at least to the casual reader only interested in getting the basics
of signage right. The result is that guidance literature published within
the industry focusses little attention on the matter.
(3) There is a generally tendencey on the part of highways
agencies and contractors to assume that British drivers are OK with metres
and old fashioned measures aren't needed anymore.
(4) That most people charged with the responsibility to maintian
highways and public safety on roads do not see metric as a problem. There is
no evidence to support the idea that metres are dangerous.
The TSRGD is a set of regulations that do not create any
criminal offences for breaching them. The situation with them is the same
for the UK Units of Measurement regulations except that they actually
require metric in practrically everything. No one enforces them so the are
being breached all the time in advertising and product descriptions and the
like.
The official system of units of measurement in the UK is metric.
Little wonder that people tend to assume that metric rather than imperial is
required for things like road signs.
