Pat et al:
The idea of using metric distances along is road to identify the location
of a residence makes a lot of sense. The distance from the post office doesn't
since post offices move.
A better approach would be the distance from the beginning of the street or
road. An even better approach would be to find some way to identify the
address by lat-long so GPS could be used directly; that may be too cumbersome
and confusing.
Stan Doore
----- Original Message -----
From: Pat Naughtin
To: U.S. Metric Association
Cc: U.S. Metric Association
Sent: Sunday, February 10, 2008 5:40 PM
Subject: [USMA:40406] Re: Exit numbering by distance.
Dear Carleton,
In the UK the kilometre markers are blue, thin, and small -- you have to look
hard to find them.
The engineers in the UK, as I understand it, design, build, and maintain
their roads using metric units: kilometres for length and millimetres for width
and surface thickness. Then, they are required by the UK parliament to use
signs showing feet, yards, and miles to communicate with the public. When I was
in the UK last year I kept looking for the kilometre posts that the engineers
use (among themselves) to locate places that need repair.
In Australia we use all metric roadside markers but we have now taken this a
step further. Rural properties now have postal addresses according to their
distance along a particular road. An example might be '23 450 Colac Winchelsea
Road' where this farm has its main gate 23 450 metres from the Colac Post
Office along the road to Winchelsea. Naturally the postal service uses this
information everyday for delivering mail but, perhaps more importantly,
emergency services such as fire and ambulance can use their decimal kilometre
odometers to exactly locate points of access during an emergency.
Cheers,
Pat Naughtin
PO Box 305 Belmont 3216,
Geelong, Australia
Phone: 61 3 5241 2008
Metric system consultant, writer, and speaker, Pat Naughtin, has helped
thousands of people and hundreds of companies upgrade to the modern metric
system smoothly, quickly, and so economically that they now save thousands each
year when buying, processing, or selling for their businesses. Pat provides
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in the USA. Pat's clients include the Australian Government, Google, NASA,
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Pat at [EMAIL PROTECTED] or subscribe to the free 'Metrication matters'
newsletter at http://www.metricationmatters.com/newsletter/
On 2008/02/11, at 6:29 AM, Carleton MacDonald wrote:
Driving around in Quebec a few years ago I noticed green markers every 1 km,
each giving the distance. (I remember them well, as my 1988 car died at km
26 on autoroute 15 between Brossard and St-Bernard-de-Lacolle, at the US
border. We were on our way home, we thought. Not.) There could be small,
intermediate markers though in other places.
Carleton
-----Original Message-----
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf
Of Ziser, Jesse
Sent: Sunday, February 10, 2008 01:12
To: U.S. Metric Association
Subject: [USMA:40402] Re: Exit numbering by distance.
Why every 100 m? That's an order of magnitude more frequent than the
current markers. I expect
that increasing the number of markers by a factor of 20 would have a huge
cost for a country the
size of the US. Why can't they just be every kilometer? Or even every 2
km?
--- Mike Millet <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
I suspected that would be the case. I still like the idea of having
signposts every 100m and then just having an exit every 1600m rather than
every mile.
That way you still have a logical progression of signage.
Mike
On Feb 9, 2008 9:43 PM, Phil Chernack <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
I believe only three states still use sequential numbering for exits.
States like Florida, Georga, Verigina and Pennsylvania switched to
distance-based exit numbers in the past 5 or so years. I brought this
very
issue up a while ago in this list as one of the things that needs to be
considered when switching to metric. The bigger problem is that exits
are
somewhat like area codes in the sense that many businesses use the exit
number in their marketing. Just as when an area code changes,
businesses
need to make changes to their marketing materials as well. My guess is
that
if the switch is made to metric for highways, exit numbers will be the
last
thing to change and that change may take upwards of 20 years or so. The
only way I would see it happening sooner without state highway
departments
screaming bloody murder is if money is provided by the FHWA to do so. I
would also think that after a switch on speed limits and odometers,
people
will eventually want exits to be metric-based.
BTW, the MUTCD specifies that exits may be based on either distance or
sequential. It is recommened to use distance based on either km or
miles.
Phil
On Feb 9, 2008 11:12 PM, Mike Millet <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
I'm doing a short paper for history class on the effects of the
Interstate Highway System on the United States. One thing I noticed
when
researching was that many states now number exits by the mile. My
question
is, when the inevitable metric switch happens, will they renumber the
exits? I know a lot of nations that have been metric for a while have
distance markers every 100m and exits every 1km if possible.
Renumbering the exits seems like quite an extensive task. It makes me
wonder if the US should just signpost every 100m and then replace the
sign
saying "exit 310 next 1 mile" with one saying "exit next 1.6km or
1600m"
Thoughts?
Mike
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