A number of countries use the distances along roads for various things. Spain and South Africa for example number their road junctions using the metric distance (rounded to the nearest kilometre) (I believe the US does the same, but uses miles). The Italians use metric distances to identify farm entrances and the location of out-of-town restaurants etc. (For example, when I was working in Italy a few years I often used a restaurant that was at km 19.7 on the Via Salaria).
BTW, one advantage of using kilometres rather than miles for junction numbering is that where junctions are tightly clustered, you don't run out of numbers as easily. _____ From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of STANLEY DOORE Sent: 10 February 2008 23:12 To: U.S. Metric Association Cc: U.S. Metric Association Subject: [USMA:40408] Re: Exit numbering by distance. 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 <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: U.S. Metric <mailto:[email protected]> Association Cc: U.S. Metric <mailto:[email protected]> 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 services and resources for many different trades, crafts, and professions for commercial, industrial and government metrication leaders in Asia, Europe, and in the USA. Pat's clients include the Australian Government, Google, NASA, NIST, and the metric associations of Canada, the UK, and the USA. See http://www.metricationmatters.com/ for more metrication information, contact 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 -- "The boy is dangerous, they all sense it why can't you?" (\__/) (='.'=)This is Bunny. Copy and paste bunny into your (")_(")signature to help him gain world domination. -- "The boy is dangerous, they all sense it why can't you?" (\__/) (='.'=)This is Bunny. Copy and paste bunny into your (")_(")signature to help him gain world domination. ____________________________________________________________________________ ________ Looking for last minute shopping deals? Find them fast with Yahoo! Search. http://tools.search.yahoo.com/newsearch/category.php?category=shopping
