Slightly off a metric topic, but I've always thought the US Postal Service was
the ideal place for an electric vehicle, short stop start and all night to
recharge. I wrote to them years ago suggesting such a thing but no one with any
imagination runs the place. I've noticed they do buy a lot of large flat screen
TV's that subsequently hang as decorations on all post office walls!
Mike Payne
----- Original Message -----
From: STANLEY DOORE
To: U.S. Metric Association
Sent: Friday, 23 January 2009 07:29
Subject: [USMA:42414] use of millimeters
In a previous email, I discussed and advocated the use of millimeters
only instead of a combination of meters, centimeters, and millimeters for human
body and associated dimensions.
A lengthy January 21 article in The Washington Times about the
possibility of Fiat and Chrysler collaborating caught my attention. The Fiat
Qubo van caught my attention since I thought it would be good for taxis,
delivery vehicles and for family use, especially if it were electrified -
hybrid and plug-in.
So I went to Fiat's web site and found Fiat's Qubo van dimensions were
given only in millimeters: length = 3959, width = 1716, and height = 1735.
Note there are no decimal points or combination of units. Simple eh?
So the use of millimeters only goes beyond human body dimensions.
Moreover, the use of only one unit, in this case millimeters, makes it very
easy to read and relate the human body to the vehicle when dimensions are in
millimeters. It is much easier to visualize or get the "feel" how humans could
fit into the van since only one unit (millimeters) was used.
The Fiat Qubo would be ideal if electrified to improve performance for
taxi and delivery services.
Stan Doore
