Hi Pat,
I noticed a similar thing on farm gateposts in Italy. Regards Martin _____ From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Pat Naughtin Sent: 25 January 2009 22:00 To: U.S. Metric Association Subject: [USMA:42562] Re: Small item seen on TV Dear Martin, In Australia, we don't have the silly dual measurements that are used in England where the engineers use millimetres for the sizes of posts, with metres and kilometres for distances. We have the advantage of a co-ordinated system that only uses metric units. An interesting feature of this has occurred in rural areas over the last few years. Consider two towns called that are linked by a road called (say) the Geelong-Moorabool Road. Properties along this road now sport large numbers such as 6540 Geelong-Moorabool Road. This refers to the distance that the front gate of this farm is from Geelong in metres. This not only serves as a unique postal address along this road but it also lets emergency services, such as fire fighters know exactly how far a property is from their Geelong depot. By the way, I noticed those metric markers when I was in London for the UKMA annual meeting. Cheers, Pat Naughtin Geelong, Australia On 2009/01/26, at 5:15 AM, Martin Vlietstra wrote: Another weird and wonderful twist about British road signs is that those that are intended for use by motorists are in miles while small marker posts on the side of the roads that are intended for use by road engineers are in kilometers are posted at 100m intervals. A real mess you might say. However, with the advent of the mobile telephone, the emergency services found that very few motorists realized that positions on motorways could be pinpointed to within 100m by referring to the small marker posts, so new Driver Location Signs have been introduced, which are posted at 500m intervals. See http://www.highways.gov.uk/business/14730.aspx for a picture of both. You will notice that the word "kilometre" does not appear anywhere on that page, though there is a small mention of the word on the associated FAQ page. The sign on the off-ramp from the motorway to my home town shows 55.7 in large letters. 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 <http://www.metricationmatters.com/> for more metrication information, contact Pat at [email protected] or to get the free 'Metrication matters' newsletter go to: http://www.metricationmatters.com/newsletter to subscribe.
