I'm glad you mentioned it was a fictitious example - considering the UK's road safety record.
From: [email protected] To: [email protected] Subject: [USMA:42721] Re: REALLY using the SI Date: Sat, 31 Jan 2009 17:56:57 +0000 Jerry, Probably no more than any other western government. Consider a fictitious example. The cause of an accident is traced to a road sign which was confusing because it was in imperial units only. The damage is £100k, but the cost of correcting all the road signs country-wide would be £1M. The government, rather than trying to escape liability (which they would normally do in the same way as any other person or organization who is about to be sued), will pay up with a minimum of fuss and then quietly replace “offending” road signs with less confusing ones as the old one reach the ends of their useful lives. From: Jeremiah MacGregor [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: 31 January 2009 17:43 To: [email protected]; U.S. Metric Association Subject: Re: [USMA:42717] Re: REALLY using the SI Martin, Sounds to me like your government is corrupt. Jerry From: Martin Vlietstra <[email protected]> To: U.S. Metric Association <[email protected]> Sent: Saturday, January 31, 2009 12:31:56 PM Subject: [USMA:42717] Re: REALLY using the SI Jerry, I am sure that there is some confusion, but I have never heard of it being cited as the cause of an accident. Usually the insurance companies pay up. If something threatened to go to court, there is a good chance that the Government would quietly acknowledge their fault, pay for the damage and slap a condition on the person receiving the money that they are not to go public on what happened. It would be cheaper than changing all the signs at very short notice. From: Jeremiah MacGregor [mailto: [email protected] ] Sent: 31 January 2009 17:16 To: Martin Vlietstra; U.S. Metric Association Subject: Re: [USMA:42694] Re: REALLY using the SI Martin, Are you telling us that foreign drivers on UK roads get confused by the non-metric signage? So what happens when they have an accident and someone is seriously hurt? This would be a good reason to change if only to conform with the practice of your neighboring countries. Now what happens when UK drivers go to other countries and don't have English unit signs to guide them? Does it cause accidents too? Is it true that Ireland just changed their signs 4 years ago? How are the people adapting? Any problems? Jerry From: Martin Vlietstra <[email protected]> To: Jeremiah MacGregor < [email protected] >; U.S. Metric Association <[email protected]> Sent: Saturday, January 31, 2009 12:07:51 PM Subject: RE: [USMA:42694] Re: REALLY using the SI Yes, most British people do, but I am not convinced that lorry drivers from abroad do. I often drive a short section (about 4 km) of the M25 (the London ring road) and almost without fail I spot at least one lorry from abroad every time that I drive on that section of road. From: Jeremiah MacGregor [mailto: [email protected] ] Sent: 31 January 2009 16:41 To: [email protected]; U.S. Metric Association Subject: Re: [USMA:42694] Re: REALLY using the SI Martin, Do most people know what they mean? Jerry From: Martin Vlietstra <[email protected]> To: U.S. Metric Association <[email protected]> Sent: Saturday, January 31, 2009 10:28:26 AM Subject: [USMA:42694] Re: REALLY using the SI Oops - my error But for some inexplicable reason the British Department for Transport use single and double apostrophes to represent feet and inches on road signs. -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Pierre Abbat Sent: 31 January 2009 11:50 To: U.S. Metric Association Subject: [USMA:42685] Re: REALLY using the SI On Saturday 31 January 2009 03:56:26 Martin Vlietstra wrote: > The single apostrophe is the symbol for seconds of arc. No, the single prime means arc minutes. The double prime means arc seconds. Pierre _________________________________________________________________ Check out the new and improved services from Windows Live. Learn more! http://clk.atdmt.com/UKM/go/132630768/direct/01/
