I just wonder how the auto industry was able to do what the highway department couldn't do. I'm sure even the auto industry butts up against suppliers or vendors that hate metric and try to force the industry to accommodate them? Have you even encountered any resistance and how was it handled?
Jerry ________________________________ From: John M. Steele <[email protected]> To: U.S. Metric Association <[email protected]> Sent: Thursday, March 12, 2009 8:21:42 AM Subject: [USMA:43706] Re: Arizona I-19 losing kilometer signs This was made immeasurably worse by the various Federal rules forbidding offending anyone who doesn't want to be metric. The USGS does all its geodetic work in metric, and all NAD83 data was intended to be issued in meters. Due to state whining, they made a decision that they would offer it converted to either International or Survey feet if the State made its preference clear by jumping through a couple of hoops. 50 States = 50 Ways, although there are actually only three ways. We have a hodgepodge of States have State Plane coordinate systems in Survey feet, International feet, and meters. At least NAD27 data was reliably Survey feet. I have yet to see a good compiled list of all States (and territories). It is usually necessary (and not completely trivial) to search for each State to determine the real units and whether to backconvert by 0.3048 or 1200/3937. While NIST (SP811) makes the assumption acres are always based on Survey foot, the mix of the two feet in different states means there are multiple answers to the size of the statute mile and acre. While metric is the norm in science, it is not quite so established in engineering. You have to look field by field and school by school. I'm an electrical engineer and electrical is pretty metric. Aeronautical, civil and petroleum are pretty Customary in the US, fields like mechanical tend to depend on the school, and then on the employer. In automotive, most mechanicals know enough metric to fit in, but some were surprised they would never again convert pound-mass to slugs for F = ma. --- On Wed, 3/11/09, Kim, Rich (ECY) <[email protected]> wrote: > From: Kim, Rich (ECY) <[email protected]> > Subject: [USMA:43703] Re: Arizona I-19 losing kilometer signs > To: "U.S. Metric Association" <[email protected]> > Date: Wednesday, March 11, 2009, 9:11 PM > That's too bad AZ is changing I-19 back to FFU. I've > never quite > understood why Departments of Transportation want to revert > back to FFU. > Aren't they civil engineers? Aren't engineers > supposed to be supportive > of the metric system with all the mathematical calculations > they do on a > daily basis? > At my job when we changed to the North American Datum (NAD) > 83, we used > feet instead of meters. Most of the reasoning was that the > state DNR and > DOT, and the counties use feet for their GIS data; it seems > to me, > engineers would want to use meters and hence metric system. > Based on what I've heard on changing highway and road > signs, my guess is > that this is the area where we are going to hear the most > howling from > the anti-metric Americans. Of course, there wasn't a > peep about signs > when speed limits were raised from 55 mph. :-) > . ______________ > ____ | | RICH KIM, Spatial Database > Administrator > \ | | | Washington State Department of > Ecology, GIS > | // | P.O. Box 47600, Olympia, Washington > USA 98504 > | * Olympia | Phone: (360) 407-6121; Fax: (360) > 407-6493 > \ _____| E-Mail: [email protected] > `---------' > http://www.ecy.wa.gov/services/gis/index.html
