The on-going development of driverless cars is seldom out of the headlines. There are questions about the reliability of the software which will drive the cars and who will be liable should there be an accident.
Continue reading “Driverless Cars”Category: Transport
Government ideology compromises Emergency Services
Observant readers might have noticed white pillars with blue bands and red reflector strips along the edges of motorways and on certain dual carriageway A-roads. These are called location marker posts. Some might have also noticed blue signs with the road number and other information along England’s (but not Scotland’s, Wales’s or Northern Ireland’s) roads. These are called driver location signs. They are to the road engineers what postcodes are to the postal service.
Continue reading “Government ideology compromises Emergency Services”DfT refuses to explain why they changed their views on the metrication of road signs
I recently asked the Department for Transport (DfT) when they changed their view about the metrication of road signs. In July 1970, the Ministry of Transport (forerunner of the DfT) wrote in a letter that “imperial speed limits could not be retained within a general metric system”. Since then, almost everything has officially gone metric, but road signs remain one of the few official uses of imperial units. The other official uses of imperial units are pints for draught beer and cider and doorstep milk and troy ounces for precious metals. The DfT now argues that road signs should remain exempt from metrication, contrary to what they said in the letter. I asked the DfT about this inconsistency. They refused to comment on it.
Continue reading “DfT refuses to explain why they changed their views on the metrication of road signs”Government avoids awkward questions on imperial road signs
I tried to get answers from the Secretary of State for Transport via my MP about the issues I raised in two of my recent Metric Views articles. My MP told me that he is not going to put my question to the Secretary of State as there are no plans to replace the units on British road signs. Is this a convenient way to shield his ministerial colleagues from awkward questions about imperial road signs?
Continue reading “Government avoids awkward questions on imperial road signs”Government once admitted that road signs cannot remain imperial in a metric world
Official government documents from the early 1970’s stated that road signs cannot remain imperial while the rest of the UK goes metric. One of these documents is an official letter from the Ministry of Transport (MOT), as the Department for Transport (DfT) was then called. Would you believe it? Compare that with the current attitude of the DfT today, which directly contradicts the admission in the MOT letter.
Continue reading “Government once admitted that road signs cannot remain imperial in a metric world”Why the Government scrapped plans to convert UK speed limit signs to km/h in 1970
On 9 December 1970, the Minister for Transport Industries John Peyton announced that the Government have decided that speed limits will not be made metric in 1973 and have no alternative date in mind. Why did the Government scrap the metrication of speed limits? Historical government documents give various reasons for scrapping the planned conversion. This article will show some of these documents, which reveal the reasons the Government gave for its decision.
Continue reading “Why the Government scrapped plans to convert UK speed limit signs to km/h in 1970”Government cost estimates to convert all UK speed limit signs to km/h in 1970 were far below £30 million in today’s money
The British Government once developed and examined proposals to change all UK speed limit signs from miles per hour to kilometres per hour in the 1960’s and in 1970. On 9 December 1970, the Minister for Transport Industries John Peyton announced that the proposed metrication of speed limit signs would not go ahead and was postponed indefinitely. The proposed change to metric speed limits was due to be implemented in 1973. Fifty years have now passed since then. Half a century later, UK speed limit signs are still in imperial units. The Department for Transport (DfT) now claims that metricating UK road signs costs too much. However, it would have cost little to convert all UK road signs to metric units according to cost estimates by the Department of the Environment (DoE), which had responsibility for transport at the time, according to historical government documents held at the National Archives.
Continue reading “Government cost estimates to convert all UK speed limit signs to km/h in 1970 were far below £30 million in today’s money”Government misses project to benefit all from money saved by scrapping HS2 West Midlands-Manchester line
This week, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak announced that the HS2 West Midlands-Manchester line will be scrapped, saving £36 billion, in response to the soaring cost of building HS2. He has redirected the funding from building this line to projects in the North, Midlands and the rest of the country. However, he has left out one important transport project that would have benefited everyone in the country.
Continue reading “Government misses project to benefit all from money saved by scrapping HS2 West Midlands-Manchester line”Welsh road signs in 2022 cost small fraction of DfT estimates in cash terms despite 50% inflation since 2006 DfT metric conversion report
The total estimated cost for implementing the speed limit change from 30 mph to 20 mph, including the cost for changing signs and markings on roads, has been published in the Regulatory Impact Assessment (RIA) undertaken by the Welsh Government on 20 mph speed limits. The published document gives a breakdown of road sign costs. These costs are several times lower than the Department for Transport (DfT) cost estimates of conversion of road traffic signs to metric units in cash terms despite 50% inflation during the 16-year period between the two reports.
Continue reading “Welsh road signs in 2022 cost small fraction of DfT estimates in cash terms despite 50% inflation since 2006 DfT metric conversion report”Cost is no barrier to rollout of 20 mph speed limit
For years, the DfT has given cost and diversion of funds from other parts of the transport budget as arguments against the metrication of UK road signs. While all kinds of arguments have been made for and against the reduction of the speed limit on local roads to 20 mph in London and Wales, I have not heard any opponents of the rollout of 20 mph speed limits say that it costs too much or that it diverts funds from other parts of the transport budget. This shows that the DfT arguments against changing road signs to metric units are bogus.
Continue reading “Cost is no barrier to rollout of 20 mph speed limit”
Metric Views 