A British driver in France has been stripped of his driver licence after misreading a 125 km/h speed limit sign for 125 mph. This is not the first time that miles and kilometres have been confused when reading speed limits. Back in January 2021, Metric Views reported a similar case of a high-profile foreign Premier League footballer who confused km/h and mph when driving in the UK. And it is unlikely to be the last time it happens.
Continue reading “British driver caught speeding in France after misreading km/h for mph”Category: Transport
Legal ambiguity of dual unit restriction signs
Dual units have been mandatory on restriction signs since TSRGD 2016. For height restrictions, the imperial and metric units normally appear on a single sign though they can appear on separate adjacent signs. Most height restriction traffic signs for bridges now show dual units. If your vehicle complies with both values, you can drive under the bridge. If your vehicle does not comply with either value, you cannot drive under the bridge. But what if your vehicle complies with only one of the values? Can you drive under the bridge in this case?
Continue reading “Legal ambiguity of dual unit restriction signs”50 years of metric road signs in Australia
1 July 2024 marks the 50th anniversary of the switch to metric road signs in Australia.
For about a year before the change, car manufacturers fitted dual speedometers to their vehicles and, after 1974 all new cars were fitted with metric-only speedometers. Several kinds of speedometer conversion kits were available. As a result of all these changes, conversion on the roads occurred without incident.
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Do our motorway junction numbers hinder the use of driver location signs?
Recent Metric Views articles have discussed the poor awareness of the meaning of driver location signs amongst the general public, and argued that despite their inclusion in recent editions of the Highway Code, there is still a need for a new public information campaign about these signs.
However, could there be another reason why driver location signs are poorly understood? And is there a solution that would both increase public awareness and increase their use?
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No more official publicity for driver location signs
The Government have confirmed that there will be no more official publicity of driver location signs in a response to UKMA member Martin Vlietstra. Driver location signs use yellow font colour on a blue background with a white border and appear along the edges of motorways and on certain dual carriageway A-roads in England. They are normally spaced at 500 metre intervals.
Continue reading “No more official publicity for driver location signs”Transport software company increases chance of errors by using dual units
Jaama, a transport software company, advertises its MyVehicle App software product on its website with images showing that it uses both kilometres and miles. 1 Using dual units within software introduces the possibility of conversion errors and unit mix-ups. There are real-world examples of errors arising from the use of dual units in transport. Some are described in this article.
Continue reading “Transport software company increases chance of errors by using dual units”Driverless Cars
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”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?
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Metric Views 