Category: Views from abroad

Cyprus shows how metrication should be done

John Frewen-Lord tells us about his experiences of living in Cyprus and how they completed metrication successfully, unlike the UK.

If any of you watch TV’s ‘A Place in the Sun’ then no doubt you will have seen Cyprus feature fairly regularly as one of the destinations that offer lots of sunshine combined with a Mediterranean lifestyle. My wife and I, in our twilight years, decided to take the plunge, and join roughly 150 000 other British expats in moving to the Greek side of the island, doing so last year (2025). We now have official Cyprus residency. [What follows relates only to the Greek part of Cyprus, with about 80% of the total population. The island was invaded by Turkey in 1974, and the Turkish side, about one-third of the island and not officially recognised by any country except Turkey, can be a bit problematical in terms of exiting back to the Greek side, and therefore remains more-or-less ‘off-limits’ as far as non-Cypriot expats are concerned.]

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Could metrication have shortened World War I by 2 years, and saved millions of lives?

In a follow up to an article last year, about the occasion in 1904 when Parliament came close to fully-adopting the metric system, we consider one of the possible consequences of this failure.

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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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How did campaigners for the metric system get their message across 120 years ago?

120 years ago, in addition to the activities of their members, the Decimal Association made use of pamphlets to make their case for the adoption of the metric system in place of the bewildering array of imperial weights and measures that were in use at the time.

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Gibraltar is far ahead of UK on metric road signs

I came back from a short trip to Gibraltar one week ago and noticed that all their road signs were metric. The only imperial units I saw on road signs there were on dual-unit restriction signs. Many showed metres only, but none showed only feet and inches. Gibraltar road signs are almost exclusively metric with only limited use of imperial units, the mirror image of the UK situation.

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UK measurement muddle affects Gibraltar Highway Code

Who would believe that the negative influence of the Department for Transport’s measurement muddle would be felt far beyond our shores? Believe it or not, it has an impact in Gibraltar as its Highway Code is based on the UK highway code and always has been. Despite the fact that the Gibraltar Highway Code is reviewed and adapted to meet Gibraltar’s local requirements, it is bizarre that it includes a table of stopping distances for speeds in miles per hour, which is the only place in the Code where miles are used. Gibraltar speed limits are in kilometres per hour and distances are all metric and this is reflected everywhere else in the Gibraltar Highway Code.

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Metric speed limits in Myanmar and Liberia

According to the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) factbook, “only three countries – Burma (former name for Myanmar), Liberia, and the US – have not adopted the International System of Units (SI, or metric system) as their official system of weights and measures”. 1 The key word in this sentence is “official”. It does not mean that they do not use the metric system. In fact, Myanmar and Liberia use metric speed limits unlike the UK.

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Retirement of the US survey foot

It is well known that the USA uses miles, feet and inches and they are identical to the English versions of these units used in the UK. What is a lot less well known is the fact that the USA had two official feet, the international foot and the survey foot. By extension, there were also two versions of derived units based on these two feet. So there were survey and international versions of common units such as the mile, yard and inch. The US survey foot was deprecated at the end of last year. This deprecation act shows the importance of ensuring uniformity and common standards in measurement matters.

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Barbados introduces new metrication bill

A new Barbados Metrology Bill 2022 was recently introduced in the House of Assembly. Minister of Energy and Business Development Kerrie Symmonds has said that the failure of align Barbados’ metrology with international standards (i.e., failure to fully adopt the metric system) has incurred economic costs. Nation News reports that “Consumers could soon be getting protection from the state in regards to having measurement systems across the board that align with international standards.”.

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