How are speedometers designed to accommodate the change from mph to km/h? In this article I will examine a variety of techniques and at the end of the article I will propose a 21st Century solution.
Continue reading “Speedometers and Metrication”Tag: conversion
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”M-days in Australia
UKMA has recently acquired two pamphlets from the 1970s Australian metric conversion programme. One about the switchover to metric units for weather reports, and one about the switchover for motoring.
Think metric – don’t convert
The editor remembers this slogan from his time in the UK construction industry in the early 1970’s. Almost half a century later, Ronnie Cohen gives real-world examples of metric quantities that may help those who are not as familiar with metric units as they might wish.
Read it before?
Ronnie Cohen, one of our regular contributors, compliments the UK Department for Transport (DfT) on its policy for dealing with enquiries relating to the oft-postponed metric changeover.
Metric in Myanmar – an update
In this article, we put together some reports regarding measurements used in Myanmar, which is often said, misleadingly, to be one of the three “non-metric” countries in the world.
Diaries, and a glimpse into the past
Many of us have probably bought a diary for 2018 recently. Ronnie Cohen takes a look at the conversion tables found at the front of many sold in the UK.
DfT has done no cost-benefit analysis on metrication of road signs
Ronnie Cohen draws some conclusions from a recent Freedom of Information (FoI) request that he made to the UK Department for Transport (DfT).
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Does metric-only labelling require changes to package sizes?
An argument made against metric-only labelling in the US is that manufacturers would need to change packaging to rational metric sizes. Ronnie Cohen looks at the UK’s experience over the past 50 years.
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Metric Views 