When the latest Traffic Signs Regulations and General Directions (TSRGD) came into force in April 2016, imperial-only restriction signs for height, width and length were no longer authorised. However, the Traffic Signs Manual (TSM) that provides guidance to road contractors on signage has not been updated since 2009 and still includes imperial-only restriction signs to this day. Six months ago, I asked my local MP to contact the Secretary of State for Transport to ask why the Department for Transport has been promoting the use of unauthorised imperial-only road signs since 2016. I received a reply from the DfT a few days ago.
Continue reading “DfT excuse for promoting unauthorised imperial signs in the TSM for the last 9 years”Tag: DfT
DfT hides metric nature of location signs from general public
Did you know that there are purely metric signs (without any imperial conversions) on major roads at one hundred metre intervals? If you know this, you are one of the few who do. I am referring to marker posts and driver location signs. These signs are used by the emergency services to help them to locate stranded drivers and are incompatible with the official traffic signs for the general public, which are almost exclusively imperial.
Continue reading “DfT hides metric nature of location signs from general public”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”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”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”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.
Continue reading “UK measurement muddle affects Gibraltar Highway Code”The other victory UKMA won in the end
The previous article describes how weights and measures legislation was saved from the axe by changes to the REUL Bill. There was another important victory that has also been won by UKMA with the help of powerful stakeholders though it took years to win. UKMA spent years fighting the Department for Transport before the battle to make metres mandatory on restriction signs was eventually won.
Continue reading “The other victory UKMA won in the end”
Metric Views 