Cycling UK Forum

[XAP]Bob wrote:

Campag wrote:

foxyrider wrote:
Most road signs don't have a distance on so thats rubbish to start with and its simple if you are thinking speed signs, just make the whole country safer and say that the, for example, 50mph limit is now 50kph - instant safety campaign costing next to nothing to implement!

Absolutely - 30mph speed limits would become 30kph or 'twenty is plenty', country roads would be 60kph, still too fast in many circumstances but better than 60mph. Safety, fuel saving and therefore less Co2, friendlier environment for cycling and walking.

You’re forgetting the cost of lost lobbying.

There are millions of signs with miles on. Whilst speed can be retained in a different unit, Berwick to Edinburgh doesn't suddenly go from 60 miles distant to 60 km

Oldjohnw wrote:There are millions of signs with miles on. Whilst speed can be retained in a different unit, Berwick to Edinburgh doesn't suddenly go from 60 miles distant to 60 km

There are conspiracy theorists out there that believe things are smaller than we've been told.
Perhaps it really is just 60km...

kwackers wrote:

Oldjohnw wrote:There are millions of signs with miles on. Whilst speed can be retained in a different unit, Berwick to Edinburgh doesn't suddenly go from 60 miles distant to 60 km

There are conspiracy theorists out there that believe things are smaller than we've been told.
Perhaps it really is just 60km...

I must travel more slowly than I thought. Perhaps all of life is really a Truman Show and nothing is real. Distance is a state of mind.

I wonder what Mr Einstein would say.

Audax rides are in km, I'm happy with that.
As I get near the end of a ride I mentally convert the kilometres to miles - for some reason it doesn't seem as far.

ANTONISH wrote:Audax rides are in km, I'm happy with that.
As I get near the end of a ride I mentally convert the kilometres to miles - for some reason it doesn't seem as far.

I constantly convert in my head. My computer is km and the road signs are miles. I could change my computer but I like the mental challenge which isn't actually very hard.

What is difficult to compare is mpg. Imperial has distance per volume. Metric does litres per kilometre ie volume per distance.

Pete Owens wrote:

Vorpal wrote:I'm used to both, and I don't really mind. We occasionally have confusion in our house over 'miles' because my children translate from Norwegian. But a Norwegian mile is 10 kilometres!

That is harmless confusion, but confusion can cause more serious issues - for example putting in aviation fuel into a plane in pounds rather than kg before it set off across the Atlantic. If you want people to comply with speed limits it helps if the number you see on the sign corresponds to the number on your speedometer - rather than each jurisdiction choosing its own idiosyncratic system of units.

There must be plenty of 'idiosyncratic units' surviving on milestones and old documents but I'm not aware of anything other than kilometres and miles being used on road signs of the motor-traffic era. It would be confusing but interesting to see speed limits in, say, versts per... per what? Time isn't metric but its units gained international (I won't say universal) acknowledgment long before other units.

[XAP]Bob wrote:The mile is metric as well, it’s only a conversion factor.

The reason it isn’t changed is the cost of changing every road sign.

No it's not metric. The fact you need a conversion factor tells you that

Campag wrote:

foxyrider wrote:

[XAP]Bob wrote:
The reason it isn’t changed is the cost of changing every road sign.

Most road signs don't have a distance on so thats rubbish to start with and its simple if you are thinking speed signs, just make the whole country safer and say that the, for example, 50mph limit is now 50kph - instant safety campaign costing next to nothing to implement!

Absolutely - 30mph speed limits would become 30kph or 'twenty is plenty', country roads would be 60kph, still too fast in many circumstances but better than 60mph. Safety, fuel saving and therefore less Co2, friendlier environment for cycling and walking.

As a cyclist and a driver...no. 60kph is ludicrously slow. They've just lowered a NSL road near to where I live to 40mph and it is just a bit silly really.

What, a maximum speed limit too low? I have never encountered that

Peter F wrote:
As a cyclist and a driver...no. 60kph is ludicrously slow. They've just lowered a NSL road near to where I live to 40mph and it is just a bit silly really.

What is silly is allowing barely qualified people to "control" lethal vehicles at such speeds on public roads. There is little wonder many people are afraid to use the roads, or let their children go outside.

Mike Sales wrote:

Peter F wrote:
As a cyclist and a driver...no. 60kph is ludicrously slow. They've just lowered a NSL road near to where I live to 40mph and it is just a bit silly really.

What is silly is allowing barely qualified people to "control" lethal vehicles at such speeds on public roads. There is little wonder many people are afraid to use the roads, or let their children go outside.

I used to live in a village where the limit was reduced from 40 to 30. A work colleague was complaining that this was way too slow, greatly extended the time of his commute and might even make him late for work. I did a calculation and slowing to the new limit would take an extra 18 seconds to pass through the entire village. I suggested setting his alarm one minute earlier but he would have to plan as to find some task to fill the huge extra 42 seconds he had gained so he wasn't kicking his heels.

Having spent much of my professional career in ships, we used Nautical Miles and Cables (ten cables to the NM) we also used Data Miles and Radar Miles.

One of my jobs was maintaining the weapons radars which were made by Selinia ...... and Italian company, so the readouts on the display were in Kilometres. Good job the weapons system was computer driven, and everything was converted so all the equipments could talk to each other.

I maintained the computer suit too.

Rods, Poles, and Perches. To say nothing about chains. I know, but I'm an old bloke.

I tour in 'Hours' and 'Days', and having had the benefit of often 'been there before' generally know how long it takes me between designated (or, at my age, hoped-for) campsites. For example, to reach my home in France from the port at Roscoff nearly always takes me five days if I've got the trailer hooked on, or half a day less if I'm travelling light. To get there would be a good thing: I've been stuck in the UK since March!

Oh, the grass will be metres high by now! (and I do mean metres, not feet and inches!).

Happy days to follow, when Brittany Ferries start to ignore the nonsensical Government advice about quarantine.

Peter F wrote:

Campag wrote:

foxyrider wrote:
Most road signs don't have a distance on so thats rubbish to start with and its simple if you are thinking speed signs, just make the whole country safer and say that the, for example, 50mph limit is now 50kph - instant safety campaign costing next to nothing to implement!

Absolutely - 30mph speed limits would become 30kph or 'twenty is plenty', country roads would be 60kph, still too fast in many circumstances but better than 60mph. Safety, fuel saving and therefore less Co2, friendlier environment for cycling and walking.

As a cyclist and a driver...no. 60kph is ludicrously slow. They've just lowered a NSL road near to where I live to 40mph and it is just a bit silly really.

Actually, that would put British speed limits more in line with other countries that have very low KSI / million km, such as the Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, etc.

All metric for me. If I have to convert to miles I divide by 9, multiply by 5 and add 32.