I just recieved this picture:
I wonder: if on the sign metric system is used, what units are on the blue sign? Miles or km’s?
And why for bicycles different system is used than for other vehicles?
the blue sign will be miles , the white sign is in meters and km because it is referring to a summit surely 
merc0447:
the blue sign will be miles , the white sign is in meters and km because it is referring to a summit surely
So it’s impossible to give summit height and distance in imperial system?
I have nothing against imperial system, it’s just drives me mad, if I see the garage shelter with a height given in metres while in my lorry I have imperial units…
Or the best one was scania from HH distribution: it gives you fuel usage at present in l/100 km, but when you want to check average fuel consumption for unknown reason it’s in miles per galon… :S
It’s only confusing. Why can’t they decide to use one system only?
it says no food or shelter for 30km so its distance. Perhaps its only foreign types going up Drumochter Summit these days.
Basildon: Metric road signs blunder
From the archive, first published Friday 2nd Aug 2002.A council officer has told how he tours the district armed with a can of spray-paint to black out illegal metric road signs.
Basildon Council - which admits the signs it put up are unlawful - doesn’t have the money available to replace them, so it paints over them.
But the authority says it has no idea at the moment how much the spray-painting and sign replacements will cost taxpayers, although it will be “employing the most cost-effective means possible”.
The work is being carried out by Public Rights of Way Officer, Terry Buck who said: "We appreciate the signs are wrong. We will eventually replace the signs with new ones.
"Unfortunately the funding is not there at the moment and we will have to do a costing on all the signs we need.
“We don’t have a map to tell us where they are, so I carry a can of paint around with me so I can spray them as I see them.”
A spokesman for Basildon Council said: “At the present time we have no idea what the overall costs will be, but we will be employing the most cost effective means possible.”
Published Friday August 2, 2002
Brought to you by the Evening Echo
You want to try working on containers in Europe, even in France they call them 20 or 30 foot boxes, whilst in the UK we have to ask for a kilo of bananas or a 6 or 9 metre container 
I’d go even further and start driving on the left like most of the rest of the world, I’ve often wondered how much it adds on the price of cars designing them just for britain.
I wouldn’t tell that “most” of the rest of the world drives on the left:
Red: Driving on the right
Blue: Driving on the left
I just love these Metric Vs. Imperial discussions… 
I’m still waiting for an explanation from the Metric brigade for the following:
Why are hours, minutes and seconds not metricated into units of 10, 100 and 1,000?
Why are there 365 and a quarter days or 12 months in a year and not some Metric equivalent?
Why do computers work on binary and not base 10?
A 10-month year was trialled by the Romans, but it didn’t work then and it wouldn’t work now. 
A few of us are old enough to remember when the £ had 20 Shillings or 240 Pennies, so the same folks will probably also remember the great Metric rip-off when we went ‘decimal.’
IMHO, the Metric system is fine in as much as it sometimes makes the maths a bit easier, but it’ll never catch on.
As for driving on the left; it’s often said that the world has gone mad, so I’d say that’s proven by how many of them drive on the wrong side of the road.
The blue sign is in miles.30kms is 18.6miles,so next food and shelter is at Calvine.
Speak to any-one who has been brought up with the metric system and they will say they don’t understand Imperial,yet ask them how tall they are or how much they weigh and the vast majority will answer in feet/inches and stones/pounds.
Yeah,Dieseldave,I remember the change-over very well.I was an apprentice in a garage and it was my job to collect orders from the mechanics and then go to the local bakers for their sarnies,pies etc to have at break time. Something that cost a shilling(12pennies or 5p for you younger ones )the previous week,suddenly cost 12p or 2s 5d in the “old” money.Remember it was a nightmare trying to work out who wanted what change and who hadn’t given me enough in the first place
I’ve always struggled with my left and right! And the imperial system makes even less sense to me.
Highlander:
Speak to any-one who has been brought up with the metric system and they will say they don’t understand Imperial,yet ask them how tall they are or how much they weigh and the vast majority will answer in feet/inches and stones/pounds.
Frist time I hear that anyone brought up with the metric will answer in feets… Except my sister, who lives in Canada.
Between my family we speak Polish, Czech, Slovak, Russian, Ukrainian, German, French and Spanish and no-one of this nation is using imperial units for nothing.
dieseldave:
I’m still waiting for an explanation from the Metric brigade for the following:
I am not “a metric brigade” but I can explain it easily:
Why are hours, minutes and seconds not metricated into units of 10, 100 and 1,000?
Why are there 365 and a quarter days or 12 months in a year and not some Metric equivalent?
Becouse time is based on some real events (12 moon months, 365.2422 days in Sun year etc) and we had to create system as close to it as possible.)
Why do computers work on binary and not base 10?
Becouse that’s the easiest way. You have power or you have not. Simply. There were some computers working in decimal system (for instance ENIAC) when for each number you had different voltage but a small interference of voltage would change number from 3 to 6 for example. In binar system the problem is simple: there is A voltage = 1, there is NO voltage = 0. Also the perfored cards were working better when you had only two position: A hole and NO hole 
I have nothing against imperial system, if you want, use it, it’s no problem for me. I can use it for myself as long as I have to (but I still convert my mileage to kms and my fuel consumption to l/100 km) But don’t try to tell that is more logical, as I can also ask: How many yards there is in mile? How many feets is in yard? How many inches is in feet? And then: how many inches there is in yard? How many feets is in mile? Etc.
But why I started that thread is: why they can’t decide and use one system only? If people in this country are happy to use imperial system, use imperial everywhere (adding metric from time to time in places popular among tourist from civilised world )
As for LHD and RHD issue. I had unexperienced situatuion recently. I left my bicycle in service and when I was approaching them to pick my bicycle up, i seen the mechanic trying to ride my bike and hitting the wall - it turned up that in European bike the brakes are opposite way - I got my front brake on the left and rear brake on the right… That even has some sense, as I can turn left on my bike and showing my direction with raised arm while braking at the same time… It’s not so easy when turning right…
the footpaths in the Cotswolds were marked in kms in the seventies
but i dont know if theystill are
we work in imperial because we dont believe in progress
theres no need fro anything related to trucks to be sateted in imperial
its mostly islands that drive on the left
I haven’t time to discuss metric measurement here,
I am off to town and it is over 4 leagues away
hitch:
the footpaths in the Cotswolds were marked in kms in the seventies
but i dont know if theystill arewe work in imperial because we dont believe in progress
theres no need fro anything related to trucks to be sateted in imperialits mostly islands that drive on the left
I suppose the island of Australlia could be classed so 
I do prefer a sextant to a TomTom
I went to school in the 70’s and 80’s in Scotland, then joined the Army and when I left and started truck driving was the first time I “had” to learn Imperial, I thought then and still do that metric is a much simpler system and Imperial is a right pain in the buttock. 
The Americans use imperial.Thats the reason that computer drive bays are three and a quarter inches ,its all about being I.B.M. compatible.large tv.sets are 42" and so on America also controls the mountain bike industry so a full size mountain bike is 18" ,EUrope has racing bikes so they are for example 52 or 54 cm.A statute mile is 1760 yards but a nautical mile is 2000 yards. funny old world.
alamcculloch:
The Americans use imperial.
The American Imperial is differant to the UK one, another nail in its coffin?