Why are motorway location signs/markers in metric units?

[911hope]

boyse7en said:

You can even buy wine by the pint now, thanks to a recent change to the law. Those Brexit freedoms finally coming to fruition...

What supplier is going to create new packaging for wine, for only one market (UK), to appeal to a few idiots who think this important?

You will only be able to buy hypothetical pints of wine.

[GAjon]

I’ll might mull this over whilst having a pint of lager.

[Dogwatch]

Watcher of the skies said:

Which goes with my earlier point. All the other road signs are in imperial. If you ask most people how far it is from town a to town b they will give you the distance in miles (apart from those that confuse distance with time).

Some are metricated imperial. On the M23 for instance you will see signs “Services 2/3 Mile” and others of the same ilk. By a curious not-so-coincidence 2/3 of a mile is not that different to 1 Kilometre. Hmmm.

[Earthdweller]

The boring answer is that the motorways are part of the United Nations International E road network dating back to the 1940’s although in the U.K. the motorways don’t display the E number only the national road number .. ie M1, M6 etc

As these roads are strategic international routes the distances are marked in KM not miles

[aturnick54]

kambites said:

I think that's increasingly not true of younger people. My daughter seems happier using km than miles for distance measurement (although of course that might change when she's old enough to drive). I'm about equally happy with both units but that may be because I've spent quite a lot of time driving in countries which use km.

For me, I much prefer to use km. My sat nav is set to metric even when in the UK.

I know that 1000m is 1km. 1 mile is 1760 yards, far harder to remember and visualise.

[aturnick54]

911hope said:

What supplier is going to create new packaging for wine, for only one market (UK), to appeal to a few idiots who think this important?

You will only be able to buy hypothetical pints of wine.

It's pointless. Besides, I'd rather buy 750ml of wine. You are getting more wine than in a pint.

[aturnick54]

Dogwatch said:

Some are metricated imperial. On the M23 for instance you will see signs “Services 2/3 Mile” and others of the same ilk. By a curious not-so-coincidence 2/3 of a mile is not that different to 1 Kilometre. Hmmm.

The 3, 2, 1 markers you see on approach to a slip road are metricated too I believe. 3 is 300m. 2 is 200m. 1 is 100m.

[aturnick54]

Earthdweller said:

The boring answer is that the motorways are part of the United Nations International E road network dating back to the 1940’s although in the U.K. the motorways don’t display the E number only the national road number .. ie M1, M6 etc

As these roads are strategic international routes the distances are marked in KM not miles

Actually I never thought of this. Is it an international treaty that dictates the markers must be in metric measurements?

[cuprabob]

aturnick54 said:

The 3, 2, 1 markers you see on approach to a slip road are metricated too I believe. 3 is 300m. 2 is 200m. 1 is 100m.

I was under the impression it was 300yds, 200yds, 100yds. To be fair, not much difference.

[Watcher of the skies]

cuprabob said:

aturnick54 said:

The 3, 2, 1 markers you see on approach to a slip road are metricated too I believe. 3 is 300m. 2 is 200m. 1 is 100m.

I was under the impression it was 300yds, 200yds, 100yds. To be fair, not much difference.

In the real world they are close enough that it doesn't really matter.

[Watcher of the skies]

aturnick54 said:

kambites said:

I think that's increasingly not true of younger people. My daughter seems happier using km than miles for distance measurement (although of course that might change when she's old enough to drive). I'm about equally happy with both units but that may be because I've spent quite a lot of time driving in countries which use km.

For me, I much prefer to use km. My sat nav is set to metric even when in the UK.

I know that 1000m is 1km. 1 mile is 1760 yards, far harder to remember and visualise.

Each to his own. Seems odd to me!

[Roger Irrelevant]

aturnick54 said:

911hope said:

What supplier is going to create new packaging for wine, for only one market (UK), to appeal to a few idiots who think this important?

You will only be able to buy hypothetical pints of wine.

It's pointless. Besides, I'd rather buy 750ml of wine. You are getting more wine than in a pint.

I buy 750ml of wine and then immediately pour 181.7ml onto the pavement outside the shop thus obtaining my honest British pint, so who's the idiot now?

[Watcher of the skies]

Wasn't that specifically about champagne?

[smn159]

aturnick54 said:

kambites said:

I think that's increasingly not true of younger people. My daughter seems happier using km than miles for distance measurement (although of course that might change when she's old enough to drive). I'm about equally happy with both units but that may be because I've spent quite a lot of time driving in countries which use km.

For me, I much prefer to use km. My sat nav is set to metric even when in the UK.

I know that 1000m is 1km. 1 mile is 1760 yards, far harder to remember and visualise.

Plenty prefer metric in the running / cycling worlds too

[Watcher of the skies]

Presumably because all the sports apps are metric and it's easier to perform calculations such as calories consumed etc.

[speedking31]

aturnick54 said:

The 3, 2, 1 markers you see on approach to a slip road are metricated too I believe. 3 is 300m. 2 is 200m. 1 is 100m.

They are not set to specific distances, but indicate 3/3, 2/3, 1/3 of the distance to the slip road / sharp bend / speed limit reduction etc.

[CivicDuties]

aturnick54 said:

Earthdweller said:

The boring answer is that the motorways are part of the United Nations International E road network dating back to the 1940’s although in the U.K. the motorways don’t display the E number only the national road number .. ie M1, M6 etc

As these roads are strategic international routes the distances are marked in KM not miles

Actually I never thought of this. Is it an international treaty that dictates the markers must be in metric measurements?

Oh Christ don't tell the Brexiters, they'll be trying to get Farage elected on a platform of needing to leave the United Nations International E Road Network to save our British Miles.

[aturnick54]

smn159 said:

Plenty prefer metric in the running / cycling worlds too

In all fairness it sounds more impressive to cycle 100km than 62.14 miles

[aturnick54]

speedking31 said:

hey are not set to specific distances, but indicate 3/3, 2/3, 1/3 of the distance to the slip road / sharp bend / speed limit reduction etc.

I was always under the assumption that they do use set distances for road planning purposes. Roads are generally built to metric specifications, and distances in Traffic Signs Manual for instance are all in metres.

[Earthdweller]

aturnick54 said:

Earthdweller said:

The boring answer is that the motorways are part of the United Nations International E road network dating back to the 1940’s although in the U.K. the motorways don’t display the E number only the national road number .. ie M1, M6 etc

As these roads are strategic international routes the distances are marked in KM not miles

Actually I never thought of this. Is it an international treaty that dictates the markers must be in metric measurements?

Wikipedia says:
UNECE was formed in 1947, and their first major act to improve transport was a joint UN declaration no. 1264, the Declaration on the Construction of Main International Traffic Arteries, signed in Geneva on 16 September 1950, which defined the first E-road network.

Originally it was envisaged that the E-road network would be a motorway system comparable to the US Interstate Highway System.

The declaration was amended several times until 15 November 1975, when it was replaced by the European Agreement on Main International Traffic Arteries or "AGR", which set up a route numbering system and improved standards for roads in the list.

The AGR last went through a major change in 1992 and in 2001 was extended into Central Asia to include the Caucasus nations. There were several minor revisions since, last in 2008 (as of 2009).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_E-road...