We should switch to km/h - tell me I'm wrong

[Simon]

Yes, years ago I used to be one of those 'mph only' zealots, but frankly nowadays it makes so much more sense.

Firstly around towns - if you've ever spent any time driving on the continent then often it's 40km/h through towns (25mph) which makes much more sense than either 20 or 30 in lots of cases. The problem with mph is that we will never have 5mph increments, so by switching to km/h we are able to have more sensible increments.

Then we move have 120 on the motorway, 100 single carriageway NSL, etc etc. It just makes so much more sense than what we have now.

RHD is still better than LHD though.

[Zonda_]

Why do all countries that have the heathen system still quote fuel consumption miles per gallon?

[DeskJockey]

Yes, obviously a base 10 metric beats something less scientific based on how many pots a horse can yard in a furlong.

As LHD is the norm switching (which could never happen here, but we dream) could bring costs down as we wouldn't need the development costs of RHD. However, tasty JDM imports would be less desirable.

[Marv]

You're not wrong, but the cost of changing everything over would be too much for it to make sense.

I'd rather the money was spent on actually repairing roads properly.

[mik]

I am generally totally pro metric measures, but I’ve found it harder to let miles / mph / mpg go.

I have Waze etc set to imperial but HATE when it mentions Yards or Feet.

I could happily switch to km/kph though. I’m less certain about l/100km just cos I think it’s a shit metric.

PS - Ireland did it without massive problems. It can be done.

[integrale_evo]

Yes, obviously a base 10 metric beats something less scientific based on how many pots a horse can yard in a furlong.

As LHD is the norm switching (which could never happen here, but we dream) could bring costs down as we wouldn't need the development costs of RHD. However, tasty JDM imports would be less desirable.

We’re not the only country in the world with rhd. I doubt us switching would make much / any difference to prices when they’ll still want to develop them for Japan, Australia, India, South Africa and others

[DeskJockey]

Yes, obviously a base 10 metric beats something less scientific based on how many pots a horse can yard in a furlong.

As LHD is the norm switching (which could never happen here, but we dream) could bring costs down as we wouldn't need the development costs of RHD. However, tasty JDM imports would be less desirable.

We’re not the only country in the world with rhd. I doubt us switching would make much / any difference to prices when they’ll still want to develop them for Japan, Australia, India, South Africa and others

I know, but I think it would help us (in terms of cost to buy). The cost would be prohibitive though, and certainly a frivolous waste of money as things are now.

[Mito Man]

I think too many people are genuinely too stupid for it to work. You’d have people doing 120 mph on the motorways, billions of £ in the hole because you’d need new smart motorway displays which can write 3 figures and then protests about losing independence and how the money spent on changing signs would have let every pensioner live in a castle and let every confused child have a sex change with only a 2 day waiting list.

Also so many people still can’t use the metric system here - apparently the UK switched in 1965 - so every single person in this country, of working age, has been taught it at school. But you try using that with a tradesperson and it’s like talking Chinese.

[V8Granite]

I like the hodge podge of measurements, it’s more interesting and means if a figure works out nicely it’s more satisfying.

Dave!

[Sundayjumper]

I have Waze etc set to imperial but HATE when it mentions Yards or Feet.

I think it's on my (ancient) Becker, I have it set to miles, but it really grates when counting down to a turning because it's clearly calculating in multiples of 100m then converting to yds. So it goes "turn left in... 437yds, 328yds, 219yds...". Ngggghhh. It looks like it's calculating very precisely when it's not.

At least that's linear though. The E46 OBC would calculate fuel consumption in l/100km to one decimal place and convert to mpg. It's an inverse relationship so although at around 20mpg it would mostly change in nice 0.1mpg steps, up around 50-60mpg the steps would be 1.1mpg or more. The OBC over-read anyway and would often report 80+mpg and the steps around there would be various 1dp figures between 2 & 3 mpg.

[Sundayjumper]

Back OT - mph - if it ain't broke, don't fix it.

[Gavster]

It's true that we all love the metric system until something like this

Interestingly the running world has quickly shifted over to measuring pace in minutes per km. For a long time it was always minutes per mile, obviously everyone remembers the four-minute mile. However every post about running training these days in in km.

It would make perfect sense to transition over to metric measures of speed and distance. Obviously it would be hugely disruptive and costly in the first instance, however I wonder if there are any hidden benefits? Also I wonder why this escaped decimalisation when money, as well as weights and measures switched over?

[Barry]

Back OT - mph - if it ain't broke, don't fix it.

This tbh, although I'm sure they'd use it to screw speeding discretion down even more. 10% +2 KM/H etc.

[mik]

It would make perfect sense to transition over to metric measures of speed and distance. Obviously it would be hugely disruptive and costly in the first instance, however I wonder if there are any hidden benefits? Also I wonder why this escaped decimalisation when money, as well as weights and measures switched over?

That. Particularly when we successfully moved from gallons to litres for fuel pricing and purchasing. I guess miles are considered more sacred for some reason? Like folks getting all excited about pints..... (fwiw I'd be happy to "go for pints", but actually drink 500ml)

[IanF]

I’d say there’s significant costs involved with no identifiable benefits, so you’re wrong Simon

Also, we still use knots in aviation and maritime. Not everything has to use the same scale. Or even be logical tbh, eg I run in Km, drive in mpg or kWh/100km, use metric when measuring in house, use acres for land etc and I imagine we all do it slightly differently without any significant impacts to each other

[Swervin_Mervin]

Yes, obviously a base 10 metric beats something less scientific based on how many pots a horse can yard in a furlong.

As LHD is the norm switching (which could never happen here, but we dream) could bring costs down as we wouldn't need the development costs of RHD. However, tasty JDM imports would be less desirable.

We’re not the only country in the world with rhd. I doubt us switching would make much / any difference to prices when they’ll still want to develop them for Japan, Australia, India, South Africa and others

I know, but I think it would help us (in terms of cost to buy). The cost would be prohibitive though, and certainly a frivolous waste of money as things are now.

Switching to LHD is more than just costly - it's just plain incredibly difficult. Our roundabouts in the UK do not have symmetrical entry and exit geometry - they're designed to slow entry and ease exit). So you would have to upgrade almost all (non-mini) roundabout junctions.

[DeskJockey]

We’re not the only country in the world with rhd. I doubt us switching would make much / any difference to prices when they’ll still want to develop them for Japan, Australia, India, South Africa and others

I know, but I think it would help us (in terms of cost to buy). The cost would be prohibitive though, and certainly a frivolous waste of money as things are now.

Switching to LHD is more than just costly - it's just plain incredibly difficult. Our roundabouts in the UK do not have symmetrical entry and exit geometry - they're designed to slow entry and ease exit). So you would have to upgrade almost all (non-mini) roundabout junctions.

I'll give you a week to map it out and draft an implementation plan. Fair?

Yes, I think we're far beyond there being any meaningful reason to change that can be justified in terms of economic, environmental, societal, and human risk costs.

[mik]

Think of the time required just to rename the 60-100 thread and make it a 100-160 thread.

All of the videos that need to be re-done.

All of the non-videod times that need to be retimed / made up again.

I’m afraid it’s just not realistic.

[V8Granite]

Also what’s the problem with being different ?

It’s a part of the British way, in the same way every Norwegian thinks we drink tea with a pinky finger up. I like the differences, especially from the rotten fish eating pretend vikings.

Dave!

[dinny_g]

km/h sounds like commie talk to me…