Convicted Driver
Kilometre road signs for the Olympics
Fri, 24 Feb 2006
A pressure group is calling on the government to switch all UK signs from miles to kilometres in time for the London Olympics in 2012.
The UK Metric Association (UKMA) has published a report showing the benefits of a change to kilometre signs, claiming there are many gains to a metric switch.
Neil Kinnock, former European commissioner and Labour leader, said in the foreword to the report: "Our imperial road signs are perhaps the most obvious example of the muddle of measurement units in the United Kingdom."
He added: "If the recommendations of this report are followed, Britain can join the modern metric world - and do so by the time that the all-metric Olympic Games open in London in 2012."
The report points out that plans to change UK road signs started in the 1960s, but were called off.
It also added that a dual system exists in Britain where children are taught in schools in the metric system, people use it in shops, yet the roads are stuck in the past, with only the US, Liberia and Burma still using miles.
Benefits from the switch could include easier calculation of fuel consumption and a review of current speed limits, so they could be more finely tuned to local road conditions.
UKMA chairman Robin Paice said: "Most senior politicians know perfectly well that the current position is unsustainable and that it would be in the national interest to complete the changeover.
"The Irish have shown how easily, safely, and economically it can be done. The British government should just get on with it."
Despite all the arguments place by the UKMA the biggest hurdle to a change would by the estimated £80 million price tag of transforming all distance and speed limit signs to kilometres.
A change would also lead to confusion across the country as some areas displayed kilometres and others miles.
People unfamiliar with roads could end up with driving convictions for following the wrong speed limits, especially as some older cars do not display kilometres.
© Adfero Ltd
