Should Northern Ireland switch from imperial to metric?

We use both, so no.

What about road signs and stuff?

Yes it should complete metrication, along with Britain.

Of course, the pint can stay - as it does south of the border! :cheers:

I like Miles

KM's is shit

As an engineer I would have to say yes :)

I like miles too- when you're driving to Dublin, the last sign before the border says something like "Dublin 60", and suddenly the next sign tells you "Dublin 102" or something and you think "fuck, that's ages" lol.

Is it really necessary, I mean I tend to drive in the north from time to time and the signs in miles dont bother me. How much would it cost to replace all those signs or would it be funded by the EU?

The EU funding the switch from imperial to metric in Northern Ireland - the Telegraph & Daily Mail would have a field day! Do it!

I like miles too- when you're driving to Dublin, the last sign before the border says something like "Dublin 60", and suddenly the next sign tells you "Dublin 102" or something and you think "fuck, that's ages" lol.

Ah, but it takes a lot less time to drive 10km than 10mi, which is another psychological thing. It would change from 100km to 90km a hell of a lot quicker than 60mi to 50mi. :P

Is it really necessary, I mean I tend to drive in the north from time to time and the signs in miles dont bother me. How much would it cost to replace all those signs or would it be funded by the EU?

It could be done over time, most road signs have a lifespan of 10 years before they need replaced. If memory serves, the directional signage in the Republic was changed over a long period of time like this. Though the speed limit signs were all changed in a week or two (something like 40,000 changed and 20,000 new ones put up, since the NSL sign was abolished). I don't know who funded it (I presume the government did themselves), but it would be less expensive in NI due to being a smaller area geographically with less roads.


Roads go metric across country today
Thursday, 20 January 2005 20:39

The National Safety Council has said lives will be saved on Irish roads following the introduction of metric speed limits, which came into effect at midnight.

From now on speed limits will be measured in kilometres per hour rather than miles. There has also been a speed limit decrease on 91% of the country's road network.

Gardaí say they are fully equipped to police the new metric speed limits but there will not be an extra level of enforcement today.

Nearly 60,000 speed signs have been erected across the country.

In cities and towns, 50km/h equals 31mph. On regional and local roads, 80km/h is equivalent to 50mph in the old system.

On national roads, the new speed limit is 100km/h which is 62mph. On motorways, 120 km/h equals 75mph.

Drivers are reminded that speed signs in Northern Ireland remain in miles per hour.

A spokesman for the Garda Traffic Department said there was no leniency being shown in the initial days of the handover.

Story from RTÉ News:
http://www.rte.ie/news/2005/0120/metric.html

I thought the change was made years ago... Most signs were in KM's i think, when i last was there in 2006!!

Ah, but it takes a lot less time to drive 10km than 10mi, which is another psychological thing. It would change from 100km to 90km a hell of a lot quicker than 60mi to 50mi. :P


That's true- you get to the "toll: 8km ahead" sign and about 2 corners later you're sudden'y at the booth, completely unprepared and scrambling about for money. Or perhaps that's just me being disorganised!

Does anyone know why the ROI got rid of national speed limit signs during the switchover? It seems wasteful for all those rural side roads now having 80kph signs everywhere when a standard designation could have applied that by default.
I suspect there is a reason?

Should Northern Ireland switch from imperial to metric?

Why?

Yes it should. Imperial is an inferior, dated system

Yes it should. Imperial is an inferior, dated system

How the heck can a system of weights and measurements be inferior and dated? As long as it's used (and it has been, successfully, for hundreds of years) it'll work just fine.

The question is, why did the south feel the need to change, when everywhere around it uses Imperial?

Answer: an immature way to prove the country is not seen as "British".

Discuss.

How the heck can a system of weights and measurements be inferior and dated? As long as it's used (and it has been, successfully, for hundreds of years) it'll work just fine.

Inferior because it's much less scientific - not a decimalised system. The education system these days only uses metric measurements, as it should. As a result most of my generation can relate to metric measurements much more than imperial measurements. This is especially true if you are following any type of career in science/engineering. When I'm at the shop buying groceries I will always be thinking of weights in KG's.

I always find it strange that they mix imperial and metric units during weather forecasts, measuring wind speed in mph and temperature in degrees Celcius.

I always find it strange that they mix imperial and metric units during weather forecasts, measuring wind speed in mph and temperature in degrees Celcius.

Yeah, notice that when it's cold it's in Celcius, but when it's hot it's farenheit? :lol:

My argument for this has always been that in everyday life it's irrelevent, a certain weight or length will be that weight or length whatever they call it. I'm never going to walk into a pub and order 568ml of fine ale, even though it is correct, it's still also a pint.

Yes, when it comes to specialist teachings by all means use a standardised measurement, but for everyday life there's no reason you can't use a mixture of both - neither are wrong.

Yeah, notice that when it's cold it's in Celcius, but when it's hot it's farenheit? :lol:

My argument for this has always been that in everyday life it's irrelevent, a certain weight or length will be that weight or length whatever they call it. I'm never going to walk into a pub and order 568ml of fine ale, even though it is correct, it's still also a pint.

Yes, when it comes to specialist teachings by all means use a standardised measurement, but for everyday life there's no reason you can't use a mixture of both - neither are wrong.


Indeed, anyone with any level of basic intelligence will understand the differences anyway. I can use both metric and imperial and interchange if needed.

Hardly rocket science.

Yes, it should go metric.

The rest of the world uses metric.

Miles are a thing of the past.

The rest of the world uses metric.

America doesn't for starters....

Miles are a thing of the past.

Yeah yet a mile is as fresh today as it was hundreds of years ago.....

America doesn't for starters....
Yes America...along with Liberia and Burma/Myanmar....the rest of the world uses the metric system.

Either way I don't see the point of the unnecessary expense of NI converting (which would realistically at present only happen if the wider UK did) - there's no practical benefit right now and it would be costly at a time of savage cuts.

Yeah yet a mile is as fresh today as it was hundreds of years ago.....

It might be as "fresh", but it won't be exactly as long...

How the heck can a system of weights and measurements be inferior and dated?

It's inferior (in my opinion) because it uses multiple units with bizarre ratios. How many people would be able to tell you how many feet (or even yards) there are in a mile? Why are there 12 inches in a foot, but 14 pounds in a stone and 16 ounces in a pound? Why is "our" pint different to the one in the USA? It's dated because it's been around for centuries.

The question is, why did the south feel the need to change, when everywhere around it uses Imperial?

"Everywhere around it"? The UK, the rest of Europe, and the Atlantic Ocean? One of those uses Imperial, the others are a lot bigger. :)

I presume that the question is referring to road signs, seen as we have metric measurements for almost everything else anyway (alongside imperial). I think the UK should use Km/h on roads, though much more so with Northern Ireland as it shares an often discreet and sometimes unmarked border with the Republic of Ireland, which uses Km/h.

So, we should do what the RoI do? They only recently changed from mph so why should NI change to be the same when they changed to be different?

We (the UK as a whole) should do what the Republic of Ireland do, if it's a good idea. They changed because virtually the whole rest of the world use Km/h and that's the reason we should change too.

America doesn't for starters....



Yeah yet a mile is as fresh today as it was hundreds of years ago.....

America, and who else - 2 countries in the developing world?

We (the UK as a whole) should do what the Republic of Ireland do, if it's a good idea. They changed because virtually the whole rest of the world use Km/h and that's the reason we should change too.

Most of the world drives on the right.........should we do that as well?

Ireland is not a big island - im sure we could switch to the right. I think Denmark switched before so it's very possible to do it. I think it will happen some day.

Sweden and Iceland both changed from driving on the left to driving on the right in the 1960s, so it can be done.

That said, I don't really see the point as Ireland and Britain are both islands (which makes me wonder why Iceland bothered?).

Ireland is not a big island - im sure we could switch to the right. I think Denmark switched before so it's very possible to do it. I think it will happen some day.

I'm afraid not, BECAUSE we are an island. The fact that the only road conflicts we have are only with a minority of ferry passengers (the majority coming from mainland Britain), and not due to a border means that we will never change.


It was Sweden that changed and it caused mayhem for a while.

And just to clear something up, yes most of the world drive on the right, but the figures aren't as big as people think. Approx. one third of the world's countries actually drive on the left. Yes, one third. Check it out.

And as for me naming countries that still use imperial measurements, most of the world's countries do. Just because a country sets a standard to use metric doesn't mean the people will totally convert. Sure doesn't the RoI still serve pints of beer?

Ireland is not a big island - im sure we could switch to the right. I think Denmark switched before so it's very possible to do it. I think it will happen some day.


No......it really won't.

Are you aware of how much that would cost? Every single bus would be obsolete and need replaced. Every traffic light pulled up and re-installed, signs across the entire road network from rural roads to motorways changed and so on and so on.

It'll never happen, the systems are too complex and interconnected in the 21st century to start messing around with.

Most of the world drives on the right.........should we do that as well?

For a start, percentage-wise, a lot more countries drive on the left than use imperial measurements on roads. Secondly, it actually causes less confusion than different measurements, which are actually more difficult to adapt to. Thirdly, unlike what Oldlum thinks (which is politically subjective due to seeing driving on the left as British anyway), it'd be next to impossible and almost certainly prohibitively expensive to change sides of the road now. We should've done so decades ago, but the boat's gone now, unfortunately. Not so with measurements though.

It is not about politics at all. Im saying it is very possible to change to the right. I hink it will happen eventually as consistency across Europe in all matters becomes increasingly important. It is not an impossible thing to do.


In fact the industry that pushes it, mark my words, will be the automotive industry.

I hink it will happen eventually as consistency across Europe in all matters becomes increasingly important. It is not an impossible thing to do.

Yeah.....the European mainland is a different story, as Britain and Ireland are islands it really does not matter, nor provide any benefits for it to switch to driving on the right.

I have no idea why you actually believe such a thing is a possibility.

It would cost a shitload of money for little gain. I don't see how the automotive industry cares particularly. If they had the desire and the influence to for the UK & ROI to change sides of the road, they'd have done it years before now.

Im not saying it will happen - it would be foolish to rule it out is what im saying. My point is that it is not practically impossible. The metric thing was unforseen in Ireland, for example. Announced literally overnight. Yes it's small by comparison but it's the same principle. Few people expected Ireland to go metric before it did.

Converting the signs to metric is much simpler than changing sides of the road in terms of both cost and implementation. Changing sides of the road would involve having to reposition almost every road sign, realign every set of traffic lights, road markings and re-engineer on & off-slips for roundabouts and expressways. The only way it'd have even the foggiest chance of happening would be if the EU agreed to foot the bill for the change, which I doubt they would, as the cost really doesn't bear thinking about.

You can't compare the two - converting to metric is very well in name, but the people don't have to always conform, yet changing the side of the road you drive on is set, with no grey areas.

Driving on the left won't happen in the British Isles. There is no reason at all to go to such an extent as causing accidents and spending money for what you acheive in the end. It won't happen. Don't forget driving and cars will change and evolve in the future, the whole "which side the steering wheel is on" thing will be made redundant, sooner rather than later anyway.

And as for more countries driving on the right than use metric... you really don't get it, do you? It's not the country that uses metric, it's the ordinary people in the streets, and throughout the world many people still use imperial. So you are wrong. If Australia are a metric country, why do they still weigh newborns in imperial? Same with Canada.

As for driving on the left, we (UK & RoI) are in fact more correct. The romans were the first ones to set up such a system. The reason (or one of the reasons) that the continent drive on the wrong side is due to the French wanting to be different to the British. And as they have land borders with the rest of the landmass, their system became more used.

More correct is a bit of a stretch. Correct me if im wrong but isn't the reason we drive on the left is to do with horse and carts and in which hand you hold a whip. Hardly a reason to say we're more correct cos its redundant.

The French changed because Napolean said so, i was during that era in which the French tried to change everything. They even tried a metric calender. Didn't take though

More correct is a bit of a stretch. Correct me if im wrong but isn't the reason we drive on the left is to do with horse and carts and in which hand you hold a whip. Hardly a reason to say we're more correct cos its redundant.

The French changed because Napolean said so, i was during that era in which the French tried to change everything. They even tried a metric calender. Didn't take though


That's one of the supposed reasons yes. A system was required for traffic flow on the bridges that spanned the Thames.

It's one of a few reasons to explain driving on the left.

Yeah, I honestly dont think the change to the other side of the road will happen.
But I also don't see any reason why there shouldn't be a change in the UK. Metric is so much easier to use, I definitely couldn't switch fluids and measurement and length and volume in imperial like you can in metric.

The only reason that's its kept in my opinion is solely because it's british.
NI will be the last place in the world to change (forgive me if this causes offence) but NI people on the whole seem pretty suspicious of any change at all, no matter how insignificant.

^^ I don't think because it's British, just more about people not liking change from what they're used to. It took the UK about a century to decimalize its currency, from setting the first steps to final implementation. Metrificaiton of the roads is going through a similar process, with the relatively recent addition of Driver Location Posts being in kilometres.

The day the UK decides to voluntarily switch to metric will be the same day the population eagerly awaits joining the Euro

The only reason that's its kept in my opinion is solely because it's british.

Even though it actually isn't - a lot of imperial units can be traced back (http://www.ukma.org.uk/Why/Myths.aspx) to other countries (and invasions); including acres, feet, yards, miles, ounces, pounds, and pints.

Correct me if im wrong but isn't the reason we drive on the left is to do with horse and carts and in which hand you hold a whip. Hardly a reason to say we're more correct cos its redundant.



Yes, as I mentioned it goes back to the Romans. Maybe it was to do with which hand you hold a whip, another reason I've heard is that you pass sword-hand to sword-hand. Fine. But just because it was started near 2000 years ago doesn't exactly make it redundant, does it? Does driving on a particular side of the road get out of date? That's just silly.

As for metrification, yes eventually the UK will make it law, but only when enough of her population want it. Kids are being taught metric in schools, so it will happen sometime.

However, I really don't see the big fuss of needing it made law. It's not as if every British person only uses imperial and can't understand metric. In fact, you could argue that the UK is the most bi-lingual in measurement, if that makes sense. I use both, I don't need the Govt. telling me when I can and can't use whatever measurement I want.