2023-11-21

Over fifty years ago the British government decided to postpone changing speed and distance signs on British roads to metric.

The UK Metric Association has obtained and published some British government papers on this subject and quoted from them in their blog, Metric Views.

The press release for this decision, dated 9 December 1970, stated "The question of speeds and distances being expressed in metric terms will be considered again when it is seen to what extent metrication as a whole is accepted by the public, but this will not be for some years."

That's 53 years, so far.

One government document quoted by the UKMA said:

It can be argued that there would be a hostile public reaction to the cost and inconvenience of the proposed change on the grounds that considerable expenditure should not be incurred merely to alter the system which will not benefit motorists generally in this country. Metric traffic signs would not help exports, nor do they relate to a tangible commodity where new measurements would rapidly become familiar by individual experience.

. . . it can be argued that the conversion of directional and other signs should be delayed for several years in order to allow the public to get more experience of the metric system first.

This is part of the government's policy for metrication to be "industry only" and to be voluntary. The government paper also said that a number of Conservative MPs were worried about “the pint in the pub and the mile on the road”.

Well, they've kept those for half a century now.