41–50 of 75 posts
London will switch sides when America goes metric - i.e. never.
Once all manufacturing is controlled by China, they could refuse to make cars with steering on the right or use Standard measurements, increasing pressure and eventually forcing the UK and US to switch.
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It would be way more annoying for LHT countries to change to RHT than to switch from US units to metric, have to change literally every road sign, street light, road markings etc in the entire country. Plus everyone would then be driving cars with the steering wheel on the wrong side for decades until the whole fleet got eventually replaced. Countries have done it before, but I think there's a reason not many countri…
> It would be way more annoying for LHD countries to change to RHD As a complete aside, 1 country has done this: Sweden on 3 September 1967 and "It was by far the largest logistical event in Sweden's history" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dagen_H
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Once all manufacturing is controlled by China, they could refuse to make cars with steering on the right or use Standard measurements, increasing pressure and eventually forcing the UK and US to switch.
The US drives on the right (which is the right) side. So why would the US switch? Its really just Australia, Japan, India and the UK that drive on the left. The other 190ish countries all drive on the right. PS Your 240V electric grid works that way because when the US switched to 120V (in like 1900 or so), we sold all our old gear to you and you never switched. So now all your electric things cost more as a result a…
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Using total population is a bad metric considering India itself has about 2 out of 7 billion people.
Why wouldn't Indian people count?
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The US is on the metric system: The official definitions of US customary units are in metric. For example: https://www.regulations.gov/document/NIST-2019-0003-0001 > After December 31, 2022, any data derived from or published as a result of surveying, mapping, or any other activity within the U.S. that is expressed in terms of feet shall only be based on the “foot” equal to 0.3048 meter (exactly), formerly known as t…
The US uses the metric system in some places, but that is not to say it is "on the metric system"- after all, all road speed limit signs are still in miles per hour, as an example. Fuel is priced in dollars per gallon. Consumer goods are almost always sold in measurements of pounds, ounces or gallons. People are measured in feet, inches and pounds on their ID cards and at doctor's offices. Metric has made almost no i…
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Once all manufacturing is controlled by China, they could refuse to make cars with steering on the right or use Standard measurements, increasing pressure and eventually forcing the UK and US to switch.
Thank you for informing me that China is likely to take over all manufacturing when it comes to cars. I am appalled that there are no US, Japanese, South Korean, Indian, Vietnamese, Russian, or any other nations that manufacture cars. It also sounds completely plausible that a binary choice like left hand or right hand driving can be switched in a way that drives a pressure campaign that nations will give into China…
London will switch sides when America goes metric - i.e. never.
The imperial system America uses is better optimized for quantities people expect to use in real life frequently without requiring awkward decimals or larger numbers etc. better ergonomics. metric is only for science.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Once all manufacturing is controlled by China, they could refuse to make cars with steering on the right or use Standard measurements, increasing pressure and eventually forcing the UK and US to switch.
The US drives on the right (which is the right) side. So why would the US switch? Its really just Australia, Japan, India and the UK that drive on the left. The other 190ish countries all drive on the right. PS Your 240V electric grid works that way because when the US switched to 120V (in like 1900 or so), we sold all our old gear to you and you never switched. So now all your electric things cost more as a result a…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
The US uses the metric system in some places, but that is not to say it is "on the metric system"- after all, all road speed limit signs are still in miles per hour, as an example. Fuel is priced in dollars per gallon. Consumer goods are almost always sold in measurements of pounds, ounces or gallons. People are measured in feet, inches and pounds on their ID cards and at doctor's offices. Metric has made almost no i…
I believe their point is that a mile is defined to be exactly 1609.344 meters, a gallon is defined to be exactly 3.785411784 litres, a pound (mass) is defined to be exactly 453.59237 grams and so on. These are all just weird multiples of metric units at this point.
There are some spots in the US where you drive on the left, albeit for a short distance and the road is divided. Still messes with my brain. E.g., here in the northern suburbs of Detroit (W. Big Beaver going under I-75): https://www.google.com/maps/@42.5620634,-83.1581674,18z
It's called a Diverging Diamond https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diverging_diamond_interchange