(06-25-2016, 12:05 AM)KevinL Wrote: On the Imperial - unit sign: I know Metric should be the standard, but keep in mind that this sign is for the benefit and safety of the workers on site - who to this day work better in feet and inches. I would hate to see an incident occur because someone tripped up on their mental math.
The height sign faces the traffic flow at the crossing, so I would argue it's actually more for the public, than workers. All bridge height signs (heck, all signs, period) in Canada, are metric. Because we're metric. Like every other country in the world, except Liberia, Burma, and the USA.
To counter-argue: all of the alignment drawings are in metric. The numbers you see on the side of the actual rails? Distance from the endpoint of the line, in metres. Next batch of numbers on the rails? Radius of curvature. In metres. Rails made in US manufacturing facility.
(06-25-2016, 07:58 AM)BrianT Wrote: In Real Estate they still make comparisons in price per sq.ft. or per acre along with m2 and hectares, lot size 60' x 100' etc. Property surveys are all now in just metric measurements, but a lot of (most) people still get their calculators out to convert to acres and square feet. In a house or condominium, they still say that you have 9 foot or 10 foot ceilings. When they are talking ceiling heights, I don't think that I have ever heard it referred to in metric numbers.
Just because a lot of people are reluctant to change, doesn't make it right.
I work in engineering and manufacturing, and trust me, I know all about working fluently in both systems of measure - I just have to. 3/4 of our customer base is in the US. And even then, half of our US customers work in SI because they know it's better and it just makes more sense. All our raw material comes in imperial, so as a designer working in metric you have to be clever about where to skim and shave material to get back to non-crappy numbers all the time because of this disease unit working its way in like a cancer.
Using Imperial in normal parlance in Canada is like going into a building in Quebec and expecting people who are bilingual to use English as the primary language. It's incredibly offensive.