Arizona Looking to Dump Metric Signage on I-19

[US 41]

I think the posts and exit numbers should be in standard units just because that is what the United States uses. I don't see mile posts in Mexico on 15D, because Mexico uses the metric system.

Just to prove my point the signs in the US on I-19 aren't in Spanish. They are in English because that is what is spoken in the US. Same for Mexico. They're signs are in Spanish because Spanish is spoken there. An exception to this rule are signs relating directly to tourists. Ex - permit returns. Kilometer posts in the US aren't relating to tourists. They're from a failed metric conversion from years ago. Alto signs at customs is okay because the directly help foreign tourists. (Or stop signs o the Mexican side.)

Careful with that fallacy: The US does not have an official language. It just happens that the large majority of US residents speak English, which makes it seem as though English is the official language.

It reminds me of the joke of the guy who's standing in line at the store behind a woman speaking a foreign language on her cell phone. She ends the call, and the guy says,
"I didn't want to be rude, but really, if you want to speak Spanish, you should go back to Mexico."
She sizes him up, and replies, "Sir, I was speaking Navajo. If you want to speak English, you should go back to England."

However it is illegal to drive a semi or other commercial vehicle in the US if you cannot fluently speak and read english. Mexican truck drivers are arrested all the time for this. English may not be the official language officialy, but it is de facto. However it is legal to drive a car in the US even if you cant spaek and/or read english.

[Scott5114]

The hilarious thing is that this issue really has nothing to do with language or anything else. The choice of kilometers or miles is, in practice, a meaningless distinction. Exit numbers are arbitrarily tied to miles; they could just as well be sequential or measured in smoots. On advance distance signage, "2 km" means "I have a minute or so before I get to that exit" and "1 km" means "I have 30 seconds or so". Exactly the same thing that "1 mile" and "½ mile" mean in that context. Nobody is seriously going to miss their exit for because they thought it was 2000 feet further down the road than it really is; once you see a 1 km sign you start thinking "Oh, my exit is coming up soon" and looking for the ramp.

[jwolfer]

No it is de jure.. Miami is the same.. English is a second language in south Florida. Southern AZ is right on the border with Mexico and it was mexico until the 1850s

It is not de jure nor de facto in some parts. It has been part of the USA longer than Mexico. Mexico was not independent from Spain until 1848
Nothing is wrong with anyone speaking Spanish or conducting business in whatever language they desire. In any frontier there is mix of languages.

There has been a permanent Spanish population in Tucson since 1692 though. The US bought it in the Gadsden Purchase, but there weren't really English speakers there until after 1900, and not en masse until about 1950 when air conditioning became reasonable.

The Spanish speaking population of Tucson that can count themselves as descendants of the pre 1900 Spanish/Mexicans is a tiny proportion of the current Spanish speaking population. And I would make and educated guess that many people living in the Gadsden purchase area spoke a Native American language and not Spanish.

I know descendants of early Spanish settlers in St Augustine, with Spanish last names and everything. But they are  Florida "cracker" . No one has spoken Spanish in nearly 200 years.

[kkt]

It is not de jure nor de facto in some parts. It has been part of the USA longer than Mexico. Mexico was not independent from Spain until 1848

1821.  1848 was the U.S.-Mexico war.

About signage, it's not just a Mexico issue.  It's every other country in the world except the U.K.

[jwolfer]

It is not de jure nor de facto in some parts. It has been part of the USA longer than Mexico. Mexico was not independent from Spain until 1848

1821.  1848 was the U.S.-Mexico war.

About signage, it's not just a Mexico issue.  It's every other country in the world except the U.K.

You are right on the date. My point still stands though

[Fred Defender]

Speaking of coke illegal drugs are metric for the most part.

LOL!

[Neddyfram]

If the highway is famous for being metric, keep it metric.

[SteveG1988]

The simple way of dealing with this is to just put up "Old Exit" signs like PA did.