km/h speed limits with numbers not ending in zero

[kphoger]

I just came across this on a YouTube:



35 km/h struck me as strange.  How common is this?

[J N Winkler]

35 km/h struck me as strange.  How common is this?

I don't think it's terribly uncommon in Mexico--I remember 105 km/h on Mex. 45 in northern Chihuahua.

[realjd]

Australia posts advisory speeds (exits, curves, etc.) in km ending in 5. I don't know why.

[1995hoo]

Australia posts advisory speeds (exits, curves, etc.) in km ending in 5. I don't know why.

I've seen exit ramp advisory speeds ending in 5 in Quebec. Possibly other provinces too, but Quebec is the only one I remember for sure.

[formulanone]

Monrovia, California (along old US 66):

[1995hoo]

Wasn't there once an 88 km/h sign somewhere on the New York Thruway that bore that number so nobody could argue that posting 90 km/h would be a violation of the NMSL's 55-mph provision?

[agentsteel53]

I don't think it's terribly uncommon in Mexico--I remember 105 km/h on Mex. 45 in northern Chihuahua.

I've never seen a 105, but have seen I believe every two-digit x5, as well as 3, 5, and 8.  definitely not uncommon, but rare enough to make you wonder about it when you come across one. 

[1995hoo]

I don't think it's terribly uncommon in Mexico--I remember 105 km/h on Mex. 45 in northern Chihuahua.

I've never seen a 105, but have seen I believe every two-digit x5, as well as 3, 5, and 8.  definitely not uncommon, but rare enough to make you wonder about it when you come across one. 

This used to be posted just south of the border on I-87 in Champlain, New York. But I'd consider this sort of sign a special exception to "no metric number ending in 5" because it's meant more as a reminder to use American units of measure than as an actual speed limit sign. I haven't been that way in a few years, but I believe it's been replace with a single metric sign prescribing 100 km/h using the new MUTCD format ("SPEED LIMIT" with the number enclosed in a circle).

I always thought it was a little funny that they used the phrase "MAXIMUM SPEED" instead of just "MAXIMUM" the way real Canadian signs do.

[roadfro]

I believe it's been replace with a single metric sign prescribing 100 km/h using the new MUTCD format ("SPEED LIMIT" with the number enclosed in a circle).

This format is no longer in the MUTCD, although it was introduced in either the Millennium Edition or the 2003 version. The 2009 MUTCD doesn't make reference to the metric system in regards to sign designs.

[jwolfer]

Wasn't there once an 88 km/h sign somewhere on the New York Thruway that bore that number so nobody could argue that posting 90 km/h would be a violation of the NMSL's 55-mph provision?

This was the same in Florida.  In 1981 there were Km/H signs all over and all of them were x0 km/k but the 55MPH was 88 km/h because of the danger of going 56.whatever MPH ( sarcasm )

On that note.. I am going to be 43 and I remember in second and third grade learning metric and we were going to be switching in 1980... sort of like Canada.  We do have 2L bottles of soda and cocaine and marijuana are done in metric units but so are legit meds and vitamins

[1995hoo]

I believe it's been replace with a single metric sign prescribing 100 km/h using the new MUTCD format ("SPEED LIMIT" with the number enclosed in a circle).

This format is no longer in the MUTCD, although it was introduced in either the Millennium Edition or the 2003 version. The 2009 MUTCD doesn't make reference to the metric system in regards to sign designs.

Ah, didn't realize that. OK, then, I believe it was replaced with one corresponding to the most recent MUTCD direction on metric speed limit signs!

Wasn't there once an 88 km/h sign somewhere on the New York Thruway that bore that number so nobody could argue that posting 90 km/h would be a violation of the NMSL's 55-mph provision?

This was the same in Florida.  In 1981 there were Km/H signs all over and all of them were x0 km/k but the 55MPH was 88 km/h because of the danger of going 56.whatever MPH ( sarcasm )

On that note.. I am going to be 43 and I remember in second and third grade learning metric and we were going to be switching in 1980... sort of like Canada.  We do have 2L bottles of soda and cocaine and marijuana are done in metric units but so are legit meds and vitamins

Same here. I hit 40 three weeks ago today and through the third grade we focused a lot more on metric than on American measurements. I'm still more comfortable with metric in general in terms of understanding it, even if I use American measurements more. When I go to the store, for example, I use the Kitchen Calculator app on my iPhone fairly frequently because so many recipes use measurements that do not correspond to how things are sold at the store and I have no idea how the measurements relate to each other (especially when a recipe calls for a dry ingredient by volume but the ingredient is sold by weight).

I always snigger at the grocery store that the "unit price" for bottles of wine is expressed per "quart." Wine is not sold by the "quart," it's sold by the litre (though usually in multiples of 750 ml, of course).

[agentsteel53]

I always snigger at the grocery store that the "unit price" for bottles of wine is expressed per "quart." Wine is not sold by the "quart," it's sold by the litre (though usually in multiples of 750 ml, of course).

out here, wine is sold explicitly labeled 750mL - both on the bottle, and on the display tags.

same with liquor - 750mL, not a fifth, which IIRC is 757mL.

[1995hoo]

I always snigger at the grocery store that the "unit price" for bottles of wine is expressed per "quart." Wine is not sold by the "quart," it's sold by the litre (though usually in multiples of 750 ml, of course).

out here, wine is sold explicitly labeled 750mL - both on the bottle, and on the display tags.

same with liquor - 750mL, not a fifth, which IIRC is 757mL.

Yeah, most of them here are 750 ml too; I said "by the litre" simply to account for other size bottles, such as 1.5-litre and the like (there is also a Riesling I buy on occasion that comes in a 1-litre bottle). The grocery store I visit most often displays the unit price by the "quart," however. The store where I usually buy beer and wine doesn't display unit prices at all.

[Dr Frankenstein]

Regarding I-87, that's correct. NY used to post metric speed limits in either this format or Ontario-style (MAXIMUM xx km/h with the km/h line in a black background). They were all replaced with 2003 MUTCD signs in the past few years.

Vermont used to post smaller "104 KPH" plaques under the speed limit signs near the border on I-91 and maybe I-89. They're no longer there since the big 2009 signage upgrade project which introduced Clearview on most of the state's Interstate mileage.

The Long Sault Parkway near Cornwall, ON is posted at 55 km/h.

I've seen an alley in the LaSalle borough of Montreal posted at 8 km/h. Perhaps a carry-over from before the metrication?

[agentsteel53]

I've seen an alley in the LaSalle borough of Montreal posted at 8 km/h. Perhaps a carry-over from before the metrication?

8 is a fairly standard speed for when you don't want 5 and you don't want 10.  I've seen 8mph signs in the US, and I've seen 8km/h in Mexico and somewhere in Europe (Italy?) that definitely never used customary units.

[english si]

marijuana are done in metric units

I'm fairly sure (not having ever bought cannabis, I'm working on second hand knowledge) that in the UK, weed dealers work in ounces / fractions of ounces. cf Ali G (Sascha Baron Cohen's breakout character's) "who wants to win an ounce" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C7nd25e7x9I

---

In the UK, the default teaching is metric. Basic conversion of customary units to metric is on the Maths syllabus - though how much there is depends on the ideology at the top as well as in the classroom. I did conversion factors in KS2 (7-11), KS3 (11-14) and KS4 (GCSE), but that was a rare exception - very few have had conversion at KS2, and still not that many at KS3. Currently the policy is probably the least in denial that customary measures exist than it has been since the mid-60s. Immediately before it was "deny their existence for as much as possible, but grudgingly accept them when it comes to learning about conversion factors, though focus on currency units" - which is a little bit less head-in-the-sand idealistic than the 70s, when even that was considered pointless as metric would triumph soon. Ironically the cries of 'ideology-based curriculum' have been shouted louder for the most recent change, rather than the one before it.

I certainly had a lot of extra-curricular (ie not on what needed to be taught) exposure to the customary system before secondary school, due to teachers both spotting that we had a lot of exposure outside the classroom, and also wanting to set us some more complex mathematical exercises (we did £sd, aged 11/12, simply as it was a good arithmetical exercise with non-base 10 and different bases to deal with - we had been born 15 years too late for non-decimal money). During secondary school, they preferred more to get us through the hoops and onward - taking GCSE a year early if we were very likely to get a top grade, finishing our 6 A level modules early, so that we had the opportunity to take another 3 in the summer and get an AS in Further Maths (and those who did Further Maths did the same, allowing them to get an AS or an A-level in Additional Further Maths), however I remember the conversational units being just as much customary as at primary school, and we all took like ducks to water when it came to conversion, so I'd imagine that other primary schools had similar teachers to mine.

[agentsteel53]

I'm fairly sure (not having ever bought cannabis, I'm working on second hand knowledge) that in the UK, weed dealers work in ounces / fractions of ounces. cf Ali G (Sascha Baron Cohen's breakout character's) "who wants to win an ounce" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C7nd25e7x9I

here in the US, it is a pretty haphazard mix that allows for single-syllable expressions of quantity.

dime - whatever you can get for 10 bucks
gram - self explanatory
eighth - 1/8 of an ounce
ounce - self explanatory
key - one kilogram

of course, all of my knowledge on this topic is, of course, purely theoretical, fictional, without bearing in observable reality, a quality export product from Alanland, the result of a psychotropically enhanced imagination... err, scratch that last one. 

[Big John]

In 1996 AASHTO mandated roadway projects be done in metric with the anticipation of signage being converted a few years later.  Congress then put the kibosh on the signing mandate and AASHTO then made metric design optional which the states then went back to English design.

I had worked on a couple metric projects and the hard versus soft conversions were a doosy, especially with the initial mandate that rebar be in metric sizes only for them to realize than no American rebar manufacturer used metric rebar sizes so then did a soft conversion to the metric equivalent of the proper English sizes.

[texaskdog]

Think how many people pay little attention to speed limit signs.  Wouldn't you notice ones like that?

[machias]

Wasn't there once an 88 km/h sign somewhere on the New York Thruway that bore that number so nobody could argue that posting 90 km/h would be a violation of the NMSL's 55-mph provision?

Yes, there was an 88 km/h sign on the Thruway headed WB just after Exit 35 in the late 1970s. 

[roadman65]

Wasn't there once an 88 km/h sign somewhere on the New York Thruway that bore that number so nobody could argue that posting 90 km/h would be a violation of the NMSL's 55-mph provision?

Yes, there was an 88 km/h sign on the Thruway headed WB just after Exit 35 in the late 1970s. 

88 km/h happens to be 55 mph! 

Also, on private property you will find plenty of odd number speed limits.  In Dr. P Phillips Hospital in Orlando, FL its parking garage speed limit is 9 mph written on the pavement.  That is more weird as what is one mph difference of speed going to make?  Then I have seen half speed limits such as 7.5 mph in my time.  Then again, we have nine tenths of a penny used for selling gasoline when there is no such thing either.

[Avalanchez71]

I remember seeing those 88 kmph on I-95 in Florida in the mid 80s.