I was driving through Alabama a few years ago, and noticed that there are kilometer markings along the side of the highway. Now there aren’t any in Georgia, Tennessee, or Mississippi, so I got to wondering why Alabama? Holdover from the 1970’s? Was Alabama actually one of the first on the whole metric conversion bandwagon? And its not like Alabama borders Canada or anything like that… Any thoughts?
They have seen the light?? 
::d&r::
Grim
Well, perhaps the metric-conversion guys decided to go in alphabetical order when pushing metric on the states…
Texas (or at least Houston) has little kmph signs underneath the big mph speed limit signs.
It’s not all that widespread, really. I know of a couple of places near me that have the metric equivalent of mile markers, but not many. I’ve never seen a metric distance indicator, or speed limit sign, or anything else, here, either. I assumed that they were trying it out, or that it was the first step of a very slow and very lengthy conversion process.
There is one sign on Interstate 75 in Dayton that gives this helpful bit of information – “1 mile = 1.61 km.” It always struck me as a bit superfluous since no other sign on I-75 in Ohio mentions kilometers or kilometers an hour.
GUess what? The Alabama Department of Transportation has a whole set of pages devoted to Alabama’s SI conversion of highway signs. Isn’t the internet wonderful?
Here’s a brief recap:
June 1992 - Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) published their Metric transition time table which set October 1, 1995 as the deadline for reporting certain information to FHWA in SI and October 1, 1996 as the deadline for state DOTs to convert to SI or lose Federal Funds.
July 1992 - ALDOT agrees to participate in a “case study” to be used by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Official (AASHTO) to determine the possible impacts of and the cost of coverting maintenance operations and roadway signs to SI.
Februray 1997 - Alabama Senate passes Senate Bill 392 in an attempt to outlaw the use of metric units by ALDOT. A companion House Bill is pending.
April 1997 - Alabama House Committee passes House Bill 521 in an attempt to outlaw the use of metric units by ALDOT.
November 1997 - ALDOT announces that kilometer posts will be removed within 60 days.
Here in New Hampshire, we have signs on major routes in both miles and kilometers. Placement is sporadic, but tends to favor major trucking routes since a lot of imports from Quebec pass through here as well as tourists.
Where? When? I haven’t lived in Houston long (I started at UH a year ago), but I’ve never seen such a thing.
I’ve been out of the country since May… is this fairly recent?
Isn’t there a federal law which would override that? I was under the impression that there was a law passed in the '70s which stated that metric units did not make a contract invalid.
You also see them in Tennessee, near Chattanooga. There’s one coming in on I-24 from Nashville - I believe it says Chattanooga, 13M or 13k. Coming in from Knoxville, there’s one about 25 miles outside Chattanooga. I believe it’s south of Cleveland, TN.
I always wondered about them, but not enough to try to find out.
I guess it works the other way around : to help foreigners/tourists, since all signs are in miles…
No, there are some metric signs in Houston. All of them I have seen are in or near the Medical Center area. The idea is that since Houston has such a huge medical center, the largest in the world I have heard, people from all over the world come to get medical care. Thus, foreigners who are here driving are most likely to be there.
I could just be an attempt to paint Houston as an “international” city (justifiable considering the immigrant population).Like putting Veitnamese names on the street signs in Midtown.
I can remember at least one such sign in South Dakota.
Then how come there’s just the one? And not in a place that’s particularly known for foreign drivers?
Metric speed limit signs in Texas become more frequent as you get closer to the border. Where I last lived (~80 miles north of Mexico), they were ubiquitous on highways (although not in town). “La Entrada Al Pacifico”, and all that…
But Alabama? No sé.