As those who have been in one of my classes would agree, if I wasn’t Dr. Tom I’d be Dr. Units. So a recent article in the Washington Examiner, republished in an ASME SmartBrief, caught my eye.
Apparently, in 1975, some 50 years ago, President Gerald Ford approved an experimental project where Interstate 19 from Tucson, Arizona to Mexico would use metric units. With the standard conversion, the 63 miles became a little over 100 kilometers, and a 70 mph speed limit would become over 110 kph.
I-19 still uses metric units, however, the USDOT is proposing to go back to US Customary units. In 2009, the Arizona DOT proposed going back to US Customary, however, local businesses rejected this proposal based on cost to redo all their advertising materials, and they argued that being the only stretch of interstate in the nation that was metric provided a unique notoriety.
It will be interesting to follow this story. Tight budgets at both the national and state level may result in changing units on I-19 being put on the back burner. Though I love the US Customary system, I have to agree with those with businesses and communities along this stretch of I-19 that it does make traveling it very special.
Dr. “Units” Tom
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