Today Mayor Ed Murray announced that the City of Seattle will be the first major American city to convert entirely to the metric system.
“Seattle is a global city and it’s time we catch-up with the rest of the world in adopting the metric system,” said Murray. “We’ve proven cities can be incubators for change, so it just makes sense for Seattle to lead on the metric system as well. As we seek to attract more international business and visitors, adopting a universally recognized system of measurement is key.”
In terms of transportation changes, Mayor Murray is planning to roll out the metric conversion plan in 30 days.
“As a first step, I’ve directed the Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) to print and install all speed limit signs in kilometers,” said Murray. “We are also in the early stages of planning with the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) to have the speed limit signs on I-5 through Seattle converted to kilometers.”
Additional changes to be rolled out immediately include:
- All cars sold within city limits will be required to replace the speedometer with a kilometer gauge.
- Seattle Public Schools will expand their teaching of the metric system in Fall 2015, ensuring that students are able to put their best meter forward and strengthen their understanding of the other side of the ruler.
- The Seattle Parks Department will change all wildlife information kiosks to refer to inchworms as centipedes.
- Heat advisories will be issued when the temperature reaches 26.66 degrees Celsius.
- Precipitation will be measured by the millimeter to ensure accuracy.
- Gas prices will be listed by the 3.78 liter.
- All stadium vendors and food stands selling hot dogs will be encouraged to market their 30.48 centimeter-long hot dogs.
- Beth’s Café’s 12-egg omelette will remain unchanged, as there is no way of converting egg quantity measurements.
For everybody who is concerned about the upcoming changes, Mayor Murray has some words of wisdom, “APRIL FOOLS!”
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