When the way we drove and measured changed...

By Joel Goldenberg, October 17th, 2012

 I have a lot of high school memories, but one that stands out a bit is a time circa 1976 when all classes were being taught the same thing - the metric system.
Up until then, highway signs in Quebec and the rest of Canada told motorists that the upcoming exit was a mile away. Starting in the mid-1970s, this would be changed to 1.5 km. I remember thinking how silly that was, that it would muddy the water for drivers, but then I also saw the logic of metric units and slowly got used to centimetres, kilometres and celsius. Also, I don't remember this happening at the time, but former Suburban editor Christy McCormick told me there was much resistance in Canada to metrication.
Nevertheless, as a vehicle (pun not intended) not only of news but of public service to the community, the Sept. 21, 1977 issue of The Suburban provided our motorist readers with some tips for the transition from miles to kilometres, courtesy of the Consumers' Association of Canada. The advice involved refashioning dashboards that only had mile per hour (MPH) designations.
“The simplest and least expensive method is to attach stickers on the speedometer indicating the proper conversion,” the article said. “Make sure that figures are accurate: 30 mph becomes 50 km/hour, 55 mph becomes 90 km/h and [62] mph becomes 100 km/h.
“Another good way to designate kilometres is by attaching colored dots that are clearly distinguishable day or night, including metric equivalents,” the article adds. “One sticker should be attached exactly at the 31 mph mark, indicating 50 km/h, and additional colored dots should be attached at 37, 50, 56 and 62 to indicate 60, 80, 90 and 100 km/h.”
In retrospect, all of this sounds rather unwieldy - I would have gone by memory if I was driving at the time. Thankfully, cars destined for Canada were soon equipped with kilometre designations, and we didn't have to go searching our homes and stores for coloured dots.n