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1994 SESSION


SENATE JOINT RESOLUTION NO. 25
Memorializing Congress concerning certain highway signs.
Agreed to by the Senate, February 1, 1994
Agreed to by the House of Delegates, February 25, 1994

WHEREAS, the safety and convenience of the motoring public requires the installation and maintenance of numerous highway signs; and

WHEREAS, these signs inform motorists of distances to various destinations, advise them of maximum safe speeds, and warn them of weight, height, and width limitations of bridges and tunnels; and

WHEREAS, in order to be effective, the messages on these signs must be simple, clear, and understandable by passing motorists at a glance; and

WHEREAS, it is particularly important that the measurements of distance, speed, size, and weight used on highway signs be uniform and familiar to the vast majority of motorists; and

WHEREAS, it has been proposed that measurements of distance, speed, size, and weight presently used on highway signs throughout the United States be replaced with metric measurements or shown in both English and metric units; and

WHEREAS, very many motorists in the United States have little or no familiarity with metric measurements; and

WHEREAS, this lack of familiarity would impair the motoring public's ability to understand the meaning of highway signs at a glance; and

WHEREAS, the simultaneous use of both English and metric measurements on highway signs would increase the number of characters needed on the signs, possibly increase the size of the signs, probably decrease the public's ability to understand sign messages at a glance, and certainly increase the cost of the signs; and

WHEREAS, Virginia, like most states, already has more transportation needs than its transportation revenues can meet, without the additional expense of replacing existing highway signs solely for the purpose of displaying metric measurements; now, therefore, be it

RESOLVED by the Senate, the House of Delegates concurring, That the Congress of the United States be hereby requested to refrain from any requirement that otherwise functional highway signs be replaced or reconfigured solely for the purpose of replacing English measurements with metric measurements or adding metric measurements to English measurements; and, be it

RESOLVED FURTHER, That the Clerk of the Senate transmit a copy of this resolution to the President of the United States Senate, the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, and the Virginia Congressional Delegation so that they may be apprised of the sense of the General Assembly of Virginia in this matter.

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