Localization - yards or feet for USA residents? [closed]

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This is a bit of a strange question...

I'm building a location-aware iPhone app that displays distances from the device to various points of interest. We use metric measurements down here in Australia, but the user will have the option to display data in imperial units if they choose.

My question - should I use miles and yards, or miles and feet as my units for USA-based users? What is more typical? And if anyone from other imperial-using countries want to we开发者_如何学JAVAigh in, feel free (do you Brits still talk imperial units?)...

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Sorry for the late response.

Yards are used seldom for signage in the United States.

We have an odd mixture of decimal miles (528 feet intervals, odometer gauages), fractional mile distance signs on interstate highways (halves, quarters, and sometimes even eighths) that your average citizen hasn't the faintest idea of the equivalent on a decimal odometer (except, of course for 1/2 equalling 0.5) and hundreds and thousands of feet, seen more with construction signs "work zone in 2,000 feet." You run into a gray area when you go below 1/2 mi. (2,640 ft.) and 2,000 feet (slightly more than 3/8 mi.) You will also see some (I think silly/ugly) 0.1 mi. 0.3 mi. distances, generally on the signage indicating distances to fuel stations, restaurants coming off of an interstate. I suppose this is to make it easier for math/imperial-illiterate motorists.

Yards are only used on football fields, golf, and some archery, shooting, although I don't know if there is any rule forbidding them on roadways.

For general walking distances, you only see miles, then feet. Heights such as bridge clearances are expressed in feet and inches.

As far as preference, I prefer the proper miles, fractional miles, yards, and then feet, but I'm sure I'm in the minority.

U.S. customary has become almost a metric system with the decimal mile and kilofoot. Halves and quarter miles are more historical retentions, vagueries used in describing distance by walking. I think it's just a matter of road crews being too lazy to reset signs to be even tenths that one can actually measure on the gauge.

Another interesting thing I noticed this past summer in the car with some colleagues from Europe, South America, the GPS they had set to SI units, but it still called off distances in round numbers of miles and just converted: 0.8km = 1/2mi 1.6 km = 1 mi. etc.

I'd be annoyed if I were in Canada and had a GPS calling out 5/8 mi or 0.6 mi (1 km) and 5/16 mi. or 0.3 mi. increments.

So, I'd recommend miles, halves, and quarters, then tenths then feet. I'd buy your app if it gave me an option of fractions or decimals, yards or feet. :-)

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Google Maps is as good a place as any to reference for this decision.

They seem to use fractional miles (to one decimal place) down until 0.1 miles, then switch over to feet.

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Can't find any solid instances of rules, but I would think we Yanks would use miles and yards for describing distances.

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In the UK we still use miles on all our road signs.

For smaller distances you will hear people use feet+inches or m/cm. It seems to be more of a generational thing with younger people tending to opt for metric.