^ The language analogy is closer than you think. At the moment, Metric is your foreign language.
You learn Imperial first, and then if you go into any form of measurable science, you have to learn metric, since that's the common method of calculation across the world, and is also the simplest method.

I can quite easily tell you how many nanometers are in one meter. How many square meters are in a square kilometer. How many mililiters are in one liter. How many grams are in a ton.

Can you tell me how many square inches are in a square mile? How many nanometers (I don't know of an Imperial distance unit smaller than an inch, but If there is one, enlighten me please) are in one yard? How many ounces are in a Ton? (Again. Is there an Imperial measurement greater than a Pound?).

Anyone who uses numbers and measurements beyond primary school has to learn Metric as a second mathematical language, and as any language, they usually speak it with an accent.

I'll repost here what I originally posted on a dupe of this:

I naturally became curious to find out what/where/why, and here is what Wikipedia told me (from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caminito_del_Rey)

El Caminito del Rey (English: The King's little pathway) is a walkway or via ferrata, now fallen into disrepair, pinned along the steep walls of a narrow gorge in El Chorro, near Álora in Málaga, Spain. The name is often shortened to Camino del Rey.

The walkway has now gone many years without maintenance, and is in a highly deteriorated and dangerous state. It is one meter (3 feet and 3 inches) in width, and is over 300 meters (984 feet) above the river. Nearly all of the path has no handrail. Some parts of the concrete walkway have completely collapsed and all that is remaining is the steel beam originally in place to hold it up and the wire that follows most of the path. One can latch onto a safety-wire to keep from falling. Several people have lost their lives on the walkway in recent years; after four people died in two accidents in 1999 and 2000, the local government closed the entrances. However, many adventurous tourists still find their way onto the walkway to explore it.

I naturally became curious to find out what/where/why, and here is what Wikipedia told me (from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caminito_del_Rey)

El Caminito del Rey (English: The King's little pathway) is a walkway or via ferrata, now fallen into disrepair, pinned along the steep walls of a narrow gorge in El Chorro, near Álora in Málaga, Spain. The name is often shortened to Camino del Rey.

The walkway has now gone many years without maintenance, and is in a highly deteriorated and dangerous state. It is one meter (3 feet and 3 inches) in width, and is over 300 meters (984 feet) above the river. Nearly all of the path has no handrail. Some parts of the concrete walkway have completely collapsed and all that is remaining is the steel beam originally in place to hold it up and the wire that follows most of the path. One can latch onto a safety-wire to keep from falling. Several people have lost their lives on the walkway in recent years; after four people died in two accidents in 1999 and 2000, the local government closed the entrances. However, many adventurous tourists still find their way onto the walkway to explore it.

*fear *nature *music

From Wikipedia (cont):

The walkway has now gone many years without maintenance, and is in a highly deteriorated and dangerous state. It is one meter in width over a 700-meter fall, and over time it has lost its handrail. Some parts of the walkway have completely collapsed and have been replaced by a beam and a metallic wire on the wall. Many people have lost their lives on the walkway in recent years. After four people died in two accidents in 1999 and 2000, the local government closed the entrances. However, adventurous tourists still find their way into the walkway.

Summary:
A year of coastal erosion on "Lines of Defence".

Go to http://www.ifever.org.uk for
* Higher quality videos
* More details on project
* Full image archive

Project Details:
"Lines of Defence", when installed on 15th January 2005, consisted of 38 flags in five lines, each one meter apart, positioned on the eroding cliffs 60 m. south of Martello Tower W, East Lane, Bawdsey, Suffolk.

Letters on the flags spelled out SUBMISSION IS ADVANCING AT A FRIGHTFUL SPEED, a text sourced by Simon Frazer for its reference to climate change and the essentially fearful reaction which prompts people to go to war.

A camera was positioned at Martello Tower W, looking south towards the harbours of Felixstowe and Harwich. The tower is less than 10 m. away from the cliff's edge and is the focus of a local campaign to fund sea defences. The camera recorded the progress of the work by taking one image every 15 minutes from 15th January 2005 to 15th January 2006.

The final flag fell from the cliff on 16th September 2005; making the loss of land 14 metres in the first 8 months of 2005. At this point along the coast a total of 17 metres eroded in one full year. To mark this spot one white flag was placed 17 metres from the cliff's edge on 6th January 2006.

Regarding that smart crash test (footage from a top gear bit), it went from 70 mph (112 kph) to full stop in one meter, the meter where the engine used to be and is quite a worst scenario.
The indestructible egg around the passengers is expected withstand anything and even trigger the colliding vehicle's crumple zone and sink into it.

I suppose it's better than to be skewered by your own car like the last car in the video, though.