Units for a scalebar on a map

[dieterdreist (Martin Koppenhöfer)]

Only over the water, miles, furlongs, chains, and yards on land.

for micromapping scale ranges, handbreadths should be displayed. Everybody has a hand or two so it is the most intuitive unit.

[LivingWithDragons (Gregory (LivingWithDragons))]

I know I’m terrible at converting, so having both is always a bonus (saves quickly googling the conversion before speaking out loud).

@Casey_boy

For example, a map specifically for driving would probably best have imperial units since they’re the units used on the road network. Something for other modes of transport (walking/cycling) could be imperial and/or metric.

That made it more obvious why I’m needing to learn and convert. I can just about imagine distance as miles because I learnt based on the road-network and being driven places. Now I’m getting into hiking with people they use kilometres and I can’t (yet) visualise what it means when they suggest 24km a day.