The metric gas pumps arose more from the fact that gasoline went to over $1.00 a gallon and rather than replace their pumps (which would only allow a double-digit price) the owners retrofitted them to dispense in liters. I remember the word "gallon" being covered with a sticker that said "liter". As the pumps were wore out and were replaced they went back to gallons, but with a three-digit price capability. I guess the government finally gave up on pushing the metric system because we the people just plain wouldn't adapt to it. Most of us concede that it's superior but we (excluding me, of course) don't have a good enough grasp of how long a meter is, how much a kilogram weighs, and how big a liter is. The advent of two-liter pop bottles has probably done as much to promote the metric system as anything the US government did for the previous thirty years.