Coordinate systems in 1.1/1.2

My major criticism of SVG 1.0 was that it was not possible to rescale 
the coordinate system. That is, you couldn't say things like one inch 
= one mile and then draw a map using miles which the renderer would 
automatically convert to on-screen inches.

The coordinate systems seem to have gotten more complex in 1.1 and 
1.2, and I can't quite tell if this is possible now or not. Can 
anyone enlighten me? Is it now possible to redefine the scale in 
absolute units for the entire drawing?

--
Elliotte