Should the Japanese approach to signals be adopted in the UK?

Moderator note: Split from

The Japanese practice of requiring drivers to point at every signal and say out loud what they are seeing (Shisa Kanko) helps ensure that drivers don't fail to notice what the signals are telling them. Costs nothing but training and a willingness to do...

quentinc said:

The Japanese practice of requiring drivers to point at every signal and say out loud what they are seeing (Shisa Kanko) helps ensure that drivers don't fail to notice what the signals are telling them. Costs nothing but training and a willingness to do...

Click to expand...

Risk-triggered commentary (RTC) is quite a big thing and Im pretty sure most if not all TOCs/FOCs make new trainee drivers use it, experienced drivers however seem to pushback on using it from what I've seen for whatever their reasons

quentinc said:

The Japanese practice of requiring drivers to point at every signal and say out loud what they are seeing (Shisa Kanko) helps ensure that drivers don't fail to notice what the signals are telling them. Costs nothing but training and a willingness to do...

Click to expand...

No

I use comentry often if a feel I must up my concentration when driving my car. I find it resets my awareness.

Isn't this similar to what police drivers do during a high speed chase ?

jamesst said:

No

Click to expand...

Out of interest, given the evidence that it does reduce accidents, why not?

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 24 Jun 2026 ==

stuartl said:

Isn't this similar to what police drivers do during a high speed chase ?

Click to expand...

Don't police normally provide commentary to aid their colleagues get into position to assist with stopping the chase?

zwk500 said:

Don't police normally provide commentary to aid their colleagues get into position to assist with stopping the chase?

Click to expand...

Yes, but they also comment on many other aspects of the pursuit – which helps to demonstrate situational awareness, that they are not allowing their judgment to become clouded or fixated by the chase, and enables an Inspector or other supervising party in the control room to assess the perceived risk of the pursuit to the proportionality of the offence.

You'll often hear officers in such commentary make statements about the suitability of the vehicle they are driving for a pursuit, the road or weather conditions, the manner of the other individual's driving, or, indeed, that they are appropriately trained for an intended manoeuvre (e.g. they'll sometimes refer to being "TPAC trained" or similar).

There's a lot more interesting information about what goes into authorising and standing down such pursuits here: https://www.college.police.uk/app/roads-policing/police-pursuits

zwk500 said:

Don't police normally provide commentary to aid their colleagues get into position to assist with stopping the chase?

Click to expand...

It’s both, but principally the training is designed to keep their attention from wandering. Used increasingly across industries - e.g. cabin crew are trained that way for safety-critical duties, and NYC subway conductors do it while pointing at the checkerboard to minimise risk.

Very sensible, and definitely worth at least a trial here. Would be sad if fuddy-duddies stop it being used more widely without even testing it first.