cwerdna
Well-known member
Came across http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/pointing-and-calling-japan-trains in my Facebook feed the other day. They wrote "It's all part of a Japanese-innovated industrial safety method known as pointing-and-calling—a system that reduces workplace errors by up to 85 percent."
Interesting. I've visited Japan 5x for vacation and definitely noticed the pointing and gestures by train workers and didn't know why, until now. And, I didn't know it went on in the "cockpit"/cab.
Digging a bit on YouTube, I found videos like at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-wH41Q6n_MY. The driver/engineer is pointing at parts of the control panel at 0:57 and speed checks at 2:47 and 2:50. At 7:17, the train reaches 270 km/h or ~168 mph. Man... I miss Japan.
The guy in https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xpkrIu2p_iM (from the bottom of the article) is doing point and call quite loudly. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9LmdUz3rOQU has a whole bunch of examples of the engineer/driver pointing but his voice may not be as audible.
I found https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BGfl_EX8E8o, but the guy who made the video didn't know the reason/motivation behind the pointing + talking to himself.
I found some more background info at http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2008/10/21/reference/jr-gestures.
Interesting. I've visited Japan 5x for vacation and definitely noticed the pointing and gestures by train workers and didn't know why, until now. And, I didn't know it went on in the "cockpit"/cab.
Digging a bit on YouTube, I found videos like at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-wH41Q6n_MY. The driver/engineer is pointing at parts of the control panel at 0:57 and speed checks at 2:47 and 2:50. At 7:17, the train reaches 270 km/h or ~168 mph. Man... I miss Japan.
The guy in https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xpkrIu2p_iM (from the bottom of the article) is doing point and call quite loudly. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9LmdUz3rOQU has a whole bunch of examples of the engineer/driver pointing but his voice may not be as audible.
I found https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BGfl_EX8E8o, but the guy who made the video didn't know the reason/motivation behind the pointing + talking to himself.
I found some more background info at http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2008/10/21/reference/jr-gestures.