Mixed Signals

I’m writing this just after finishing our May Driver Education event, which is also my first event as Track Chair. We lucked out for weather with the slightest amount of rain at the most opportune times – that is a rarity for the first event of the season at CTMP.

Friday ahead of our June Driver Education event we hosted our annual Instructor Day. Peter Carroll put in a TON of work to organize the day, if you see him give him a big Thank You for his efforts. This year was a little different as it was the first time since 2019 we were able to have PCA National attend to conduct their training course due to the pandemic. This left us with a big group of instructors who had joined the ranks as UCR instructors but had not yet undergone National training. Once an existing UCR instructor has completed National training, they are eligible to attend events with other PCA regions and instruct. It also benefits our program with the additional knowledge and education received.

PCA National Trainer Carol Neal came all the way up from the Pittsburgh region of Pennsylvania to attend our instructor day and help us shape up our instructor corps.

Many veteran instructors were also in attendance, they played the role of being mentors to our newcomers and national candidates. Something I found interesting was although they weren’t expected to, the majority of our senior instructors sat through all of the classroom training as a refresher. It’s good to see that level of dedication.

Each mentor had four candidates to work with throughout the day with the final candidate being an “exit exam”. This meant that each candidate that passed the program had been trained and vetted one on one by four senior instructors. We were even lucky enough to receive a torrential downpour in the afternoon so we could ensure they are brushed up on their wet line. It’s a lot of information and exercises to pack into one day, and not everyone passes the training. When the day was complete, we had 29 instructors complete the National training and of those were 12 new UCR instructors. Steps like these ensure the health of our track program for the future.

Shifting gears a little, a hot topic lately in the High Performance Driver Education (HPDE) community is the use of the vehicle’s turn signal indicators to communicate passing. I have been approached multiple times by members and have seen some recent discussions online as well as rumblings of this with other PCA regions. If you’ve attended one of our Track Day events I certainly hope you know what the passing signals represent, if you haven’t allow me to explain. UCR’s rule stipulates the driver’s side window MUST be all the way down while on track and the passenger side window may be all the way down or all the way up, not partially parked mid-way. Having the driver’s side window all the way down allows the driver to communicate with their left hand and arm which side they would like the trailing car to pass. A big obvious point of the hand to the left means “pass me on my left” a sweeping motion out and over the roof pointed to the right means “please pass me on my right”.

Other organizations have opted to use the vehicle’s turn signals to indicate the side they would like to be passed on. Here’s where I start to disagree, and it’s not so much the use of turn signals but HOW they are used. Allow me to explain: in Europe, at a track day if they use the vehicle’s turn signals they signal to the right, the car remains to the right and the driver behind knows they are to pass on the left. Similarly as to how one would drive on public roads. Signal where the vehicle is going/will be and then do so by physically having the vehicle follow what the indicator indicates. Now somewhere along the lines in HPDE track driving someone in North America got the bright idea of “Hey, I know what we’ll do. We will do the opposite of Europe track days and what everyone’s brain is wired to do on the street!” In their infinite wisdom, it became popular with some other Track Day groups to have the lead car use their signal to indicate which side they would like the trailing car to pass them on, a turn signal to the right would be saying “I’ll stay left, you pass me on my right.” Anyone who has spent a lot of time teaching people knows habits are the hardest thing to break.

I am very much opposed to the usage of turn signals in this manner. It’s counter-intuitive, it gives the driver one more thing to think about which is opposite to what their unconscious (the noun, not the adjective) mind is trained to do. Novice drivers often find the rush of adrenaline and pace with which everything is happening on track to overwhelm their senses. What do humans do when they are overwhelmed? They often default to what comes naturally to free up processing space. Now you will have a driver who signals to the right and moves to the right as they would on the street since that’s what they’ve trained their brain to do every day of their driving life. What we can’t ever have is miscommunication. The reason we use hand signals out the window is for clear communication. I don’t think anyone has driven on a public road with their arm accidentally gesturing a signal out the window. (Actually, maybe it’s habitual enough for Toronto drivers!)

Asking drivers to signal the opposite to how they usually would on the street is like asking right-handed people to write with their left hand. I want you to write an essay while watching a TV show with commercial breaks. Every time the show is on you watch the show, every time the commercials come on you write the essay with your opposite writing hand. Which hand do you think most people would pick the pen up with? It’s very difficult to untrain the mind of habit.

A secondary issue is multi-car passes. I’ve spoken to a lot of seasoned veterans in the driver education community and no one can answer my question of how to allow multiple cars behind to pass. If I want two or three cars behind me to pass with my hand signal, I can point each car past me by motioning with my hand, bringing my arm back into the car and then extending it again to indicate the next car and do this in short order. I can’t do that with my turn signal indicator.

Rather than having this discussion several times, I figured I would take the opportunity to address it in this article. Your UCR track team does not intend to change our policy on passing signals. </>

Photo: Michael Coates