Patoka Police Cars

Here in Japan the police force drives around in a variety of different brand cars. All of them are of course Japanese brands such as Toyota, Honda, Nissan, and Mitsubishi. As in many other countries the basic colors are black and white on top. A particular design element is that the black from the bottom forms something like a triangle at the front, pointing toward the window. The red lightbars on the roof are usually slightly elevated.

The Japanese police car is fitted with red lightbars only. This can make it quite confusing since all other emergency services such as ambulances, fire engines, road service vehicles etc. all use the same red lightbars. Often I am driving with loud music on, which doesn't really help in distinguishing and ambulance from a police car by the sound of their sirens. I have to care fully check my mirrors and be quick to decide whether I should slowdown or pull over. The sirens of all emergency service vehicles are not very loud which gives the average driver (with or without music on) only a few seconds to react after spotting the red lights.

However, the most disturbing part for me is not that the sirens are barely audible, but it is the fact that the police cars in Japan seem to always drive around with the red lights on. This is good for me because when I spot some flashing red light up the road ahead I can slow down to the legally allowed maximum speed. The stupid thing is that everyone knows this and so about 80 percent of all drivers on the road over speed on a daily basis, including me. As long as we don't spot any red lights it means full throttle on every road...