Effect of Using Mobile Phones on Driver's Control Behavior Based on Naturalistic Driving Data

"It's okay because I'm just driving": an exploration of self-reported mobile phone use among Mexican drivers

Introduction

Technological advancements have the potential to enhance people's quality of life, but their misuse can have a detrimental impact on safety. A notable example is the escalating issue of distracted driving resulting from the use of mobile phones behind the wheel, leading to severe crashes and injuries. Despite these concerns, both drivers' usage patterns and their risk-related associations remain scarcely documented in Mexico. Therefore, this descriptive study aimed to examine the mobile phone usage of Mexican drivers, its relationships to risk awareness and near-miss/crash involvement, and the self-reported underlying reasons for this behavior.

Methods

This cross-sectional study utilized a sample of 1,353 licensed Mexican drivers who took part in a nationwide series of interviews regarding their onboard phone use settings.

Results

A significant percentage of drivers (96.8%) recognize using a mobile phone while driving as high-risk behavior. However, only 7.4% reported completely avoiding its use while driving, with 22.4% identified as high-frequency users. Frequency was also found positively associated with the self-reported rate of near-misses and crashes. Furthermore, qualitative data analysis highlights the emergence of a 'sense of urgency' to attend to phone-related tasks in response to daily demands and life dynamics, offering a potential explanation for this behavior.

Conclusion

The results of this study suggest common patterns of onboard mobile use among Mexican drivers concerning driving situations and associated risks. This underscores the need for increased efforts to discourage onboard phone use in the country.

Application of naturalistic driving data: A systematic review and bibliometric analysis

The application of naturalistic driving data (NDD) has the potential to answer critical research questions in the area of driving behavior assessment, as well as the impact of exogenous and endogenous factors on driver safety. However, the presence of a large number of research domains and analysis foci makes a systematic review of NDD applications challenging in terms of information density and complexity. While previous research has focused on the execution of naturalistic driving studies and on specific analysis techniques, a multifaceted aggregation of NDD applications in Intelligent Transportation System (ITS) research is still unavailable. In spite of the current body of work being regularly updated with new findings, evolutionary nuances in this field remain relatively unknown. To address these deficits, the evolutionary trend of NDD applications was assessed using research performance analysis and science mapping. Subsequently, a systematic review was conducted using the keywords "naturalistic driving data" and "naturalistic driving study data". As a result, a set of 393 papers, Published between January 2002-March 2022, was thematically clustered based on the most common application areas utilizing NDD. the results highlighted the relationship between the most crucial research domains in ITS, where NDD had been incorporated, and application areas, modeling objectives, and analysis techniques involving naturalistic databases.

Texting on a Smartphone While Walking Affects Gait Parameters

Cell phone use while walking is an ever-increasing traffic hazard, and leads to an augmented risk of accidents. There is a rising number of injuries to pedestrians using a cell phone. Texting on a cell phone while walking is an emerging problem among people of different ages. The aim of this experiment was to investigate whether using a cell phone while walking affects walking velocity, as well as cadence, stride width, and length in young people. Forty-two subjects (20 males, 22 females; mean age: 20.74 ± 1.34 years; mean height: 173.21 ± 8.07 cm; mean weight: 69.05 ± 14.07 kg) participated in the study. The subjects were asked to walk on an FDM-1.5 dynamometer platform four times at a constant comfortable velocity and a fast velocity of their choice. They were asked to continuously type one sentence on a cell phone while walking at the same velocity. The results showed that texting while walking led to a significant reduction in velocity compared to walking without the phone. Width, cadence, and length of right and left single steps were statistically significantly influenced by this task. In conclusion, such changes in gait parameters may result in an increased risk of pedestrian crossing accidents and tripping while walking. Phone use is an activity that should be avoided while walking.

Young drivers and smartphone use: The impact of legal and non-legal deterrents

INTRODUCTION

Young drivers continue to be overrepresented in road crash statistics and smartphone use has been identified as a dangerous form of driver distraction. Previous research has identified factors encouraging drivers to use their mobile phone, with few examining what deters drivers. This study examines the influence of legal and non-legal deterrents on smartphone use while driving (SWD) in a young adult sample.

METHOD

An online survey was administered to a sample of 524 Australian drivers aged 17-25 years. Measures included demographic variables, legal deterrents (certainty, severity, and swiftness), and non-legal deterrents: social loss (peers and parents), internal loss (anticipated regret) and physical loss (injury to self/others). Self-reported SWD was the outcome variable, measured separately for initiating SWD and responding SWD behaviors.

RESULTS

Responding behaviors were reported more frequently than initiating, and social, internal, and physical loss were perceived as higher for initiating versus responding behaviors. Anticipated action regret and physical loss were significant negative predictors of SWD across both modalities of communication. Anticipated inaction regret was also a significant positive predictor of initiating behaviors. Both legal deterrents and social loss were non-significant predictors for both modalities of SWD.

CONCLUSIONS

The results reinforce previous evidence showing that legal deterrence variables are not consistently effective at reducing offending behaviors. Future research should continue to explore the effect of non-legal deterrents across different modalities of SWD.

PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS

Road safety interventions aimed at young drivers should evaluate the impact of highlighting anticipated regret and potential injury to self and others associated with risky driving behaviors, such as SWD.

Talking on the Phone While Driving: A Literature Review on Driving Simulator Studies

Distracted driving is a growing concern around the world and has been the focus of many naturalistic and simulator-based studies. Driving simulators provide excellent practical and theoretical help in studying the driving process, and considerable efforts have been made to prove their validity. This research aimed to review relevant simulator-based studies focused on investigating the effects of the talking-on-the-phone-while-driving distraction on drivers' behavior. This work is a scoping review which followed the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis Extension for Scoping Reviews (PRISMA-ScR) guidelines. The search was performed on five databases, covering twenty years of research results. It was focused on finding answers to three research questions that could offer an overview of the main sources of distraction, the research infrastructure, and the measures that were used to analyze and predict the effects of distractions. A number of 4332 studies were identified in the database search, from which 83 were included in the review. The main findings revealed that TPWD distraction negatively affects driving performance, exposing drivers to dangerous traffic situations. Moreover, there is a general understanding that the driver's cognitive, manual, visual, and auditory resources are all involved, to a certain degree, when executing a secondary task while driving.

Development of Methodology for Defining a Pattern of Drivers Mobile Phone Usage While Driving

Mobile phone usage during driving causes driver distraction, which negatively affects road traffic safety and is becoming an increasingly common cause of traffic accidents. This paper proposes a new methodology, based on anonymized datasets from telecommunication networks and analytical possibilities of data science, which has as its goal to identify a pattern of usage of the mobile phone (in particular voice calls and applications) by drivers while driving. Based on this finding, the methodology is used to identify segments of the road infrastructure on which mobile phone usage is more intense. Applying this methodology enables stakeholders in the road traffic safety system to propose targeted measures (educational, legal, or engineering) precisely on the sections where it is most vital to do so in order to reduce mobile phone usage and enhance road safety. The proposed methodology was implemented and demonstrated on two pilot sections on state roads in the Republic of Croatia. Research results point to the fact that the percentage of drivers who use the mobile phone for voice calls or for app usage is exceptionally high (10.68% to 33.90%) and presents a serious threat to road traffic safety.

Profiling drivers to assess safe and eco-driving behavior - A systematic review of naturalistic driving studies

Road accidents and vehicular emissions are two significant issues related to road transportation, affecting both human life and the environment. Prior research suggests that driver behavior is a crucial factor in the majority of road crashes and is a significant factor influencing fuel consumption and vehicle emission. Significant improvement in driving behavior can be achieved by providing feedback to drivers about their driving behavior. An increasing interest among researchers to identify risky and non-economical driving maneuvers has led to the development of driver behavior profiling, i.e., rating/categorizing drivers into different categories based on how they drive. To get an insight into different parameters and methodology adopted by researchers for categorizing drivers into different categories, this paper presents a systematic review of studies on driver behavior profiling. In the present paper, PRISMA approach was adopted to shortlist the most relevant studies for systematic review out of 1231 initial studies, which were extracted using the relevant keywords. The findings from our study suggest that the selection of parameters for profiling the driver will depend on the application of the profiling scheme, type of device used for extracting data, and importance of parameter in rating criteria. Further, the findings suggest that significant improvement in driving behavior can be achieved by providing feedback to the drivers about their driving behavior and by implementing usage-based insurance schemes. It is also suggested that future studies shall focus on using smartphone devices for the collection of driver data as smartphones are nowadays easily accessible to everyone.

Effects of Mobile Phone Use on Driving Performance: An Experimental Study of Workload and Traffic Violations

The use of communication technologies, e.g., mobile phones, has increased dramatically in recent years, and their use among drivers has become a great risk to traffic safety. The present study assessed the workload and road ordinary violations, utilizing driving data collected from 39 young participants who underwent a dual-task while driving a simulator, i.e., respond to a call, text on WhatsApp, and check Instagram. Findings confirmed that there are significant differences in the driving performance of young drivers in terms of vehicle control (i.e., lateral distance and hard shoulder line violations) between distracted and non-distracted drivers. Furthermore, the overall workload score of young drivers increases with the use of their mobile phones while driving. The obtained results contribute to a better understanding of the driving performance of distracted young drivers and thus they could be useful for further improvements to traffic safety strategies.

ROAD SAFETY AND TRAFFIC INJURIES DUE TO DISTRACTED DRIVING OF SMARTPHONE USAGE AMONG UNIVERSITY STUDENTS

This study provides the behaviour of university students using smartphone on daily basis and while driving, and exploring their perception towards the road safety of such habits. World Health Organisation states that distracted driving due to smartphone usage has been the uprising cause of road traffic injuries especially among young drivers. This study will provide knowledge in enforcing the right mitigation measures in preventing such behaviour from growing. The results from this study can also be integrated in intelligent transportation system in traffic accident prevention programme. This survey is conducted at Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia with a sample size of 371 respondents with majority of them aged 21 to 25 (86.6%) who own smartphone (100%) and private vehicle (59.1%). Results found that university student are dependent of their smartphone on daily basis for alarm (94.3%), communication and socialisation (73.9%). They tend to use their smartphone while driving, at traffic light (68.4%) and during traffic congestion (61.0%), often for maps navigations (69.8%) and to make call (57.4%) in hands-free mode. Despite knowing the danger of this behaviour (97.3%), they ignored the risks and committed such offenses. Hence, the need for education and enforcement are significant and relevant among university students to prevent such behaviours from growing.

Driving Behavior That Limits Concentration: A Nationwide Survey in Greece

Human behavior is implicated in most road accidents. The current study examined drivers’ behavior that interferes with decision making and reaction time to an incidence. Adults (≥17 years-old) participated in a questionnaire-based survey for driver’s behavior. Dataset was weighed according to sex, age and education based on the 2011 census. Differences between groups were assessed with Chi-squared tests while logistic regression models were used to identify drivers’ characteristics for specific behaviors. A total 1601 adults participated in the survey—48% males and 52% females. Texting, Global Positioning System (GPS) setting and smoking were observed more by professional drivers and drivers of an urban area, while smoking was also dependent on social class. Drink driving was observed more by males (20% vs. 5% females), while after adjusting for age, the odds of drink driving in males were 5 times higher than females (p < 0.001). A different effect of age depending on the driver’s sex and vice versa was observed regarding phone calls. Drivers’ behavior with distractive potential differed by age, sex, social class and area of residence. Male drivers were more likely to perform drink driving, while professional drivers were more likely to use cell phone for calls and texting, set the GPS and smoke while driving.

Adaptation and Psychometric Analysis of the Test of Mobile Phone Dependence-Brief Version in Italian Adolescents

Since the diffusion of recent models of mobile phones, anyone with an internet connection can communicate continuously and search for information. This raises some questions about the possible consequences of problematic mobile phone use (PMPU) in a complex life phase such as adolescence. Therefore, we performed a psychometric analysis of the brief version of the Test of Mobile Phone Dependence (TMD) in Italy. The sample comprised 575 Italian adolescents aged 11 to 18 years. Data were collected using the TMD-brief, the Personality Inventory for the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) and the Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System (PROMIS) Sleep Disturbance Short Form. Regarding test dimensionality, the best-fit measurement model included four factors: "Abstinence"; "Abuse and interference with other activities"; "Tolerance"; and "Lack of control" (Satorra-Bentler χ2 (48) = 185.96, p < 0.01; robust root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA) = 0.079 (90% confidence interval (CI): 0.067; 0.091); robust TLI = 0.904; robust comparative fit index (CFI) = 0.930). The Italian version of the TMD-brief was found to have good reliability and psychometric properties, and a four-factorial structure. PMPU predicted significant sleep disturbances and this relationship was moderated by clinical personality traits. Findings from this study support the use of the Italian version of the TMD-brief as a screening tool to investigate PMPU in Italian adolescents.

Analyzing driver behavior under naturalistic driving conditions: A review

For a decade, researchers working in the area of road safety have started exploring the use of driving behavior data for a better understanding of the causes related to road accidents. A review of the literature reveals the excellent potential of naturalistic driving studies carried out by collecting vehicle performance data and driver behavior data during normal, impaired, and safety-critical situations. An in-depth understanding of driver behavior helps analyze and implement pre-crash safety measures - the development of enforcement policies, infrastructure design, and intelligent vehicle safety systems. The present paper attempts to review the naturalistic driving studies that have been undertaken so far. The paper begins with an overview of different methods for collecting unobtrusive driver behavior data during their day to day trip, followed by a discussion of various factors affecting driving behavior and their influence on vehicle performance parameters. The paper also discusses the strategies mentioned in the literature for improving driving behavior using naturalistic driving studies to enhance road safety. Some of the major findings of this review suggest that i) driver behavior is a major cause in the majority of the road accidents ii) drivers generally reduce their speed and increases headway as a compensatory measure to reduce the workload imposed during distracting activity and adverse weather conditions iii) mobile phone has emerged as a potential device for collecting naturalistic driving data and, iv) improvement in driving behavior can be achieved by providing feedback to the drivers about their driving behavior. This can be done by implementing usage-based insurance schemes such as pay as you drive (PAYD), pay how you drive (PHYD), and manage how you drive (MHYD). While a considerable amount of research has been done to analyze driving behavior under naturalistic conditions, some areas which are yet to be explored are highlighted in the present paper.

Distracted Behavior of Pedestrians While Crossing Street: A Case Study in China

Pedestrians are the most vulnerable road users in the traffic system and thousands of pedestrians are injured or killed globally as a result of traffic crashes every year. With their popularity and enriched functions, mobile phones are playing an increasingly important role in people's lives, and records of vehicle crashes involving pedestrians have shown the hazards caused by distraction of mobile phone use, especially in the context of crossing the street. The present study employed the theory of planned behavior (TPB) to investigate the behavior of using a mobile phone while crossing the street in China. An online questionnaire based on the TPB framework was developed to collect data, and 387 eligible samples were retained after inspection. Mobile phone use while crossing the street is prevalent in China (i.e., 53%). The results show that three standard TPB constructs (i.e., attitudes, intention and perceived behavioral control) emerged as significant predictors of the behavior of using mobile phone while crossing, and two extended constructs (i.e., situation, mobile phone involvement) also significantly predicted the behavior. In addition, for this population, intention was the strongest predictor of the behavior among these significant constructs. Moreover, the results were discussed and compared with some existing studies and safety interventions were also provided.

Naturalistic Driving Study in Brazil: An Analysis of Mobile Phone Use Behavior while Driving

Mobile phone use (MPU) while driving is an important road safety challenge worldwide. Naturalistic driving studies (NDS) emerged as one of the most sophisticated methodologies to investigate driver behavior; however, NDS have not been implemented in low- or middle-income countries. The aim of this research is to investigate MPU while driving and compare the results to those reported in international studies. An analysis of 61.32 h and 1350 km driven in Curitiba (Brazil) showed that MPU lasted for an average of 28.51 s (n = 627) and occurred in 58.71% of trips (n = 201) with an average frequency of 8.37 interactions per hour (n = 201). The proportion of the trip time using a mobile phone was 7.03% (n = 201), and the average instantaneous speed was 12.77 km/h (n = 627) while using the phone. Generally, drivers spent less time on more complex interactions and selected a lower speed when using the phone. MPU was observed more during short duration than longer trips. Drivers in this study engaged in a larger number of MPU compared to drivers from Netherlands and the United States; and the percentage of trip time with MPU was between North American and European values.