Mobile phone use during driving: Effects on speed and effectiveness of driver compensatory behaviour

• Published in: Accident analysis and prevention Vol. 106; pp. 370 - 378
• Main Authors: Choudhary, Pushpa, Velaga, Nagendra R
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England Elsevier Ltd 01-09-2017
• Subjects: Accident probabilities; Accidents, Traffic - prevention & control; Accidents, Traffic - statistics & numerical data; Adult; Cell Phone Use - statistics & numerical data; Compensatory behaviour; Computer Simulation; Conversation; Distracted Driving - statistics & numerical data; Distraction; Female; Humans; Male; Middle Aged; Risk Factors; Speed; Surveys and Questionnaires; Text Messaging - statistics & numerical data; Texting; Young Adult; Distraction; Speed; Conversation; Texting; Compensatory behaviour; Accident probabilities
• ISSN: 0001-4575; 1879-2057
• DOI: 10.1016/j.aap.2017.06.021

•Simulator study for analysing distraction effects of conversation and texting are carried out.•Experiments are conducted with 100 drivers on simulated Indian rural highways.•Effects on speed and accident probability are measured.•Effect of speed reduction strategy on accident risk is studied.
This study analysed and modelled the effects of conversation and texting (each with two difficulty levels) on driving performance of Indian drivers in terms of their mean speed and accident avoiding abilities; and further explored the relationship between speed reduction strategy of the drivers and their corresponding accident frequency. 100 drivers of three different age groups (young, mid-age and old-age) participated in the simulator study. Two sudden events of Indian context: unexpected crossing of pedestrians and joining of parked vehicles from road side, were simulated for estimating the accident probabilities. Generalized linear mixed models approach was used for developing linear regression models for mean speed and binary logistic regression models for accident probability. The results of the models showed that the drivers significantly compensated the increased workload by reducing their mean speed by 2.62m/s and 5.29m/s in the presence of conversation and texting tasks respectively. The logistic models for accident probabilities showed that the accident probabilities increased by 3 and 4 times respectively when the drivers were conversing or texting on a phone during driving. Further, the relationship between the speed reduction patterns and their corresponding accident frequencies showed that all the drivers compensated differently; but, among all the drivers, only few drivers, who compensated by reducing the speed by 30% or more, were able to fully offset the increased accident risk associated with the phone use.