Understanding driver self-regulating behavior: how does phone use influence vehicle control in real world?

• In the last few years, research on driver distraction focused on assessing the extent to which usingmobile phones is compatible with safe driving. Many studies employing driving simulators suggestedthat using a phone while driving is definitely unsafe. Nevertheless, so far, naturalistic studies, as wellas aggregate crash statistics, did not match these results, keeping open the debate, and promisingguidelines for new countermeasures to distraction alternative to bans and based on understandingdriver behavior in the real world.Naturalistic data collected from 108 drivers in the Integrated Vehicle-Based Safety Systems (IVBSS)program in 2009 and 2010 was employed to determine how drivers change their vehicle controlwhen engaging in a conversation on, or manipulation of, a phone. Drivers were also divided intothree age groups 20-30 (young), 40-50 (middle-age), and 60-70 (older) to determine the possibleinteraction between age and phone use while driving on vehicle control.Using a phone for calling affected lateral control differently than manipulating a phone (as whiledialing or texting). However, no difference was found for longitudinal control. Young drivers used aphone while driving more often than older and middle-age drivers. In addition, young driversexhibited smaller safety margins while using a phone as well as faster reactions. Finally, the resultssuggest that drivers tend to interrupt phone interactions when the driving context becomes morecomplex.In conclusion, this study suggests that driver self-regulating behavior is the key to assess the netsafety effect of using a phone while driving. Consequently, countermeasures able to support thedrivers’ inherent self-regulating behavior may be a more successful, and more widely adoptedsolutions, than phone bans toward addressing the potential for distraction posed by phones whiledriving.

Ämnesord

NATURVETENSKAP  -- Data- och informationsvetenskap (hsv//swe)

NATURAL SCIENCES  -- Computer and Information Sciences (hsv//eng)

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Psykologi (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Psychology (hsv//eng)

Publikations- och innehållstyp

kon (ämneskategori)

vet (ämneskategori)