The effects of mobile phone use on pedestrian crossing behaviour at signalized and unsignalized intersections

Research amongst drivers suggests that pedestrians using mobile telephones may behave riskily while crossing the road, and casual observation suggests concerning levels of pedestrian mobile-use. An observational field survey of 270 females and 276 males was conducted to compare the safety of crossing behaviours for pedestrians using, versus not using, a mobile phone. Amongst females, pedestrians who crossed while talking on a mobile phone crossed more slowly, and were less likely to look at traffic before starting to cross, to wait for traffic to stop, or to look at traffic while crossing, compared to matched controls. For males, pedestrians who crossed while talking on a mobile phone crossed more slowly at unsignalized crossings. These effects suggest that talking on a mobile phone is associated with cognitive distraction that may undermine pedestrian safety. Messages explicitly suggesting techniques for avoiding mobile-use while road crossing may benefit pedestrian safety.     

Pedestrians, vehicles, and cell phones

With cellular phones and portable music players becoming a staple in everyday life, questions have arisen regarding the attentional deficits that might occur when such devices are used while performing other tasks. Here, we used a street-crossing task in an immersive virtual environment to test how this sort of divided attention affects pedestrian behavior when crossing a busy street. Thirty-six participants navigated through a series of unsigned intersections by walking on a manual treadmill in a virtual environment. While crossing, participants were undistracted, engaged in a hands free cell phone conversation, or listening to music on an iPod. Pedestrians were less likely to successfully cross the road when conversing on a cell phone than when listening to music, even though they took more time to initiate their crossing when conversing on a cell phone (∼1.5 s). This success rate difference was driven largely by failures to cross the road in the allotted trial time period (30 s), suggesting that when conversing on a cell phone pedestrians are less likely to recognize and act on crossing opportunities.     

Distraction and pedestrian safety: How talking on the phone,texting, and listening to music impact crossing the street

As use of handheld multimedia devices has exploded globally, safety experts have begun to consider the impact of distraction while talking, text-messaging, or listening to music on traffic safety. This study was designed to test how talking on the phone, texting, and listening to music may influence pedestrian safety. 138 college students crossed an interactive, semi-immersive virtual pedestrian street. They were randomly assigned to one of four groups: crossing while talking on the phone, crossing while texting, crossing while listening to a personal music device, or crossing while undistracted. Participants distracted by music or texting were more likely to be hit by a vehicle in the virtual pedestrian environment than were undistracted participants. Participants in all three distracted groups were more likely to look away from the street environment (and look toward other places, such as their telephone or music device) than were undistracted participants. Findings were maintained after controlling for demographics, walking frequency, and media use frequency. Distraction from multimedia devices has a small but meaningful impact on college students’ pedestrian safety. Future research should consider the cognitive demands of pedestrian safety, and how those processes may be impacted by distraction. Policymakers might consider ways to protect distracted pedestrians from harm and to reduce the number of individuals crossing streets while distracted.     

Using mobile telephones: cognitive workload and attention resource allocation

Driver distraction is recognized as being one of the central causes of road traffic incidents and mobile telephones are tangible devices (among many other electronic devices) that can distract the driver through changes in workload. Forty participants completed a motorway route characterized by a low level of road complexity in the form of vehicle handling and information processing. A peripheral detection task (PDT) was employed to gauge mental workload. We compared effects of conversation type (simple versus complex) and telephone mode (hands-free versus handheld) to baseline conditions. The participants' reaction times increased significantly when conversing but no benefit of hands-free units over handheld units on rural roads/motorways were found. Thus, in regard to mobile telephones, the content of the conversation was far more important for driving and driver distraction than the type of telephone when driving on a motorway or similar type of road. The more difficult and complex the conversation, the greater the possible negative effect on driver distraction.     

驾驶过程中手机使用的补偿式行为

驾驶员在驾车过程中使用手机会造成驾驶分心,研究驾驶中的补偿行为有助于降低驾驶分心造成的危害。通过模拟驾驶探究驾驶行为和生理指标在是否使用手机、不同路段复杂程度、不同驾驶员类型中的差异,从而使驾驶员注意到驾驶中使用手机的危害并及时采取措施,弥补驾驶分心带来的危害。研究结果表明,使用手机主效应在各项指标中均呈现显著影响(P<0.001),驾驶员类型主效应在阅读短信行为中的踩刹车持续时间上存在显著影响(P<0.01),使用手机与驾驶员类型交互作用在接听电话行为的心率、阅读短信行为中的平均速度、踩刹车持续时间和心率上存在显著影响(P<0.05)。比起接听免提电话,阅读短信时采取补偿行为的幅度更大(P<0.05);驾驶员比学员采取补偿行为的幅度更大(P<0.05)。     

Mobile phone use while driving: A hybrid modeling approach

The analysis of the effects that mobile phone use produces while driving is a topic of great interest for the scientific community. There is consensus that using a mobile phone while driving increases the risk of exposure to traffic accidents. The purpose of this research is to evaluate the drivers’ behavior when they decide whether or not to use a mobile phone while driving. For that, a hybrid modeling approach that integrates a choice model with the latent variable “risk perception” was used. It was found that workers and individuals with the highest education level are more prone to use a mobile phone while driving than others. Also, “risk perception” is higher among individuals who have been previously fined and people who have been in an accident or almost been in an accident. It was also found that the tendency to use mobile phones while driving increases when the traffic speed reduces, but it decreases when the fine increases. Even though the urgency of the phone call is the most important explanatory variable in the choice model, the cost of the fine is an important attribute in order to control mobile phone use while driving.     

Pedestrian injuries due to mobile phone use in public places

Research shows that pedestrians, similar to drivers, experience reduced situation awareness, distracted attention and unsafe behavior when talking or texting on their mobile phones. The present study centered on injuries related to mobile phone use among pedestrians. It used data from the US Consumer Product Safety Commission on injuries in hospital emergency rooms from 2004 through 2010. It found that mobile-phone related injuries among pedestrians increased relative to total pedestrian injuries, and paralleled the increase in injuries for drivers, and in 2010 exceeded those for drivers. Pedestrian injuries related to mobile-phone use were higher for males and for people under 31 years old. Using a mobile phone while walking puts pedestrians at risk of accident, injury or death.     

Extent and variations in mobile phone use among drivers of heavy vehicles in Denmark

A substantial body of research has shown that use of mobile phones while driving can impair driving performance and increase the risk of being involved in accidents. Similarly, mobile phone use seems to be an increasing activity thus representing a relevant traffic safety issue. This paper investigates the extent and variations in mobile phone use among drivers of heavy vehicles in Denmark. The data was collected through written questionnaires and had a response rate of 58%. It was found that more than 99% of the drivers used mobile phones while driving. Despite a prohibition of hand-held mobile phone use while driving 31% of the drivers reported to do so. Analysis of the variations in usage found a positive significant relationship between driving hours and phone use. A negative linear effect was found between age and phone use. Similarly, a positive significant association was found between the number of stops and the amount of phone use. 0.5% reported that their use of mobile phones had contributed to an accident, while 6% had experienced their mobile phone use causing a dangerous situation. However, 66% reported experiencing dangerous situations because of others road users' mobile phone use. Various implications of the findings are discussed particularly in relation to the drivers with high exposure.     

Influence of personal mobile phone ringing and usual intention to answer on driver error

Given evidence of effects of mobile phone use on driving, and also legislation, many careful drivers refrain from answering their phones when driving. However, the distracting influence of a call on driving, even in the context of not answering, has not been examined. Furthermore, given that not answering may be contrary to an individual's normal habits, this study examined whether distraction caused by the ignored call varies according to normal intention to answer whilst driving. That is, determining whether the effect is more than a simple matter of noise distraction. Participants were 27 young drivers (18–29 years), all regular mobile users. A Theory of Planned Behaviour questionnaire examined predictors of intention to refrain from answering calls whilst driving. Participants provided their mobile phone number and were instructed not to answer their phone if it were to ring during a driving simulation. The simulation scenario had seven hazards (e.g. car pulling out, pedestrian crossing) with three being immediately preceded by a call. Infractions (e.g. pedestrian collisions, vehicle collisions, speed exceedances) were significantly greater when distracted by call tones than with no distraction. Lower intention to ignore calls whilst driving correlated with a larger effect of distraction, as was feeling unable to control whether one answered whilst driving (Perceived Behavioural Control). The study suggests that even an ignored call can cause significantly increased infractions in simulator driving, with pedestrian collisions and speed exceedances being striking examples. Results are discussed in relation to cognitive demands of inhibiting normal behaviour and to drivers being advised to switch phones off whilst driving.     

Powered two-wheelers road accidents and their risk perception in dense urban areas: Case of Paris

For a few years, the use of powered two-wheelers has taken off in Paris. It then became critical for the City of Paris to understand both the mechanisms leading to traffic accidents involving at least one powered two-wheelers user and the perception of their risk when riding in dense urban areas. In so doing, two studies were carried out along similar lines so that their results could be compared. The first study focused on the perception of situations where accidents are most likely to occur. The second one was an analysis of police reports of accidents involving at least one powered two-wheelers and the drawing-up of prototypical accident scenarios. Comparing the results of the two studies revealed a gap between perceived and objective risks of these users. In fact, they rather fear the situations during which a car driver is changing lanes, while accidents involving them occur more often when a car driver turns (right, left or U). Knowledge of this dissonance in terms of awareness of road risks for powered two-wheelers and equally, other road users, will give the City of Paris food for thought. The promising results of this study have encouraged the City of Paris to extend it to other types of users, such as cyclists or elderly pedestrians.     

Pedestrians' crossing behaviors and safety at unmarked roadway in China

Pedestrians’ crossing out of crosswalks (unmarked roadway) contributed to many traffic accidents, but existing pedestrian studies mainly focus on crosswalk crossing in developed countries specifically. Field observation of 254 pedestrians at unmarked roadway in China showed that 65.7% of them did not look for vehicles after arriving at the curb. Those who did look and pay attention to the traffic did so for duration of time that followed an exponential distribution. Pedestrians preferred crossing actively in tentative ways rather than waiting passively. The waiting time at the curb, at the median, and at the roadway all followed exponential distributions. During crossing, all pedestrians looked at the oncoming vehicles. When interacting with these vehicles, 31.9% of them ran and 11.4% stepped backwards. Running pedestrians usually began running at the borderline rather than within the lanes. Pedestrians preferred safe to short paths and they crossed second half of the road with significantly higher speed. These behavioral patterns were rechecked at an additional site with 105 pedestrians and the results showed much accordance. In terms of safety, pedestrians who were middle aged, involved in bigger groups, looked at vehicles more often before crossing or interacted with buses rather than cars were safer while those running were more dangerous. Potential applications of these findings, including building accurate simulation models of pedestrians and education of drivers and pedestrians in developing countries were also discussed.     

Pedestrians’ crossing behaviors and safety at unmarked roadway in China

Pedestrians’ crossing out of crosswalks (unmarked roadway) contributed to many traffic accidents, but existing pedestrian studies mainly focus on crosswalk crossing in developed countries specifically. Field observation of 254 pedestrians at unmarked roadway in China showed that 65.7% of them did not look for vehicles after arriving at the curb. Those who did look and pay attention to the traffic did so for duration of time that followed an exponential distribution. Pedestrians preferred crossing actively in tentative ways rather than waiting passively. The waiting time at the curb, at the median, and at the roadway all followed exponential distributions. During crossing, all pedestrians looked at the oncoming vehicles. When interacting with these vehicles, 31.9% of them ran and 11.4% stepped backwards. Running pedestrians usually began running at the borderline rather than within the lanes. Pedestrians preferred safe to short paths and they crossed second half of the road with significantly higher speed. These behavioral patterns were rechecked at an additional site with 105 pedestrians and the results showed much accordance. In terms of safety, pedestrians who were middle aged, involved in bigger groups, looked at vehicles more often before crossing or interacted with buses rather than cars were safer while those running were more dangerous. Potential applications of these findings, including building accurate simulation models of pedestrians and education of drivers and pedestrians in developing countries were also discussed.     

Route familiarity breeds inattention: A driving simulator study

Inattention is a major cause of traffic accidents. Here, we show that, contrary to common-sense expectation, familiarity with a route is itself a source of driving impairment. This effect may be attributed to increased mind-wandering along familiar routes. In the present work, participants followed a vehicle along a route with which they were either familiar or unfamiliar. During the experimental session, the lead-vehicle braked at random locations, forcing participants to brake to avoid a collision. Participants were also required to respond with a button press when they noticed pedestrians heading toward the road from a sidewalk. In Experiment 1 we found that familiar drivers follow the lead vehicle more closely and are slower to notice approaching pedestrians. In Experiment 2, with following distance held constant, reaction times to central and peripheral events were longer for familiar drivers. Consistent with the mind-wandering hypothesis, all these effects were eliminated in Experiment 3 when drivers were made to focus on the driving task.     

What can the drivers’ own description from combined sources provide in an analysis of driver distraction and low vigilance in accident situations?

Accident data play an important role in vehicle safety development. Accident data sources are generally limited in terms of how much information is provided on driver states and behaviour prior to an accident. However, the precise limitations vary between databases, due to differences in analysis focus and data collection procedures between organisations. If information about a specific accident can be retrieved from more than one data source it should be possible to combine the available information sets to facilitate data from one source to compensate for limitations in the other(s). To investigate the viability of such compensation, this study identified a set of accidents recorded in two different data sources. The first data source investigated was an accident mail survey and the second data source insurance claims documents consisting predominantly of insurance claims completed by the involved road users. An analysis of survey variables was compared to a case analysis including word data derived from the same survey and filed insurance claims documents. For each accident, the added value of having access to more than one source of information was assessed. To limit the scope of this study, three particular topics were investigated: available information on low vigilance (e.g., being drowsy, ill); secondary task distraction (e.g., talking with passengers, mobile phone use); and distraction related to the driving task (e.g., looking for approaching vehicles). Results suggest that for low vigilance and secondary task distraction, a combination of the mail survey and insurance claims documents provide more reliable and detailed pre-crash information than survey variables alone. However, driving related distraction appears to be more difficult to capture. In order to gain a better understanding of the above issues and how frequently they occur in accidents, the data sources and analysis methods suggested here may be combined with other investigation methods such as in-depth accident investigations and pre-crash data recordings.     

The effects of age and traffic density on street-crossing behavior

Past research has shown that road users accept shorter time gaps when the waiting time/number of vehicles they let pass before attempting to merge into the traffic increases. While elderly pedestrians are known to be an extremely vulnerable group of road users, very few studies dealt with the effect of environmental constraints and crossing complexity on this population's safety. The present study aimed at determining whether or not street-crossing decisions and behavior of younger and older pedestrians were differently affected by a traffic flow. In an interactive street-crossing task, we assessed whether mean time gap and crossing decisions depended on the position of the gap pedestrians selected into the traffic stream. Results revealed that irrespective of their age pedestrians accepted a smaller time gap when they chose the second interval of the traffic compared to the first one. Contrasting with previous hypotheses, this traffic-related behavior was not accompanied by an increase in the decisions risk. The findings also showed that the transition threshold from rejecting to accepting time gaps was shorter when the second interval was selected compared to the first one. This increment in task constraints might help younger and older pedestrians alike to perceive action possibilities more accurately and to be better attuned to traffic conditions by comparing gaps between each other. This opens an interesting perspective in the understanding and the training of the ability of elderly road users to remain accurate in their judgements.     

Accidents and close call situations connected to the use of mobile phones

The aim of our work was to study the accidents and close call situations connected to the use of mobile phones. We have analyzed how the accidents/close call situations are connected to background information, in particular age, gender and self-reported symptoms. The study was carried out as a cross-sectional study by posting the questionnaire to 15,000 working-age Finns. The responses (6121) were analyzed using the logistic regression models. Altogether 13.7% of respondents had close call situations and 2.4% had accidents at leisure, in which the mobile phone had a partial effect, and at work the amounts were 4.5% and 0.4% respectively, during the last 12 months. Essentially, we found that: (1) men tend to have more close calls and accidents while on a mobile phone, (2) younger people tend to have more accidents and close calls while on a mobile phone, but it does not appear to be large enough to warrant intervention, (3) employed people tend to have more problems with mobile phone usage and accidents/close calls, and (4) there was a slight increase in mobile-phone-related accidents/close calls if the respondent also reported sleep disturbances and minor aches and pains. In the future, it is important to take into account and study how symptoms can increase the risk of accidents or close call situations in which a mobile phone has a partial effect.     

Cell phone conversing while driving in New Zealand: prevalence, risk perception and legislation

This study investigated (i) the prevalence of conversing on a cell phone while driving in New Zealand, (ii) respondents’ perception of risk regarding this behaviour and (iii) attitudes towards legislation banning cell phone use while driving. In addition, the study examined the association between the prevalence of conversing on a cell phone and risk perception. Anonymous, self-reported, survey data was collected via the internet from 1057 drivers nationwide regarding the frequency of conversing on a cell phone, including hands-free and hand-held conversing, risk perception, views on legislation, and demographic information. A positive relationship was found between the frequency of conversing on a cell phone and risk perception; that is, as the frequency of conversing on a cell phone increased, the perceived risk of this behaviour decreased.     

Pedestrian safety at traffic signals: a study carried out with the help of a traffic conflicts technique

Most pedestrian accidents in built-up areas occur at intersections. Even after signalization the number of accidents involving pedestrians often remains high. After reviewing the published evidence, this paper describes how the Traffic Conflicts Techniques has been used to examine the risk to pedestrians at 120 intersections. The principal results indicate that signalization of a high-speed intersection (mean speed above 30 km/h in at least one arm) reduces pedestrian risk to approximately half. If mean speed in every arm is below 30 km/h signalization also reduces pedestrian risk, as long as most vehicles are not turning. Another finding from these studies was that a crosswalk should be located less than two meters from the intersection to optimize pedestrian safety. The conflict studies as well as analyses of accident data show that one should examine separately accidents between turning vehicles and "green-walking" pedestrians and accidents involving pedestrians walking against red light. The effect of an exclusive pedestrian signal phase (scramble) was tested at three sites and proved to be very safety-beneficial in a small town, while in Stockholm it did not prove effective because of a high percentage of red-walkers. Vehicle delay, as well as pedestrian delay, increased at all three sites. Data collected at 152 crosswalks has been used to estimate the parameters of a multivariate model of the frequency of "red-walking." The size of the town and traffic volumes appear to be the major factors influencing this frequency. Additional insight has been obtained from personal interviews of 450 persons. These indicate that shorter waiting times and police enforcement are considered the most efficient measures to reduce the frequency of red-walking.     

Factors influencing the use of cellular (mobile) phone during driving and hazards while using it

This study addressed the strategic decisions on not using a mobile phone at all while driving, and phone-related driving hazards among those drivers who do use one, reflecting tactical and operational level processes. A representative sample of 834 licensed drivers who own a mobile phone were interviewed on their phone use and hazards, background factors, and self-image as a driver. Logistic regression models indicated that older age, female gender, smaller amount of driving, and occupation promoted not using a phone at all while driving. Additionally, low skill level and high safety motivation contributed to this decision. Among those who used a phone while driving, exposure to risk in terms of higher mileage and more extensive phone use increased phone-related hazards, as also did young age, leading occupational position, and low safety motivation. Neither gender nor driving skill level had any effect on such self-reported hazards. This study clearly indicates that potential risks of mobile phones are being controlled at many levels, by strategic as well as tactical decisions and, consequently, phone-related accidents have not increased in line with the use of the mobile phones.     

大学生手型尺寸分布及其对触屏手机操作绩效影响

目的通过调查分析大学生手型尺寸分布,研究用户手型尺寸对触屏手机操作的影响。方法首先收集了250名大学生的手部参数,通过聚类分析将手型尺寸分为大、中、小三类,然后采用系列目标按键任务研究用户手型尺寸对触屏手机操作绩效的影响。结果(1)大学生手型尺寸总体符合正态分布;(2)操作中等尺寸触屏手机时,大、中、小三种手型用户在操作速度和准确率上无明显差异,但大手用户的手部肌肉最为轻松省力,而中手用户的使用评价优于小手用户和大手用户。结论大学生手型尺寸符合正态分布,手型尺寸显著影响用户对触屏手机的使用,大手用户和中手用户的使用效果优于小手用户。