Drivers normally elect whether or not to engage with a secondary task while driving. This study aimed to determine whether drivers’ willingness to engage with their mobile phone is affected by demands from the roadway environment and if these effects are more pronounced for some phone functions compared with others. Fifteen video clips were played to 20 participants representing different road scenarios, and therefore demands, such as driving on an empty auto route or turning right on a main arterial road. The participants then used three point Likert scales to rate their willingness to place or answer a call and send or read a text and a five point scale to rate the perceived riskiness of placing and answering a call only. Participants were also asked to think aloud when making their judgements so further insight could be gained. It was found that willingness to engage was affected by both the perceived roadway demands and the phone function under consideration. The perceived riskiness also affected willingness to engage when placing a call only. The think aloud element indicated the participants’ reasoning behind these findings as well as identifying possible future areas of research.

References

1. 1)
  - 6. Laurier, E.: ‘Doing office work on the motorway’, Theory Cult. Soc., 2004, 21, (4–5), pp. 261 (doi: 10.1177/0263276404046070).
2. 2)
  - 11. Metz, B., Schömig, N., Krüger, H.: ‘Attention during visual secondary tasks in driving: adaptation to the demands of the driving task’, Transp. Res. F: Traffic Psychol. Behav., 2011, 9;14, (5), pp. 369–380 (doi: 10.1016/j.trf.2011.04.004).
3. 3)
  - 5. Esbjörnsson, M., Juhlin, O., Weilenmann, A.: ‘Drivers using mobile phones in traffic: an ethnographic study of interactional adaptation’, Int. J. Hum.-Comput. Interact., 2007, 22, (1), pp. 37–58.
4. 4)
  - 18. Törnros, J., Bolling, A.: ‘Mobile phone use – effects of hand-held and hands-free phones on driving performance’, Accident Anal. Prev., 2005, 9;37, (5), pp. 902–909 (doi: 10.1016/j.aap.2005.04.007).
5. 5)
  - 3. Horrey, W., Lesch, M.: ‘Driver-initiated distractions: examining strategic adaptation for in-vehicle task initiation’, Accident Anal. Prev., 2009, 1;41, (1), pp. 115–122 (doi: 10.1016/j.aap.2008.10.008).
6. 6)
  - 8. Ferreira, A., Rôla, S., Simões, A., Piccinini, G.: ‘Perceptions of portuguese drivers about the usage of mobile phone while driving’, ‘Proc. European Conf. on Human Centred Design for Intelligent Transport Systems’, 2012.
7. 7)
  - 2. Lerner, N.: ‘Deciding to be distracted’. Proc. Third Int. Driving Symp. on Human Factors in Driver Assessment, Training and Vehicle Design, 2005.
8. 8)
  - 1. Fuller, R.: ‘Towards a general theory of driver behaviour’, Accident Anal. Prev., 2005, 37, (3), pp. 461–472 (doi: 10.1016/j.aap.2004.11.003).
9. 9)
  - 14. Strayer, D., Drews, F., Johnston, W.: ‘Cell phone-induced failures of visual attention during simulated driving’, J. Exp. Psychol., Appl., 2003, 3;9, (1), pp. 23–32 (doi: 10.1037/1076-898X.9.1.23).
10. 10)
  - 20. McEvoy, S., Stevenson, M., Woodward, M.: ‘The prevalence of, and factors associated with, serious crashes involving a distracting activity’, Accident Anal. Prev., 2007, 5;39, (3), pp. 475–482 (doi: 10.1016/j.aap.2006.09.005).
11. 11)
  - 15. Törnros, J., Bolling, A.: ‘Mobile phone use – effects of conversation on mental workload and driving speed in rural and urban environments’, Transp. Res. F: Traffic Psychol. Behav., 2006, 7;9, (4), pp. 298–306 (doi: 10.1016/j.trf.2006.01.008).
12. 12)
  - 16. Fastenmeier, W.: ‘Die verkehrssituation als analyseeinheit im verkehrssystem’ (Verlag TUV, Rheinland, Koln, 1995), pp. 27–78.
13. 13)
  - 13. Brookhuis, K., De Vries, G., De Waard, D.: ‘The effects of mobile telephoning on driving performance’, Accident Anal. Prev., 1991, 23, (4), pp. 309–316 (doi: 10.1016/0001-4575(91)90008-S).
14. 14)
  - 12. Caird, J., Willness, C., Steel, P., Scialfa, C.: ‘A meta-analysis of the effects of cell phones on driver performance’, Accident Anal. Prev., 2008, 40, (4), pp. 1282–1293 (doi: 10.1016/j.aap.2008.01.009).
15. 15)
  - 7. Britshsgi, V., Penttinen, M., Rämä, P.: ‘Finnish drivers and the use of in-vehicle technologies – comparison of the focus group study and the internet survey’, ‘Proc. European Conf. on Human Centred Design for Intelligent Transport Systems’ 2012.
16. 16)
  - 9. Huemer, A., Vollrath, M.: ‘Driver secondary tasks in Germany: using interviews to estimate prevalence’, Accident Anal. Prev., 2011, 9;43, (5), pp. 1703–1712 (doi: 10.1016/j.aap.2011.03.029).
17. 17)
  - 10. Rauch, N., Gradenegger, B., Kruger, H.: ‘User strategies for the interaction with in-vehicle devices while driving’, Intell. Transp. Syst., 2008, 2, (4), pp. 266–275 (doi: 10.1049/iet-its:20080025).
18. 18)
  - 17. Patten, C.J.D.: ‘Understanding the effects of cognitive workload on driving from a human information processing perspective’ (Department of Psychology, Stockholm University, 2005).
19. 19)
  - 19. Backer-Grøndahl, A., Sagberg, F.: ‘Driving and telephoning: relative accident risk when using hand-held and hands-free mobile phones’, Saf. Sci., 2011, 2;49, (2), pp. 324–330 (doi: 10.1016/j.ssci.2010.09.009).
20. 20)
  - 4. Horrey, W., Lesch, M.: ‘Factors related to drivers self-reported willingness to engage in distracting in-vehicle activities’. Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Annual Meeting Proc.: Human Factors and Ergonomics Society, 2008.

Drivers’ willingness to engage with their mobile phone: the influence of phone function and road demand

References

Related content