Cell Phone Engagement Behaviors of Newly Licensed Adolescents in a Driving Simulator Study

Cell phone use while driving is a known contributor to adolescent driver crashes. Little is known about the context of adolescent cell phone use while driving. The purpose of this simulator study with newly licensed adolescents was to describe cell phone use while driving, including engagement behavior s and velocity at engagement. In a pilot randomized controlled trial to test a behavioral intervention to reduce risky driving, the authors enrolled adolescent drivers, ages 16 - 17, licensed for ≤90 days. The authors report here the baseline assessment behaviors of a subsample of adolescents (n= 30). Participants completed a baseline assessment in a driving simulator (driver seat, three channel 4600 LCD panels (160° field of view) ). The assessment included two experimental drives with cell phone - related distraction s and one experimental drive with presence of a sex - matched confederate peer passenger and cell phone - related distractions. Drive order was randomized. Participants were oriented to the simulator and study cell phone, and were told to drive and treat the cell phone as they normally would. Driving simulator videos of participant behaviors were coded to determine engagement (yes/no) with the cell phone and sex - matched confederate passenger on six distraction events: Prompt to take a picture, Incoming text , Incoming call , Texting prompt , Showing a picture prompt by passenger , and Incoming text . Metrics for cell phone engagement included: Looking at phone, Picking up phone, Hand manipulation (i.e. texting), Sending a picture, Looking at a picture, Answering phone call, and Asking passenger to read or send text. For the participants who engaged with the cell phone, velocity at engagement was determined using MATLAB. Descriptive statistics were used to describe cell phone use behaviors and velocity at first engagement. Fisher’s Exact Tests and t-tests were used to determine the association between sex and engagement with the cell phone behaviors and velocity. The adolescents were a mean age 17.08 years; mean length of licensure 51.8 days; 63% female, 80% White, 16.7% Black, 3.3% > 1 race and 100% non-Hispanic. In the experimental drives without a confederate peer passenger, 60 - 66.7% would “look at the phone” in response to an incoming text, call and take a picture prompt; the proportion who pick ed up or handled the phone in these events was 40 - 56.7%. In the experimental drives with a confederate peer passenger, 50% asked the confederate to send a text when prompted; 33% asked the confederate to read a text in response to an incoming notification. When the confederate peer passenger attempted to show a picture to the driver, 83.3% looked at the picture. Mean velocity range during initial cell phone engagement across distraction events was 1 6.52 - 35.29 mph. Of the proportion who engaged with the cell phone, a range of 0 - 41.7% would wait until stopped to complete a task (i.e. send a picture). The authors found no differences among males and females on behaviors or velocity. Not all adolescents engaged with the cell phone, but when they did, some did at elevated velocities. Further work is needed to understand spatial and temporal characteristics for adolescent cell phone driving, and identify how these factors influence crash risk.

  • Supplemental Notes:
    • This paper was sponsored by TRB committee ANB30 Standing Committee on Operator Education and Regulation.
  • Corporate Authors:

    Transportation Research Board

    ,    
  • Authors:
    • McDonald, Catherine C
    • Fargo, Jamison D
    • Seacrist, Thomas
    • Winston, Flaura K
    • Sommers, Marilyn S
  • Conference:
  • Date: 2019

Language

  • English

Media Info

  • Media Type: Digital/other
  • Pagination: 3p

Subject/Index Terms

Filing Info

  • Accession Number: 01697709
  • Record Type: Publication
  • Report/Paper Numbers: 19-03599
  • Files: TRIS, TRB, ATRI
  • Created Date: Mar 1 2019 3:51PM