Post and During Event Effect of Cell Phone Talking on Driving Performance - A Driving Simulator Study

A number of studies have been done in the field of driver distraction, specifically on the use of cell phone for either conversation or texting while driving. However, till now, researchers have focused on the driving performance of drivers when they were actually engaged in the task, i.e. during the texting or phone conversation event. The primary objective of this paper is to analyze the post event effect of cell phone usage in order to verify whether the distracting effect lingers on after the actual event had ceased. It utilizes a driving simulator study of twenty participants to test whether a significant decrease in driver performance occurs during cell phone usage (texting and conversation) and after the usage. Using the standard deviation of lane position and mean velocity to respectively represent lateral and longitudinal control of the vehicle, the results suggest that there was no significant decrease in driver performance during the cell phone conversation. On the contrary, during the texting event, a significant decrease in driver performance was observed in the lateral control of the vehicle, but not in the longitudinal control. The decrease in performance remained significant for an average of 3.35 seconds after the texting event ended. This indicates that the distraction and subsequent elevated crash risk of texting while driving linger on even after the texting event has ceased. Such finding has safety and policy implications in the fight to reduce distracted driving.

• Supplemental Notes:
  • This paper was sponsored by TRB committee AND10 Vehicle User Characteristics. Alternate title: After and During Event Effect of Cell Phone Usage on Driving Performance: Driving Simulator Study
• Corporate Authors:

  Transportation Research Board

  500 Fifth Street, NW
  Washington, DC  United States  20001
• Authors:
  • Thapa, Raju
  • Codjoe, Julius Atta
  • Ishak, Sherif
• Conference:
  • Transportation Research Board 93rd Annual Meeting
  • Location: Washington DC
  • Date: 2014-1-12 to 2014-1-16
• Date: 2014

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Digital/other
• Features: Figures; References;
• Pagination: 15p
• Monograph Title: TRB 93rd Annual Meeting Compendium of Papers

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Automatic steering control; Cellular telephones; Distraction; Driver performance; Driving simulators; Longitudinal control; Text messaging; Traffic safety
• Subject Areas: Highways; Safety and Human Factors; I83: Accidents and the Human Factor;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01519607
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: 14-2164
• Files: TRIS, TRB, ATRI
• Created Date: Mar 26 2014 10:07AM