How many times do young drivers actually touch their smartphone screens while driving?

Smartphone usage while driving, and particularly texting, poses a major concern for road safety. The goal of this study is to suggest a novel and objective means to measure the smartphone usage among young drivers. A naturalistic study was conducted with 254 Israeli young drivers who installed a research-oriented smartphone app which continuously monitors smartphones usage while driving. The app captures the actual number of times drivers are ‘touching’ their smartphone screens, the speed at which these screen-touches occur, foreground apps and time stamps. The results, which are based on 3304 h of driving performed in 11,528 trips, indicate that young drivers touch their smartphone screen on average 1.6 times per minute of driving. Alarmingly, more than half of the screen-touches are performed while the vehicle is in motion, and some touches occur even at speeds higher than 100 km/h. The screen-touches occur throughout the trip regardless of its duration. Approximately half of them are performed while using WhatsApp, a popular free messaging app. These findings provide objective evidence to the actual and intensive usage of smartphones. While comparing these results to participants' self-reports, it was found that young drivers clearly underestimate their smartphone usage while driving.

• Record URL:
  https://doi.org/10.1049/iet-its.2017.0208
• Availability:
  • Find a library where document is available. Order URL: http://worldcat.org/issn/1751956X
• Supplemental Notes:
  • Abstract reprinted with permission of the Institution of Engineering and Technology.
• Authors:
  • Albert, Gila
  • Lotan, Tsippy
• Publication Date: 2018-6

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Print
• Features: References;
• Pagination: pp 414-419
• Serial:
  • IET Intelligent Transport Systems
  • Volume: 12
  • Issue Number: 6
  • Publisher: Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET)
  • ISSN: 1751-956X
  • EISSN: 1751-9578
  • Serial URL: https://ietresearch.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/17519578
• Publication flags:

  Open Access (libre)

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Drivers; Highway safety; Smartphones; Tactile perception; Young adults
• Candidate Terms: Social networking
• Geographic Terms: Israel
• Subject Areas: Highways; Safety and Human Factors;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01676357
• Record Type: Publication
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: Jul 26 2018 2:38PM