Objective: Evaluate injury patterns from wheeled recreational devices (WRD) in the public space and explore risk factors for hospital admission. Method: A cross-sectional analysis of WRD injury prevalence and risk factors for hospital admissions was conducted using data from the Queensland Injury Surveillance Unit (QISU) database for 2007 to 2017. Descriptive statistics and a log-binomial regression model were used to calculate adjusted relative risk for hospital admission. Results: Most WRD injury in the public space was related to stand-alone WRD injury events such as falls, with few reported WRD users being hit by vehicles from 2007 to 2017. Stand-alone WRD injury events had a higher independent risk of hospital admissions when injured in the head/neck/face (RR 2.08, 95%CI 1.6 to 2.8, p<0.001), and when the injury was a fracture (RR 2.57, 95%CI 2.1 to 3.3, p<0.001) or a brain injury (RR 3.19, 95%CI 2.5 to 4.1, p<0.001). Conclusion: Head, brain and facial injuries and fractures are leading preventable factors for hospital admissions due to WRD injury. These types of injuries generate a preventable burden to the health system. Implications for public health: The results support the need to consider legislation regarding mandatory helmet use for non-motorised WRD when used on public roads and footpaths, while further research is conducted. This strategy could reduce the long-term health outcomes associated with head, face and brain injury in young commuters.@en

Perceptions of the walking environment can encourage or discourage walking for transport. However, the influence of the built environment (BE) on pedestrians’ perceptions of the walking environment has not been fully understood. To address this gap, the present research investigates how BE characteristics of a suburban walking environment are associated with the perceptions of attractiveness (i.e., pleasantness, friendliness), safety, and security. Using a cross-sectional design, 995 participants reported their perceptions about the attractiveness, safety, and security of different suburban BE scenarios in Brisbane (Australia). Univariate and bivariate random effect ordered probit models were estimated to identify the associations between BE characteristics and perceived attractiveness, safety, and security whilst controlling for psychosocial factors. Results indicated that perceived attractiveness (i.e., pleasantness and friendliness) was higher for recreational areas than residential land use. Women perceived the walking environment as more pleasant with trees. The perception of safety was higher for recreational and vacant land compared to residential areas. Young pedestrians perceived that the likelihood of being assaulted/robbed/harassed at night was lower if they walked through an area with commercial and mixed land use. Women pedestrians perceived that the corresponding risk at night was higher in recreational areas. Overall, the findings suggest that urban design strategies such as increasing land use diversity and providing adequate trees enhance perceived environmental attractiveness, safety, and security, ultimately resulting in more walking for transport.@en

Alcohol is a global risk factor for road trauma. Although drink driving has received most of the scholarly attention, there is growing evidence of the risks of alcohol-impaired walking. Alcohol-impaired pedestrians are over-represented in fatal crashes compared to non-impaired pedestrians. Additionally, empirical evidence shows that alcohol intoxication impairs road-crossing judgements. Besides some limited early research, much is unknown about the global prevalence and determinants of alcohol-impaired walking. Understanding alcohol-impaired walking will support health promotion initiatives and injury prevention. The present investigation has three aims: (1) compare the prevalence of alcohol-impaired walking across countries; (2) identify international groups of pedestrians based on psychosocial factors (i.e., Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) and perceptions of risk); and (3) investigate how segments of pedestrians form their intention for alcohol-impaired walking using the extended TPB (i.e. subjective norm, attitudes, perceived control, and perceived risk). A cross-sectional design was applied. The target behaviour question was “have you been a pedestrian when your thinking or physical ability (balance/strength) is affected by alcohol?” to ensure comparability across countries. Cluster analysis based on the extended TPB was used to identify groups of countries. Finally, regressions were used to predict pedestrians’ intentions per group. A total of 6,166 respondents (Age M(SD) = 29.4 (14.2); Males = 39.2%) completed the questionnaire, ranging from 12.6% from Russia to 2.2% from Finland. The proportion of participants who reported never engaging in alcohol-impaired walking in the last three months ranged from 30.1% (Spain) to 83.1% (Turkey). Four groups of countries were identified: group-1 (Czech Republic, Spain, and Australia), group-2 (Russia and Finland), group-3 (Japan), and group-4 (final ten countries including Colombia, China, and Romania). Pedestrian intentions to engage in alcohol- impaired walking are predicted by perceptions of risk and TPB-psychosocial factors in group-1 and group-4. Favourable TPB-beliefs and low perceived risk increased alcohol-impaired walking intentions. Conversely, subjective norms were not significant in group-2 and only perceived risk predicted intention in group-3. The willingness of pedestrians to walk when alcohol-impaired differs significantly across the countries in this study. Perceived risk was the only common predictor among the 16 countries.@en

Introduction: Studies have shown that perceived security discourages pedestrians from walking, which in turn reduces physical activities and associated health benefits. However, there is a dearth of research about what elements of the built environment contribute to perceived security among pedestrians and, in particular, how the perception varies amongst women and amongst men in suburban environments. The present study aims to address this gap in the literature. Methods: A range of scenarios (i.e. more/less diversity of land use, presence/absence of trees) were presented in an online experiment to 995 participants in Brisbane (Australia). Participants reported their perceptions of being assaulted/robbed/harassed in each scenario. Random effects ordered probit models were estimated for men and women to identify the association between perceived security and built environment factors, controlling for other confounders such as age and attitudes. Results: Women have a higher perceived risk of being assaulted/robbed/harassed compared with men in all scenarios tested in the present study. Importantly, the results indicated that while residential, commercial, and mixed land use provide a sense of security for pedestrians compared to vacant land, the effect was larger for women compared to men. There were no significant differences between vacant and recreational land use in terms of perceived security. At night, pedestrians perceived suburban environments as insecure, and the change in the level of security was higher for women than men. Also, night time security varied over different land-use types between men and women. Conclusions: The findings suggest that targeted urban design practices (e.g., functional use of vacant land, increasing diversity of land use, adequate street lights) could be used to improve perceived security and also reduce gender inequality in security perceptions. In turn, improved perceptions of security can help to increase walking as a mode of transport.@en

Introduction: Walking is a healthy, environmentally sustainable, and economically profitable transportation strategy for citizens and governments. Despite these benefits, it is also important to understand, and to inform health professionals, policymakers, and public infrastructure planners about, the preventable injury potential of walking in the transportation system and the distribution of injury by gender and age. This is especially important for non-vehicle pedestrian trauma, given that is more prevalent and there is less information available about its injury outcomes in comparison to pedestrian injury caused by vehicle collisions. Method: A retrospective cohort study, and cross-sectional bivariate and multivariate analyses of non-vehicle pedestrian trauma in the traffic environment (NVPTE) were conducted. Relative risks (RR) of the incidence of injury and prevalence of injury outcomes by age and gender were calculated using data collected by the Queensland Injury Surveillance Unit (QISU) in Australia. Results: Pedestrians aged 60+ have a consistently higher risk of NVPTE incidence when compared with pedestrians aged <60. Older pedestrians have a higher risk of injury to the pelvis (RR 10.3 95% CI 3.81–27.5 p < 0.0001) and hip (RR 5.59 95% CI 3.53–8.85 p < 0.0001), and an adjusted higher risk of hospital admission (RR 1.5 95% CI 1.30–1.64 p < 0.0001). Pedestrian males <60 had more injuries to the head, sprains, strains and open wounds compared with females <60, while those aged 60+ had lower risk of fractures and higher risk of hospital admission. Conclusion: Promoting walking for transport requires the incorporation of prevention strategies that consider key differences in injury outcomes. Clinical fall risk assessments and protective pedestrian infrastructure could play an important role in reducing the health and economic burden of pedestrian falls to the health system.@en

This systematic review sought to assess older adult pedestrian injury severity, injury by anatomical location and incidence proportions, including comparisons to younger age groups when available and provide an analysis of the quality of the existing evidence. A structured search was conducted in PubMed, Embase, Scopus, CINAHL, PsycInfo, AMED, Web of Science, LILACS and TRID. STROBE was used to assess the reporting quality of the included studies. Random-effect model meta-analysis served to obtain pooled relative risk, incidence proportions and standardized mean differences for different outcomes due to pedestrian crashes comparing older and younger pedestrians, while meta-analyses could not be conducted for pedestrian falls. We screened 7460 records of which 60 studies (1,012,041 pedestrians) were included in the review. Injured pedestrians 60+ compared to those <60 were found to have a higher relative risk of severe injury (pooled relative risk RR 1.6, 95 % CI: 1.4–2.0 p < 0.001), critical care admission (pooled RR 1.5, 95 %CI: 1.3–1.8 p < 0.001), and fatality (pooled RR of 3.7, 95 % CI: 3.0–4.5 p < 0.001). Pedestrians 60+ also had higher incidence rates of pedestrian falls causing higher injury severity. GRADE was used to evaluate evidence quality, with the results suggesting that the overall quality of the evidence supporting these findings was low. Further research is needed to understand health risks associated with older pedestrian trauma and to develop effective risk management strategies.@en

Equal access to safe transport is increasingly conceptualised as a fundamental right for women, with demonstrated effects on health outcomes, social and economic mobility and societal participation. This study analysed qualitative and quantitative data to examine travel patterns and experiences among 200 women (aged between 18-64 years) using paid transport for work or educational purposes in Bangladesh. The results showed that the women faced multiple threats to their safety, including gender-based violence, harassment and crime, and traffic and non-traffic injuries, and that the use of paid transport was associated with high levels of anxiety and fear. Despite these circumstances, the women were captive travellers, forced to make transport choices based on price, availability and ease of travel rather than safety. Unable to choose safe transport, the women attempted to mitigate risks by changing their travel patterns and behaviour and by restricting their travel frequency. These findings are discussed within the context of women's rights and mobility justice.@en

Distracted driving is one of the most prevalent risky behaviours worldwide. Research has highlighted that current approaches to distracted driving based on education and police enforcement have shown low effectiveness. Smartphone applications to reduce distracted driving are an emerging technology with the potential to prevent road crashes. However, recent evidence has shown that the adoption of these applications has been limited. A qualitative study was carried out to investigate the acceptability of smartphone applications that are designed to prevent distracted driving. A total of 35 drivers (57% females) aged 19–44 years (Mean = 28.43) participated in interviews which explored acceptability constructs for in-vehicle intelligent technology as defined by Regan et al. (2012): usefulness, usability, effectiveness, social acceptability, affordability, and willingness to use the application functions. Generally, drivers perceived that these applications have the potential to increase safety and reduce voluntary and involuntary mobile phone interactions while driving. Nonetheless, it was also found that drivers want to retain some of the functionalities of their mobile phone, such as music playing applications, accessing GPS/maps and being able to interact with certain groups of people through their phones while driving. Finally, barriers to the uptake of the applications among drivers who use their mobile phone while driving are discussed. A frequent barrier that needs to be overcome is the perceived need and pressure to respond to their phone while driving to communicate for work purposes or with people with strong social ties to the driver, for example, a parent or spouse.@en

Mobile phone distracted driving is a major risk factor for crashes. However, this behaviour has been increasing in recent years. Effective enforcement of mobile phone bans while driving faces several obstacles; as such, it is important to consider additional countermeasures. Applications designed to prevent distracted driving are a promising solution, yet more research is needed that examines their effectiveness in reducing dangerous phone use while driving behaviours. Additionally, these applications are voluntary in nature; therefore, an understanding of drivers’ perceptions of the applications is necessary to determine how to improve uptake. A mixed methods design was utilised to examine these factors in a comprehensive manner. A total of 40 participants used the smartphone application “Do Not Disturb While Driving” for iOS phone operating systems or “Android Auto” for Android phone operating systems for approximately one week and completed three diary entries reporting on their experience. Two questionnaires that examined phone use while driving behaviours were also administered to participants; one before and one after completing the study. The quantitative results found that engagement in 1) visual-manual, 2) cognitive-auditory and 3) music mobile phone interactions significantly decreased while using the application. Distraction engagement and mental workload while driving also significantly decreased while using the application. The qualitative results identified a number of areas of improvement that need to be addressed, e.g. activation of the application and Bluetooth connection reliability. The features that required improvement presented an obstacle for effective use of the applications, and in some cases resulted in drivers deciding to stop using the application. Positive perceptions of the application were associated with the experiences of the application functioning appropriately and activating automatically. These results show that applications designed for voluntary use to prevent mobile phone distracted driving are a promising countermeasure, although current applications require several improvements.@en

The nature of the road environment requires drivers to be vigilant and attentive. Distracted driving is a primary concern, as it threatens the safety of road users. However very little research has been conducted into interventions to combat such an issue. Existing interventions such as police enforcement and legislation appear to have limited effect. The use of mobile phone applications to assist in limiting driver distraction is an alternative intervention that is currently gaining traction. With a great array of potential benefits, such as reducing road toll, these applications can be readily available to all road users. Despite the positive implications, it is vital that drivers accept the use of such a technology for the intervention to be effective. Therefore, understanding driver acceptance is an important step in implanting such applications. To assess this, the present study examines the utility of two versions of the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) and the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) for understanding the acceptance of technology designed to reduce distraction. Participants were presented with two different applications and responded to questions that indicated their attitudes towards the factors included in the TAM, TPB and UTAUT, alongside their intent to use the technology. A total of 731 participants responded to the survey, and their responses analysed. The results indicated that overall, Davis’ (1985) TAM was slightly better in explaining behavioural intent for both Mobile Phone Application (MPA) 1 and MPA 2, explaining 66.1% and 68.7% of the variance, respectively. Davis’ (1989) TAM and the TPB were close behind, while the UTAUT explained the least variance in behavioural intent of all the models. Overall, the findings of this study provide support for using psychological theories to assess the acceptance of mobile phone applications.@en

The adaptive behaviour of mobile phone distracted drivers has been a topic of much discussion in the recent literature, but the mechanisms of behavioural adaptation are still unclear. This study investigated the influence of driving demands, secondary task characteristics, and personal characteristics on behavioural adaptation of mobile phone distracted drivers. In particular, distracted drivers’ self-regulation at strategic, tactical, and operational levels was investigated through a driving simulator experiment. In a high-fidelity driving simulator, participants driving through various driving conditions (e.g. interactions with pedestrian crossings, signalized intersections, merging ramps, roundabouts, etc.) needed to decide where and how to perform the following four mobile phone tasks: (a) ring a doctor and cancel an appointment, (b) text a friend and tell him/her that the participant will be arriving 10 min late, (c) share the doctor's phone number with a friend, and (d) take a 'selfie’. At a strategic level, the decision to pull over was modelled as a function of self-reported personal/attitudinal characteristics with a logistic regression model. Similarly, tactical self-regulation (decision to engage in a task while driving in a specific situation) and operational self-regulation (decision to temporarily stop the mobile phone task) were modelled as a function of driving demands and personal/attitudinal characteristics using a random-effects logistic regression model, which accounts for correlations resulting from multiple observations of a driver. Results suggest that tactical self-regulation is more common among distracted drivers followed by operational and strategic self-regulation. Personal beliefs regarding how safe it is to use the mobile phone for texting/browsing while driving were predictors of self-regulation for all levels. Drivers were observed to use the mobile phone more when the driving demands are low, e.g. while stopped at an intersection. This research suggests that distracted drivers engage in various levels of self-regulation, and future research could be focused on further theoretical refinement and development of technology-based interventions.@en

Mobile phone use while driving is a pervasive problem that continues to increase, notwithstanding the large crash risk this behaviour constitutes. A number of phone applications have been developed with the intention of utilising the technology to prevent dangerous phone behaviours while driving. Despite the potential these applications have in preventing crashes associated with distracted driving, research is yet to explore these emergent applications. Therefore, this study provided a review of the current smartphone applications developed to prevent distracted driving. A content analysis was conducted to identify the smartphone applications targeted at stopping, preventing or reducing phone use behaviour while driving. Their functionality was determined based on the ecosystem of smartphone applications: application-mobile phone interaction, application-driver interaction, and application-context interaction. A total of 29 relevant applications in English language were identified. Most of these applications focused on blocking specific phone functions (e.g. texting or calling) while allowing more desirable driving phone functions to be accessed (e.g. music applications and GPS functions). The specific functions which are blocked or allowed varied greatly between applications. Out of the different application interactions, the function which sends an automatic text message to a contact who texts the driver (associated with external communicator interactions) was the most common feature. A major limitation of the applications was their reliance on blocking specific phone functions as opposed to managing workload while driving or simplifying specific phone tasks to be more compatible with driving. Simply blocking phone functions may not be attractive to drivers who view their phone as a necessity. As such, these drivers are unlikely to use these voluntary applications at all while driving. Smartphone applications designed to prevent phone use while driving show potential for playing a large role in a systemic intervention to prevent mobile phone distracted driving, yet there is a substantial need for further development of these applications.@en

Mobile phone distracted driving has been identified as a significant contributor to road trauma. The use of voluntary smartphone applications (or mobile phone functions) which are designed to prevent certain phone behaviours while driving is an emerging countermeasure for distracted driving. Despite the potential for voluntary smartphone applications to reduce crashes associated with mobile phone distracted driving, there has been limited research assessing how effective these applications are in reducing mobile phone use while driving, and the perceived acceptance of such applications. The overall aim of this study is to investigate factors that influence the use of voluntary smartphone applications to reduce the distraction associated with mobile phone use while driving. A total of 712 drivers from Australia participated in an online questionnaire about their preferences and opinions regarding smartphone applications to prevent mobile phone distracted driving. Statistical analyses including a random-effects logistic regression model were conducted to analyse the impact of the application functions on the participants’ willingness to install and activate the application. The willingness of participants to install and activate a mobile phone app was determined by the facility to disable visual-manual tasks and notifications and allow hands-free conversations. The facility to set up automatic responses to inform contacts that they are driving was also important. Females were significantly more likely to install and activate the app. Preferred functions included the blocking of visual-manual interactions such as texting and browsing but allowing applications that support driving such as GPS and Bluetooth. Participants also wanted to retain the ability to use music-playing functions. The ability to give commands to the phone exclusively through audio using a hands-free device or Bluetooth was also favoured. Some age-related differences were evident when examining preferred functions. Overall, findings suggest that the use of app-based technology is a potential intervention opportunity to reduce exposure to high-risk behaviours among motorists and particularly young drivers.@en

Mobile phone distracted driving is a recurrent issue in road safety worldwide. Recent research on driving behaviour of distracted drivers suggests that in certain circumstances drivers seem to assume safer behaviours while using a mobile phone. Despite a high volume of research on this topic, self-regulation by mobile phone distracted drivers is not well understood as many driving simulator experiments are designed to impose an equal level of distraction to participants being tested for their driving performance. The aim of this research was to investigate the relationship between self-regulatory secondary task performance and driving. By a driving simulator experiment in which participants were allowed to perform their secondary tasks whenever they feel appropriate, the driving performance of 35 drivers aged 18–29 years was observed under three phone conditions including non-distraction (no phone use), hands-free interactions and visual-manual interactions in the CARRS-Q advanced driving simulator. Drivers’ longitudinal and lateral vehicle control observed across various road traffic conditions were then modelled by Generalized Estimation Equations (GEE) with exchangeable correlation structure accounting for heterogeneity resulting from multiple observations from the same driver. Results show that the extent of engagement in the secondary task influence both longitudinal and lateral control of vehicles. Drivers who engaged in a large number of hands-free interactions are found to select lower driving speed. In contrast, longer visual-manual interactions are found to result in higher driving speed among drivers self-regulating their secondary task. Among the road traffic conditions, drivers distracted by their self-regulated secondary tasks are found to select lower speeds along the s-curve compared to straight and motorway segments. In summary, the applied human-machine system approach suggests that road traffic demands play a vital role in both secondary task management and driving performance.@en

This study investigated how situational characteristics typically encountered in the transport system influence drivers’ perceived likelihood of engaging in mobile phone multitasking. The impacts of mobile phone tasks, perceived environmental complexity/risk, and drivers' individual differences were evaluated as relevant individual predictors within the behavioral adaptation framework. An innovative questionnaire, which includes randomized textual and visual scenarios, was administered to collect data from a sample of 447 drivers in South East Queensland-Australia (66% females; n = 296). The likelihood of engaging in a mobile phone task across various scenarios was modeled by a random parameters ordered probit model. Results indicated that drivers who are female, are frequent users of phones for texting/answering calls, have less favorable attitudes towards safety, and are highly disinhibited were more likely to report stronger intentions of engaging in mobile phone multitasking. However, more years with a valid driving license, self-efficacy toward self-regulation in demanding traffic conditions and police enforcement, texting tasks, and demanding traffic conditions were negatively related to self-reported likelihood of mobile phone multitasking. The unobserved heterogeneity warned of riskier groups among female drivers and participants who need a lot of convincing to believe that multitasking while driving is dangerous. This research concludes that behavioral adaptation theory is a robust framework explaining self-regulation of distracted drivers.@en

Road safety in rural mountainous areas is a major concern as mountainous highways represent a complex road traffic environment due to complex topology and extreme weather conditions and are associated with more severe crashes compared to crashes along roads in flatter areas. The use of crash modelling to identify crash contributing factors along rural mountainous highways suffers from limitations in data availability, particularly in developing countries like Malaysia, and related challenges due to the presence of excess zero observations. To address these challenges, the objective of this study was to develop a safety performance function for multi-vehicle crashes along rural mountainous highways in Malaysia. To overcome the data limitations, an in-depth field survey, in addition to utilization of secondary data sources, was carried out to collect relevant information including roadway geometric factors, traffic characteristics, real-time weather conditions, cross-sectional elements, roadside features, and spatial characteristics. To address heterogeneity resulting from excess zeros, three specialized modelling techniques for excess zeros including Random Parameters Negative Binomial (RPNB), Random Parameters Negative Binomial – Lindley (RPNB-L) and Random Parameters Negative Binomial – Generalized Exponential (RPNB-GE) were employed. Results showed that the RPNB-L model outperformed the other two models in terms of prediction ability and model fit. It was found that heavy rainfall at the time of crash and the presence of minor junctions along mountainous highways increase the likelihood of multi-vehicle crashes, while the presence of horizontal curves along a steep gradient, the presence of a passing lane and presence of road delineation decrease the likelihood of multi-vehicle crashes. Findings of this study have significant implications for road safety along rural mountainous highways, particularly in the context of developing countries.@en

The use of mobile phones while driving remains a major human factors issue in the transport system. A significant safety concern is that driving while distracted by a mobile phone potentially modifies the driving speed leading to conflicts with other road users and consequently increases crash risk. However, the lack of systematic knowledge of the mechanisms involved in speed adaptation of distracted drivers constrains the explanation and modelling of the extent of this phenomenon. The objective of this study was to investigate speed adaptation of distracted drivers under varying road infrastructure and traffic complexity conditions. The CARRS-Q Advanced Driving Simulator was used to test participants on a simulated road with different traffic conditions, such as free flow traffic along straight roads, driving in urbanized areas, and driving in heavy traffic along suburban roads. Thirty-two licensed young drivers drove the simulator under three phone conditions: baseline (no phone conversation), hands-free and handheld phone conversations. To understand the relationships between distraction, road infrastructure and traffic complexity, speed adaptation calculated as the deviation of driving speed from the posted speed limit was modelled using a decision tree. The identified groups of road infrastructure and traffic characteristics from the decision tree were then modelled with a Generalized Linear Mixed Model (GLMM) with repeated measures to develop inferences about speed adaptation behaviour of distracted drivers. The GLMM also included driver characteristics and secondary task demands as predictors of speed adaptation. Results indicated that complex road environments like urbanization, car-following situations along suburban roads, and curved road alignment significantly influenced speed adaptation behaviour. Distracted drivers selected a lower speed while driving along a curved road or during car-following situations, but speed adaptation was negligible in the presence of high visual cutter, indicating the prioritization of the driving task over the secondary task. Additionally, drivers who scored high on self-reported safe attitudes towards mobile phone usage, and who reported prior involvement in a road traffic crash, selected a lower driving speed in the distracted condition than in the baseline. The results aid in understanding how driving task demands influence speed adaptation of distracted drivers under various road infrastructure and traffic complexity conditions.@en

Distracted driving is one of the most significant human factor issues in transport safety. Mobile phone interactions while driving may involve a multitude of cognitive and physical resources that result in inferior driving performance and reduced safety margins. The current study investigates characteristics of usage, risk factors, compensatory strategies in use and characteristics of high-frequency offenders of mobile phone use while driving. A series of questions were administered to drivers in Queensland (Australia) using an on-line questionnaire. A total of 484 drivers (34.9% males and 49.8% aged 17–25) participated anonymously. At least one of every two motorists surveyed reported engaging in distracted driving. Drivers were unable to acknowledge the increased crash risk associated with answering and locating a ringing phone in contrast to other tasks such as texting/browsing. Attitudes towards mobile phone usage were more favourable for talking than texting or browsing. Lowering the driving speed and increasing the distance from the vehicle in front were the most popular task-management strategies for talking and texting/browsing while driving. On the other hand, keeping the mobile phone low (e.g. in the driver’s lap or on the passenger seat) was the favourite strategy used by drivers to avoid police fines for both talking and texting/browsing. Logistic regression models were fitted to understand differences in risk factors for engaging in mobile phone conversations and browsing/texting while driving. For both tasks, exposure to driving, driving experience, driving history (offences and crashes), and attitudes were significant predictors. Future mobile phone prevention efforts would benefit from development of safe attitudes and increasing risk literacy. Enforcement of mobile phone distraction should be re-engineered, as the use of task-management strategies to evade police enforcement seems to dilute its effect on the prevention of this behaviour. Some countermeasures and suggestions were proposed in the design of public education campaigns and driver-mobile phone interaction.@en

Objective: The adaptive behavior of mobile phone–distracted drivers has been a topic of much discussion in the recent literature. Both simulator and naturalistic studies suggest that distracted drivers generally select lower driving speeds; however, speed adaptation is not observed among all drivers, and the mechanisms of speed selection are not well understood. The aim of this research was to apply a driver behavioral adaptation model to investigate the speed adaptation of mobile phone–distracted drivers. Methods: The speed selection behavior of drivers was observed in 3 phone conditions including baseline (no conversation) and hands-free and handheld phone conversations in a high-fidelity driving simulator. Speed adaptation in each phone condition was modeled as a function of secondary task demand and self-reported personal/psychological characteristics with a system of seemingly unrelated equations (SURE) accounting for potential correlations due to repeated measures experiment design. Results: Speed adaptation is similar between hands-free and handheld phone conditions, but the predictors of speed adaptation vary across the phone conditions. Though perceived workload of secondary task demand, self-efficacy, attitude toward safety, and driver demographics were significant predictors of speed adaptation in the handheld condition, drivers' familiarity with the hands-free interface, attitude toward safety, and sensation seeking were significant predictors in the hands-free condition. Drivers who reported more positive safety attitudes selected lower driving speeds while using phones. Conclusion: This research confirmed that behavioral adaptation models are suitable for explaining speed adaptation of mobile phone distracted drivers, and future research could be focused on further theoretical refinement.@en

The use of mobile phones while driving—one of the most common driver distractions—has been a significant research interest during the most recent decade. While there has been a considerable amount research and excellent reviews on how mobile phone distractions influence various aspects of driving performance, the mechanisms by which the interactions with mobile phone affect driver performance is relatively unexamined. As such, the aim of this study is to examine the mechanisms involved with mobile phone distractions such as conversing, texting, and reading and the driving task, and subsequent outcomes. A novel human-machine framework is proposed to isolate the components and various interactions associated with mobile phone distracted driving. The proposed framework specifies the impacts of mobile phone distraction as an inter-related system of outcomes such as speed selection, lane deviations and crashes; human-car controls such as steering control and brake pedal use and human-environment interactions such as visual scanning and navigation. Eleven literature-review/meta-analyses papers and 62 recent research articles from 2005 to 2015 are critically reviewed and synthesised following a systematic classification scheme derived from the human-machine system framework. The analysis shows that while many studies have attempted to measure system outcomes or driving performance, research on how drivers interactively manage in-vehicle secondary tasks and adapt their driving behaviour while distracted is scant. A systematic approach may bolster efforts to examine comprehensively the performance of distracted drivers and their impact over the transportation system by considering all system components and interactions of drivers with mobile phones and vehicles. The proposed human-machine framework not only contributes to the literature on mobile phone distraction and safety, but also assists in identifying the research needs and promising strategies for mitigating mobile phone-related safety issues. Technology based countermeasures that can provide real-time feedback or alerts to drivers based on eye/head movements in conjunction with vehicle dynamics should be an important research direction.@en