ROAD SAFETY GRANT REPORT 2010–001 In-car distractions and their impact on driving activities December 2010 ROAD SAFETY GRANT REPORT 2010-001 In-car distractions and their impact on driving activities Maurice Nevile, Ph.D Centre for Educational Development and Academic Methods (CEDAM) The Australian National University, Canberra Pentti Haddington, Ph.D Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies The University of Helsinki, Finland December 2010 Published by: Department of Infrastructure and Transport Postal address: GPO Box 594, Canberra, ACT, 2601 Office location: 111 Alinga Street, Canberra City, ACT Telephone: 02 6274 7111; from overseas + 61 2 6274 7111 Facsimile: 02 6274 7608; from overseas + 61 2 6274 7608 E-mail: [email protected] Internet: www.infrastructure.gov.au/roads/safety © Australian National University 2010 To encourage the dissemination of this publication, it may be copied, downloaded, displayed, printed, reproduced, and distributed in unaltered form (retaining this notice). Subject to the provisions of the Copyright Act 1968, no other use of the material in this publication may be made without the authorisation of Australian National University. DOCUMENT RETRIEVAL INFORMATION Report No. Publication date No. of pages ISBN RSGR 2010-001 December 2010 155 978-1-921769-15-3 Publication title In-car distractions and their impact on driving activities Author(s) Nevile M; Haddington P Organisation that prepared this document Australian National University Canberra ACT 0200 Sponsor [Available from] Reference No. Department of Infrastructure and Transport December 2010/INFRA-1035 GPO Box 594 CANBERRA ACT 2601 www.infrastructure.gov.au Abstract In-car distractions can seriously impair driving and potentially contribute to accidents. In-car distractions include mobile phones, entertainment systems, interaction with passengers, and most recently satellite navigation systems. This study investigates such distractions by providing micro-detailed descriptions and analyses of their occurrence and impact on driving activities, such as looking towards the road ahead or handling the steering wheel. The study uses naturally occurring data, in-car video recordings of driving in real-world driving situations. The study examines in detail how different forms of in-car distractions develop in situ in real time, and relative to driving activities and to one another. Notes (1) The Department’s reports are disseminated in the interest of information exchange. (2) The views expressed are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent those of the Australian Government or the Department. ii IN-CAR DISTRACTIONS AND THEIR IMPACT ON DRIVING ACTIVITIES CONTENTS Executive summary .......................................................................................................................... v Acknowledgements ........................................................................................................................... x Abbreviations ................................................................................................................................... xi 1 Introduction .............................................................................................................................. 1 1.1 Background .................................................................................................................... 1 1.1.1 The problem: distraction and driving ........................................................... 1 1.1.2 Aims and scope of the present study ............................................................ 2 1.2 Definining distraction .................................................................................................... 4 1.3 Sources of distraction ..................................................................................................... 6 2 Method ..................................................................................................................................... 11 2.1 Research design ........................................................................................................... 11 2.2 Methodology ................................................................................................................ 13 2.3 Collecting data ............................................................................................................. 14 2.3.1 Summary of data ........................................................................................ 16 2.4 Analysing data ............................................................................................................. 18 2.5 Summary of methods ................................................................................................... 19 3 Results ...................................................................................................................................... 20 3.1 Quantitative results ...................................................................................................... 20 3.1.1 Driver Behaviours ...................................................................................... 20 3.1.2 Passenger Behaviours ................................................................................ 31 3.2 Qualitative results - microanalyses of video recorded instances of distraction ........... 33 3.2.1 Journeys with driver as sole occupant ....................................................... 34 3.2.2 Journeys with multiple occupants .............................................................. 57 4 Discussion .............................................................................................................................. 108 4.1 Introduction ................................................................................................................ 108 4.2 Quantitative results .................................................................................................... 110 4.3 Qualitative results ...................................................................................................... 113 4.4 Implications ............................................................................................................... 118 IN-CAR DISTRACTIONS AND THEIR IMPACT ON DRIVING ACTIVITIES iii 5 Conclusion .................................................................................................................................. 120 6 Summary .................................................................................................................................... 122 7 References .................................................................................................................................. 123 8 Appendix A: ethics approval documents ................................................................................. 130 iv IN-CAR DISTRACTIONS AND THEIR IMPACT ON DRIVING ACTIVITIES EXECUTIVE SUMMARY This report documents the findings from an international research project that investigated in-car distractions and how they occur and impact driving activities. The project has been funded by the Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government and completed in collaboration with a researcher in Finland and cooperation with a researcher in the UK. The study is timely. Recently there has been an increased public and scholarly interest in distracted driving in Australia as well as more globally. The main objective and innovation of this research project has been to use both quantitative and qualitative methods for improving the understanding of the nature of in-car distractions, including the documentation of their diversity, characteristics, and development. Specifically, this project aims to introduce a new qualitative research methodology for driving safety research and thereby to enrich research on driving distractions by introducing new data, new analyses and new findings. Plenty of important research on driving distractions exists already. A distraction is an element of the driving situation which demonstrably influences the driver’s attention to, and participation in relevant driving activities, and does not contribute to relevant driving activities. Distractions are frequent and are known to contribute to road accidents. Research is typically undertaken in psychology, engineering and design, and accident analysis and it usually draws on data collected from questionnaires and crash statistics or in experimental driving simulators and test situations, prior research has identified many forms of distractions, such as mobile phones, entertainment systems, eating and drinking, and conversation with passengers and studied their impact on the driver’s behaviour, often with respect to various driver characteristics, such as age or gender. The research has studied for example how much time of driving is spent on distracting behaviour and to what extent they are contributing factors in accidents. Some research has also studied how distracting activities led to driving performance errors (e.g. lane deviation or missed traffic signs). Nevertheless, relatively little is still known about how distractions emerge, are managed and solved in real-world driving situations. This study supplements prior research by drawing on data recorded in real-life driving situations (with no testing or planning involved) and by introducing and using a methodology that has not to date been used in driving safety research. It examines the real-time