The effects of cell phone and text message conversations on simulated street crossing

A fully immersive, high fidelity street crossing simulator was used to examine the effects of texting on pedestrian street crossing performance. Research suggests that street crossing performance is impaired when pedestrians engage in cell phone conversations. Less is known about the impact of texting on street crossing performance. Thirty-two young adults completed three distraction conditions in a simulated street crossing task: no distraction, phone conversation, and texting. A hands-free headset and a mounted tablet were used to conduct the phone and texting conversations, respectively. Participants moved through the virtual environment via a manual treadmill, allowing them to select crossing gaps and change their gait. During the phone conversation and texting conditions, participants had fewer successful crossings and took longer to initiate crossing. Furthermore, in the texting condition, lower percentage of head orientation toward the tablet, fewer number of head orientations toward the tablet, and greater percentage of total characters typed before initiating crossing predicted greater crossing success. Our results suggest that 1) texting is as unsafe as phone conversations for street crossing performance, and 2) when subjects completed most of the texting task before initiating crossing they were more likely to make it safely across the street. Sending and receiving text messages negatively impact a range of real-world behaviors. These results may inform personal and policy decisions

Analysis of distracted pedestrians' waiting time: Head-Mounted Immersive Virtual Reality application

This paper analyzes the distracted pedestrians' waiting time before crossing the road in three conditions: 1) not distracted, 2) distracted with a smartphone and 3) distracted with a smartphone in the presence of virtual flashing LED lights on the crosswalk as a safety measure. For the means of data collection, we adapted an in-house developed virtual immersive reality environment (VIRE). A total of 42 volunteers participated in the experiment. Participants' positions and head movements were recorded and used to calculate walking speeds, acceleration and deceleration rates, surrogate safety measures, time spent playing smartphone game, etc. After a descriptive analysis on the data, the effects of these variables on pedestrians' waiting time are analyzed by employing a cox proportional hazard model. Several factors were identified as having impact on waiting time. The results show that an increase in initial walk speed, percentage of time the head was oriented toward smartphone during crossing, bigger minimum missed gaps and unsafe crossings resulted in shorter waiting times. On the other hand, an increase in the percentage of time the head was oriented toward smartphone during waiting time, crossing time and maze solving time, means longer waiting times for participants.Comment: Published in the proceedings of Pedestrian and Evacuation Dynamics 201

During and After Event Analysis of Cell Phone Talking and Texting-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 study 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. The research utilizes a driving simulator study of thirty-six participants to test whether a significant decrease in driver performance occurs during and after cell phone usage (texting and conversation). The standard deviations of lane position and mean velocity was used as dependent measures to represent lateral and longitudinal control of the vehicle respectively. Linear mixed model with subject as a random factor and F-test for the equality of variance were used as statistical measures. The results from the study suggest that there was no significant decrease in driver performance during and after the cell phone conversation both laterally and longitudinally. On the contrary, during the texting event, a significant decrease in driver performance was observed both in the lateral and longitudinal control of the vehicle. The diminishing effect of texting on longitudinal control ceased immediately after the texting event but the diminishing effect of texting on lateral control lingered on for an average of 3.388 seconds. The number of text messages exchanged did not affect the magnitude and duration of the diminished lateral control. 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

Mobile phone use while cycling:Incidence and effects on behaviour and safety

The effects of mobile phone use on cycling behaviour were studied. In study 1, the prevalence of mobile phone use while cycling was assessed. In Groningen 2.2% of cyclists were observed talking on their phone and 0.6% were text messaging or entering a phone number. In study 2, accident-involved cyclists responded to a questionnaire. Only 0.5% stated that they were using their phone at the time of the accident. In study 3, participants used a phone while cycling. The content of the conversation was manipulated and participants also had to enter a text message. Data were compared with just cycling and cycling while listening to music. Telephoning coincided with reduced speed, reduced peripheral vision performance and increased risk and mental effort ratings. Text messaging had the largest negative impact on cycling performance. Higher mental workload and lower speed may account for the relatively low number of people calling involved in accidents. Statement of Relevance: Although perhaps mainly restricted to flat countries with a large proportion of cyclists, mobile phone use while cycling has increased and may be a threat to traffic safety, similar to phone use while driving a car. In this study, the extent of the problem was assessed by observing the proportion of cyclists using mobile phones, sending questionnaires to accident-involved cyclists and an experimental study was conducted on the effects of mobile phone use while cycling

Accid Anal Prev

As use of handheld multimedia devices has exploded globally, safety experts have begun to consider the impact of distraction while talking, text-messaging, or listening to music on traffic safety. This study was designed to test how talking on the phone, texting, and listening to music may influence pedestrian safety. 138 college students crossed an interactive, semi-immersive virtual pedestrian street. They were randomly assigned to one of four groups: crossing while talking on the phone, crossing while texting, crossing while listening to a personal music device, or crossing while undistracted. Participants distracted by music or texting were more likely to be hit by a vehicle in the virtual pedestrian environment than were undistracted participants. Participants in all three distracted groups were more likely to look away from the street environment (and look toward other places, such as their telephone or music device) than were undistracted participants. Findings were maintained after controlling for demographics, walking frequency, and media use frequency. Distraction from multimedia devices has a small but meaningful impact on college students' pedestrian safety. Future research should consider the cognitive demands of pedestrian safety, and how those processes may be impacted by distraction. Policymakers might consider ways to protect distracted pedestrians from harm and to reduce the number of individuals crossing streets while distracted.20112013-03-01T00:00:00ZR01 HD058573/HD/NICHD NIH HHS/United StatesR01 HD058573-03/HD/NICHD NIH HHS/United StatesR01HD058573/HD/NICHD NIH HHS/United StatesR49/CE000191/CE/NCIPC CDC HHS/United States22269509PMC32665151144

A Comparison of Head-Mounted Displays vs. Large-Screen Displays for an Interactive Pedestrian Simulator

This investigation compared how people performed a complex perception-action task – crossing trafficfilled roadways – in a CAVE vs. an HMD virtual environment. Participants physically crossed a virtual roadway with continuous cross traffic in either a CAVE-like or an HTC Vive pedestrian simulator. The 3D model and traffic scenario were identical in both simulators, allowing for a direct comparison between the two display systems. We found that participants in the Vive group accepted smaller gaps for crossing than participants in the CAVE group. They also timed their entry into the gap more precisely and tended to cross somewhat more quickly. As a result, participants in the Vive group had a somewhat larger margin of safety when they exited the roadway than those in the CAVE group. Participants in the CAVE group focused their gaze further down the road and had more variability in their gaze distances. The results provide a foundation for future studies of pedestrian behavior and other tasks involving full-body motion using HMD-based VR

Can I Have Your Attention? Implications of the Research on Distractions and Multitasking for Reference Librarians

The media have identified the last decade as “the age of distraction.” People today find it harder to work on long, sustained tasks because distractions are eroding their attention span, fostering a culture of discontinuity. Fields as diverse as psychology, business, education, human-computer interaction, and communication studies have produced a wealth of studies on interruptions, distractions, and multitasking–research that has important implications for reference librarians. The nature of our jobs invites interruptions by the public, requires familiarity with the latest technology, stimulates curiosity about a broad range of subjects, and demands adeptness at multitasking–all factors which can atomize attention

The Impact of Mobile Phone Use on Young Drivers\u27 Driving Behaviour and Visual Scanning of the Environment

Driver distraction has been identified as a contributing factor to road crashes, among which the most common is the use of mobile phones while driving. For this reason, the aim of this paper is to analyse the behaviour of young drivers while they use mobile phones (answering a telephone call, texting, and browsing the internet) and drive in a simulated urban environment. In total 28 volunteers participated in the study. Several variables were recorded for each participant: driving speed, acceleration, deceleration, and eye movement. The results show that the difference in driving speed, acceleration, and deceleration was relatively small for each task and for the control condition (no use of mobile phone). However, when looking at the total time required for conducting each task, participants spent 26.44% of the time looking at the phone when texting, 37.01% when browsing the internet, and 2.27% when talking on the phone. In addition, participants viewed on average 66.45% traffic signs when distracted, compared to 79.22% during undistracted driving. Based on the results, a proactive approach to reduce the problem related to the use of mobile phones while driving is proposed