This literature review on the effect of electronic device use on pedestrian safety is part of a research project sponsored by the Office of Behavioural Safety Research in the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). The overall project aims to quantify the risk of pedestrian crash involvement due to pedestrian and driver distraction. This literature review surveys the base of knowledge on pedestrian distraction and distraction-related crash risk in pedestrian-vehicle interactions. The review also informs the methodology in a later phase of the project during which naturalistic field observations and State crash data analyses will be used to assess the impact of electronic device use on pedestrian and driver behaviour and consequent risk of crashes. Distraction contributes to large numbers of crashes, fatalities, and injuries. NHTSA (2015) reports that 3,179 people were killed and an estimated 431,000 were injured in distraction-affected motor vehicle crashes in 2014. Distraction among pedestrians also is a contributor to pedestrian safety risk and often leads to serious injury, although the exact number of distraction-related pedestrian injuries is difficult to estimate. The United States Department of Transportation has made distracted driving a major focus by supporting and implementing a number of initiatives including setting national policies and guidelines prohibiting Federal employees from texting while driving on government business or while using government-supplied devices. Other Federal and State government agencies, as well as national safety advocacy groups, have mirrored these and other initiatives. The growing use and influence of technology has the potential to endanger pedestrians more than in years past. In 2012, more than 1,500 pedestrians nationwide were treated in emergency rooms as a result of being injured while walking and engaged in cell phone conversations, which was more than twice the number reported in 2005, even though the total number of pedestrian injuries dropped during that time period (Nasar & Troyer, 2013). As the authors point out, however, underreporting of emergency room visits due to distracted walking is likely, so the true number of pedestrian injuries attributable to cell phone conversation-related distractions is potentially much higher than 1,500 per year. The rapid increase in reported injuries indicates pedestrians face more dangers when either they or motorists are distracted by electronic devices. However, the extent to which pedestrian safety is affected as a result of distraction among drivers and pedestrians is not well quantified through scientific study. This literature review includes sections on distracted pedestrians, distracted drivers, and pedestrian-vehicle interactions. Summaries are provided for studies using real world naturalistic observations, simulator-based observations, and laboratory experiments in the pedestrian and driver distraction literature review. In the section on pedestrian-vehicle interactions, over 30 years of traffic conflict studies are summarized to provide the reader with an overview of the science and the engineering of intersection safety evaluations. The central finding of this literature review is that pedestrian distraction is a real problem of which the effects can be detected in crash data, naturalistic behavioural observations, virtual environment simulator studies, and the laboratory. Distraction changes the way pedestrians walk, react, and behave, including safety-related behaviours. There are no studies showing a direct link between the behavioural effects of distraction and pedestrian crash risk. In contrast, driver distraction is a well-studied area of behaviour and the risks associated with specific distractors have been quantified, albeit with some contradictory evidence and uncertainty. Some of the research findings have been translated into laws and policies at the Federal, State, and corporate levels in the United States. Texting-while-driving bans are the most recent of these initiatives aimed at reducing the risks associated with distracted driving in general, and specifically with regard to the use of cell phones and other electronic devices. The inclusion of traffic conflict research in this literature review represents a major addition for psychological studies of human behaviour at intersections. In view of the goals for this research project– to assess the impact of joint distraction of both pedestrians and drivers as they interact–borrowing from engineering science has many advantages. For example, a review of traffic conflicts opens up a large number of safety-critical events in which the participants, pedestrians and drivers, had to engage in mild-to-severe manoeuvres in order to avoid a crash. Intersection safety studies rely on the traffic conflicts approach to improve the safety of intersections through improved signage, markings, signals, and geometric design. (Author/publisher)
Samenvatting