The main purpose of this study is two-fold: first to evaluate how different levels of cell phone use, or engagement, impact driving performance, and second to estimate whether drivers self-regulate the use of cell phones while driving. Naturalistic driving data from the Integrated Vehicle-Based Safety Systems Field Operational Test with 108 drivers were used for identifying cell phone use while driving and corresponding driving performance. Five second clips were selected from the data set when both cell phones were in use (visual-manual task or cell phone conversation) and were not in use (baseline). Three measures of driving performance were used in this analysis, Mean following distance and standard deviation of following distance, Standard deviation of lateral position within the lane. Mixed linear regression models were used. Results suggest that visual-manual tasks, as compared to cell phone conversations and baseline conditions, result in significant degradation in driving performance. Whereas simply engaging in a cell phone conversation had no effect on lane keeping performance, and only effected following behaviour for older drivers. (Author/publisher)
Samenvatting