Journal article
Distracted walking: Cell phones increase injury risk for college pedestrians
Journal of safety research, Vol.42(2), pp.101-107
04/01/2011
DOI: 10.1016/j.jsr.2011.01.004
PMID: 21569892
Abstract
Distraction on cell phones jeopardizes motor-vehicle driver safety, but few studies examine distracted walking. At particular risk are college students, who walk frequently in and near traffic, have increased pedestrian injury rates compared to other age groups, and frequently use cell phones.
Method: Using an interactive and immersive virtual environment, two experiments studied the effect of cell phone conversation on distraction of college student pedestrians. In the first, we examined whether pedestrians would display riskier behavior when distracted by a naturalistic cell phone conversation than when undistracted. We also considered whether individual difference factors would moderate the effect of the distraction. In a second experiment, we examined the impact of three forms of distraction on pedestrian safety: (a) engaging in a cell phone conversation, (b) engaging in a cognitively challenging spatial task by phone, and (c) engaging in a cognitively challenging mental arithmetic task by phone.
Results: Results revealed that cell phone conversations distracted college pedestrians considerably across all pedestrian safety variables measured, with just one exception. Attention to traffic was not affected by the naturalistic phone conversation in Experiment 1, but was altered by the cognitively-demanding content of some types of conversation in Experiment 2. The content of the conversation did not play a major role in distraction across other variables; both mundane and cognitively complex conversations distracted participants. Moreover, no significant associations between individual difference factors and susceptibility to distraction emerged.
Impact on Industry: Results may inform researchers, policy makers, and pedestrians themselves. Educational campaigns might discourage telephone conversations in pedestrian environments.
► This study examined cell phone distraction in college student pedestrians. ► Cell phones distracted pedestrians across most pedestrian safety variables measured. ► Both mundane and cognitively complex conversations distracted participants. ► No associations emerged between individual factors and distraction susceptibility. ► Results may inform researchers, policy makers, and pedestrians themselves.
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- Distracted walking: Cell phones increase injury risk for college pedestrians
- Creators
- Despina Stavrinos - University of Alabama at BirminghamKatherine W. Byington - University of Alabama at BirminghamDavid C. Schwebel - University of Alabama at Birmingham
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Publication Details
- Journal of safety research, Vol.42(2), pp.101-107
- DOI
- 10.1016/j.jsr.2011.01.004
- PMID
- 21569892
- NLM abbreviation
- J Safety Res
- ISSN
- 0022-4375
- eISSN
- 1879-1247
- Publisher
- Elsevier Ltd
- Number of pages
- 7
- Language
- English
- Date published
- 04/01/2011
- Academic Unit
- Research Administration
- Record Identifier
- 9984949200302771
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