Experimental analysis of smartphone distraction on pedestrian safety

Dangers of distracted walking/travelling due to smartphone Abstract Human behaviour often depends in a range of factors, some which are innate while others are environmentally instigated. As the environment changes, with the introduction new factors or variables into the daily life of the individual, the person is bound to change their behaviour in response to the new variable, or the new variable will construe the changes as time goes by. Soon the new behaviour will seem like the norm to the individual. It is on the above premises that this research project sets out to investigate the human behaviour in relation to the distraction of the driving/walking through the now rampant smartphomes. The research will use an experimental design that will seek to determine if indeed the distraction that is brought about by the smartphones in the walking or driving of the subject poses significant danger to the individual in question. There will first be literature review conducted on this topic and area of concern to determine what is already in writing in the libraries and peer reviewed articles. There will then be a thorough experimental research conducted among selected participants, the data will then be compiled and analysed for trends to be picked out and interpreted. The results will then be discussed in light f the intended information required to be added to the pool f knowledge that exists in this field of human psychology. The sole purpose of this research is to infuse psychology into the human safety. Introduction Human behaviour can be best understood through a psychological approach that takes into account the various factors and variables that may intervene in the process of the development of the behaviour. Further, the consequences or effects of the formed or adjusted behaviour can also be measured from a structured scientific research. This is the main aim of this research, to look at how the attachment that people have formed towards their smart phones is a predisposition to the rampant accidents. The research seeks to establish if there is a direct link between the accidents that occur among people using their smart phones and the distractions that are caused by the smartphones, be it on call or driving/walking while texting. To objectively establish this relationship, there is need to have a research that is experimental in nature, with subjects subjected to the distraction and the others not subjected to the distraction, then studying the response that comes from both the groups. However, there is need to have an in-depth understanding of the existing literature on the smartphone distraction and the possible causes of accidents by these distractions. Literature review With the increase in technology, there has been an increase in the negative effects of it as well. These negative effects range from the domestic social issues, to the academic, state security, work environment and many other sectors, the transport department is not spared either. The traffic department has been over years using technology to help lower the incidences of accidents on the highways, ironically, some technologies, like smartphones have doubled up as both a detriment to traffic offences and accidents, as well as an aggravating factor. Overton L.T. et.al, (2013) highlights that over the years leading to 2013, road accidents the number of motor accidents have decreased significantly. However, the crashes resulting from distracted driving have been on the increase leading to high mortality and morbidity. This means that many people seem to be aware of the dangers of distracted driving but they still engage in the vice and they seem to undermine the impact of smartphones in the safe driving. Distracted driving is defined as inattention that occurs when drivers shift their focus from driving to other activities. Distracted driving is not only restricted to use of phones while driving but ranges from eating, reading, applying makeup, smoking, taking your eyes off road or even taking your hands of the steering wheel. There have been legal sanctions proposed and some even implemented towards curbing the distracted driving but these have come to naught since the number of accidents still experienced from the distracted driving still persists. The prevalence of this distracted driving is enormous within the USA and even other nations. It is estimated that 100,000 crashes on an annual basis in the USA are as a result of texting while driving. These crashes result in serious injuries or even death according to the National Safety Council, (2013). Further, it was estimated that in 2009, there were 5400 fatalities due to distracted driving which was a significant increase from the numbers in 2005. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (2006) further indicate that texting drivers are 23 times more prone to causing road accidents that those not texting while driving. The statistics get even more worrying with the realization that 69% of drivers of the ages between 18-64 have reported talking on their phones at least once in 30 days while driving, and another 31% reported to have at least read their texts or mails while driving, according to American College of Emergency physicians (2012). It is not due to a is gap in knowledge and sensitization that such vices occur on our roads, indeed 97% of teenagers reported to be aware of the dangers of texting while driving, but still 43% of them reported to be engaging in the vice anyway. 77% of the teenagers in the study carried out by American College of Emergency physicians reported to have seen their parents texting while driving and 75% have indicated that it is a common practice among their friends. Further, police accidents reports (PAR) estimates that 18% of fatal crashes result from cell phone distractions and the same applies for 5% of injury crashes. The reports further estimate that drivers between the ages of 30-39 years of age posit 24% of the fatal crashes and another 22% of fatal crashes among drivers under the age of 20 years. It is worth noting that due to the negative implications that reports on distracted driving have, and the reluctance by police to report such distractions and the inability to accurately categorize an accident as having resulted from cell phone distraction, these figures are very conservative, the actual figures could be much higher. Distractions that drivers encounter from cell phones are not only due to the manual manipulation but also caused by the cognitive distraction that the driver suffers from the distraction. However, most drivers underestimate the power of the distraction emanating from the cell phones. Indeed, most drivers do not realize that merely talking on the cell phone even without physically manipulating the phone is distractive enough to cause a serious accident. Talking to a passenger or engaging in phone conversation have both been seen to cause distractions to the driver, albeit at different degrees. According to (Horrey, Lesch, & Garabet, (2008) when a driver converses with passengers, he suffers lesser distraction from driving since the passengers have a shared responsibility for their safety, while the cell phone conversation is devoid of the contextual cues and the driver is overwhelmed with the social demand to continue the conversation no matter the difficulty of the driving conditions. There have been efforts to try and reduce or eliminate the distracted driver challenge. These have ranged from the lectures, discussions and simulations aimed sensitizing drivers towards safe driving. There have also been peer to peer conversations aimed at sensitizing the public on severity of driver distraction particularly trough cell phone. These are efforts aiming at making roads safer and sensitizing the public, whether driving or not, to the importance of keeping to the road when driving. The solution to this challenge can only be achieved through multifaceted approach where even the trusted authorities in this road safety field have come in to share relevant and accurate information with the public with the aim to enable all know the real and frequent causes of accidents, especially in the distracted driver incidences. Public service professionals, organizations, community agencies all come together to ensure that the information relevant to injury prevention and distracted driver minimization is well administered and adhered. On the same level, the dangers of distraction due to use of mobile phone is not restricted to drivers only, but goes to the pedestrians walking while engaged in their phones, talking or texting. This is increasingly becoming a danger due to the fact that mobile phones have become the primary means of communication, hence more people are engaged in use of mobile phone. On an ordinary instance, most mobile users are not aware of the dangers of talking or texting while walking, or even engagement in mobile use while standing still. Studies have been conducted to determine the dual task and the risks it poses on the pedestrians. This was conducted on pedestrians using their mobile phones while crossing the road. In the research report by Nurwulan R.N. and Jiang C.B. (2016), it is indicated that the pedestrians who were distracted by mobile phones had poorer crossing performance as compared to those who did not have any mobile phone distractions. Those who were distracted by mobile phones were seen to walk slower, were more likely to miss the crossing signal and opportunity, and had more predispositions to being hit by vehicles because they were concentrating on their mobile phones rather than the street environment. The distracted pedestrians also took longer to cross or initiate the crossing effort, looked left and right less and spent more time looking away from the road. From the above noted researches, there is need for continued improvement on the knowledge and need for safety on the roads especially from drivers and pedestrians. This informs the research herein in the dangers of distracted walking and driving. This research will therefore strive to be objective and professional in finding out the participants perception and the data collection therein. The research will involve neutral participants that do not have any bias towards or against the use of mobile phones while walking or driving. Hypothesis H1= The use of smartphones for texting or talking significantly impairs the concentration of individuals. H2= The loss of concentration on the road can significantly predispose one to danger or self endangerment. Bearing the previous literature researched and the reports on other studies, the predicted outcome in this research is likely to show that the smartphones are a major contributor to driver distraction and pedestrian distraction as well. The use of mobile phones to make calls or to text is likely to stand out as an addiction whose fatal impact is evident or practical in the contemporary society. The research is also likely to find that the distraction is a major cause to injury of the pedestrians and accidents leading to death or injury among the drivers on the road. Methodology The research that will be conducted herein will largely adopt the experimental design that involves participants subjected to experimentally relevant stimuli. The participants will be selected from a pool of students from the college. There will be a total of 80 students who will be involved in the experiment. The numbers will be sourced from third and fourth year students who will be willing to take part in the experiment. The total number will be divided equally between the males and the female participants with the aim of getting the reactions of both the genders without bias and to give the research the needed credibility. The race of the study participants will not be restricted to any race in particular but open to all races. The inclusion criteria for the participants will be one who is of driving age and has acquired a driving license, without more than five traffic offenses over the last five months. This record is important to the research so that the possible outcomes from the participants are not interfered with by the previous experiences or trends by the participant. The other inclusion criteria is that the participant must be from the third of fourth year in the college, they must willing to take part in the repeat experiment of the research, at least three times. Exclusion criteria includes having five traffic offences in the past five months, the participant meeting the above criteria but has visual impairment will not take place in the study, if the person is not available for the three repeat experiments will also be excluded. If the person is not willing to participate in the study then that will also be an exclusion criteria since it will be purely voluntary process. The age of the persons who will be allowed to take part in this research will be between 18 – 21 years of age. This age limit will help in ensuring the reaction to intervening stimuli or the experimental stimuli will be almost the same and not variations coming in due to age difference. Research Materials The research will have a wide reach of 80 participants who will be subjected to controls and interventions of the experimental research. There will need to have a gaming station within the campus with driving simulation procured specifically for the experiment. The game software will be installed into the computers and manipulated by the hardware herein. There will be observation of the simulation drivers and their scores recorded on checklists hence there will need to be 300 copies of the scoring sheet. There will be pens needed, data analysis software and in this case the use of excel sheet. Research design and procedure The research will take the form of experimental study with the participants divided into two branches. There will be 40 participant in the control arm and another 40 participants in the control arm. The 40 participants in each arm of the study will be further divided into two, with 20 being males and 20 females. The selection of the participants will be purely based on random selection. There will be notice of the intended experiment, the safety of participation and the possible benefits to the school, the students and the nation at large in terms of the knowledge that will be added to the pool of knowledge in the traffic safety. The notice on the student notice boards will be spread throughout the college for maximum reach. There will be a number provided where the willing participants will be able to send their request to be included in the experiment. Once the required number of participants of each gender shall have been achieved there will then be random assigning of the numbers to each wing through writing of the numbers down on papers and rolling the papers and randomly picking one at a time and allocating either control or intervention arm. Once the assigning of the arms is done, the participants who were successfully selected will be contacted and informed of the day and time of the experiment. The participants will be in two arms, the control arm will be observed taking part in the experiment without any experimental stimuli introduced. On the other side of the intervention arm, the participants will equally take part in the same experiment but with experiment stimuli introduced. The 80 participants will be requested to avail themselves for one three hours each with the participants spread out over Saturday and Sunday. The participants will then be required to take part in a similar driving simulation at the gaming centre with all the sound effects and movements activated to bring the driving experience as close to reality as is possible. For each participant, there will be scoring of the mistakes they make over the twenty minutes drive that they will be taking part in. Each participant will then take forty minutes break then go back for another twenty minutes driving session and a third similar turn. The participants who will be categorised as being in the intervention arm will have their mobile phones with them and spaced out calls of one minute duration will be made to them and another text message sent to them while in their twenty minutes session. This will be repeated in the three sessions without them being told that they are in the intervention arm and the calls and texts are meant to intentionally test how they respond to the stimuli. On the other hand, the control arm participants will be requested to leave their phones with the study coordinator without being told that they are in the control arm. In this study, the safe driving simulation by the participants will be the dependent variable and the calls and texts will be the independent variables. The dependent variable shall be observed for any possible changes upon the introduction of the independent variable. As the experiment will be going on, there will be a score sheet with different variables used by the experiment observers. Whenever a mistake or traffic offence is committed by the participant, the observer will check against the offence as repopulated in the score sheet. The data will then be entered into a data compilation sheet on excel, then further a data analysis done to see the trend and recurrence of the traffic offence and their relation to the interruption to the drivers by the stimuli. The results will then be subjected to a T-test in order to find the statistical significance of the variables introduced in the experiment and if the effect they cause is of any statistical significance to the experiment and daily livelihood of the people whom the experiment results are meant to directly help.