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Study suggests brain can’t cope with making a left-hand turn and talking on hands-free cell phone
March 4, 2013 by Ashley
From the St. Michael’s Hospital press release via EurekAlert!:

Most serious traffic accidents occur when drivers are making a left-hand turn at a busy intersection.

When those drivers are also talking on a hands-free cell phone, “that could be the most dangerous thing they ever do on the road,” said Dr. Tom Schweizer, a researcher at St. Michael’s Hospital.

Researchers led by Dr. Schweizer tested healthy young drivers operating a novel driving simulator equipped with a steering wheel, brake pedal and accelerator inside a high-powered functional MRI. All previous studies on distracted driving have used just a joy-stick or trackball or else patients passively watching scenarios on a screen.

Immersing a driving simulator with a fully functional steering wheel and pedals in an MRI at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre allowed researchers to map in real time which parts of the brain were activated or deactivated as the simulator took them through increasingly difficult driving maneuvers.

The researchers were able to show for the first time that making a left-hand turn requires a huge amount of brain activation and involves far more areas of the brain than driving on a straight road or other maneuvers.

When the drivers were also involved in a conversation, the part of the brain that controls vision significantly reduced its activity as the part that controls monitoring a conversation and attention was activated.

The research was published today online in the open access journal Frontiers in Human Neuroscience.

“Visually, a left-hand turn is quite demanding,” Dr. Schweizer said. “You have to look at oncoming traffic, pedestrians and lights, and coordinate all that. Add talking on a cell phone, and your visual area shuts down significantly, which obviously is key to performing the maneuver.”

The simulation had the drivers making six left turns with oncoming traffic, which required them to decide when to turn safely. It then distracted them, by making them answer a series of true-false audio questions, such as “Does a triangle have four sides?” The MRIs showed that blood moved from the visual cortex, which controls sight, to the prefrontal cortex, which controls decision-making.

“Brain activity shifted dramatically from the posterior, visual and spatial areas [of the brain] to the prefrontal cortex,” said Dr. Schweizer, a neuroscientist and director of the Neuroscience Research Program at the hospital’s Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute.

“This study provides real-time neuroimaging evidence supporting previous behavioural observations suggesting that multitasking while driving may compromise vision and alertness. ‘Hands free’ not does mean ‘brains free.’”

Dr. Schweizer said his study needed to be replicated in larger groups and with various age groups and with people with known brain impairments such as Alzheimer’s disease.

Category: NeuroscienceTags: attention, brain, cellphones, cognition, road safety, traffic | Comments (0)
Study examines causes of road rage
January 15, 2013 by Sue
From the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health press release via EurekAlert!:

Cutting in and weaving, speeding, and hostile displays are among the top online complaints posted by drivers, according to a new study by the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) recently published in an online issue of Accident Analysis and Prevention.

Driver aggression is a major safety concern and researchers estimate this behaviour is a factor in nearly half of all motor vehicle collisions. Identifying the underlying causes and strategies for preventing driver aggression continues to be a priority.

CAMH researcher Dr. Christine Wickens reviewed thousands of entries posted on RoadRagers.com, a website that invites drivers to submit complaints about unsafe and improper driving.

Following a previous study evaluating complaints submitted to the Ontario Provincial Police, Dr. Wickens turned her attention towards the crop of new websites that ask drivers to describe the unsafe driving practices they’ve observed.

“These websites can tell us more about what people are doing out there in the real world,” she explained.

Dr. Wickens, a post-doctoral fellow with CAMH’s Social and Epidemiological Research Department, and her colleagues evaluated more than 5,000 entries posted on RoadRagers.com between 1999 and 2007. The team sorted the complaints — which consisted mostly of reports on driving in Canada and the U.S. — into various categories, including: speeding/racing, erratic/improper braking and blocking.

The most common complaints involved cutting in and weaving (54 per cent of all complaints), speeding (29 per cent) and hostile displays (25 per cent).

The research team also discussed how slighted drivers might feel compelled to retaliate or ‘teach other drivers a lesson.’ In some extreme cases, one reckless action can escalate into a hostile situation between multiple drivers.

The next step in the research will be to examine how slighted drivers perceive the offensive actions of another motorist: Is the other driver in a rush, negligent, or deliberately aggressive? How do these different interpretations affect how we respond?

With this in mind, Dr. Wickens advises drivers to work hard at keeping cool behind the wheel.

“Remind yourself to take a deep breath, stay calm, and do whatever it takes to bring your anger down,” she said.

Dr. Wickens suggested that educating drivers during their training on the most common complaints might help them realize the impact of their actions and avoid these types of behaviours. The training could also teach drivers to be aware of their own responses associated with behaviours they are likely to encounter on the road.

Category: EmotionsTags: aggression, anger, psychology, road safety, traffic, traffic safety | Comments (0)
Study suggests using satellite navigation systems can reduce driver performance
June 11, 2012 by Sue
From the Lancaster University press release via Physorg:

New findings from academics at Lancaster University and Royal Holloway, University of London reveal using satellite navigation systems can reduce drivers’ performance behind the wheel.

The academics carried out a series of experiments where volunteers were set tasks by a computer which mimicked the instructions given by a sat nav. Their results showed that when people were following complicated sat nav instructions they tended to drive faster, with more steering variations, as well as being less likely to notice pedestrians who might be stepping out.

Dr. Pragya Agarwal from Lancaster University said: “The results from our research have implications for the way these systems can be designed to be more effective and user-friendly in the future. Our research shows how people’s behavior while driving is influenced by the use of these navigational systems, which are becoming increasingly ubiquitous.

“It is, therefore, important that we gain a more complete understanding of what specific decisions people make while using these systems, and which factors influence driving safety and behaviour, and to what extent.”

Dr. Polly Dalton from the Department of Psychology at Royal Holloway, adds: “What is interesting is that people were able to follow one simple instruction without any significant impact on their driving but as soon as they had to remember a compound instruction, consisting of two sequential directions, we began to notice a difference in their driving ability.

“A lot of effort has gone into designing visually friendly sat nav devices but our research highlights the importance of the way in which the auditory instructions are given.”

Three quarters of those participating in the experiments reported that they only used the sat nav’s visual display for clarification, elaboration or reminders of the auditory instructions which researchers say confirms the central importance of the auditory instructions to the majority of users.

The academics say that whilst the spoken instructions alone are one of the safest ways to present navigational information while driving, it is important to acknowledge that the task of processing and responding to ongoing auditory information exerts cognitive demands.

Dr. Dalton explains: “Our findings show that even auditorily-presented information alone can interfere with the task of driving. Studies of in-car mobile phone use have found similar results, however people often assume that following a sat nav device is easier than having a mobile phone conversation, but this of course depends on the exact level of complexity of the auditory navigation instructions produced by the system in question.”

The research, funded by Nesta and the ESRC, is published in the journal Accident Analysis and Prevention.

Category: HealthTags: psychology, road safety, traffic | Comments (0)
Study suggests existence of gap between seniors’ assessment of driving ability and performance
May 29, 2012 by Sue
From the University of Alabama at Birmingham press release via Newswise:

A new report shows that 85 percent of senior drivers rated their driving as “excellent” or “good” during a five-year period although 25 percent reported having a crash. No participants rated their driving as poor, and less than 1 percent rated their driving as fair, which points to a possible lack of awareness of safe driving ability.

The study, by researchers at the University of Alabama at Birmingham and published in Accident Analysis and Prevention, analyzed Maryland Motor Vehicle Administration data from 350 older adult drivers ages 65-91 with a mean age of 74. The drivers were asked about self-reported incidents and state-reported crashes during a five-year period. They also were asked to rate their own driving abilities at year five. The study found that self-rated driving ability had no relationship with a previous history of adverse driving outcomes, such as crashes, other than receiving recommendations from physicians or friends to stop or limit driving.

The study also found older men are more likely to have adverse driving outcomes, but that they were not more likely to be told by physicians and friends to stop or limit their driving.

“A large debate in driving research is whether or not at-risk drivers can self-regulate, and thus possibly reduce their crash risk. This research indicates that, at least for this sample, a previous history of four adverse driving outcomes has no relationship with self-reported driving ability, thus possibly indicating a lack of awareness in regards to driving abilities,” says Lesley Ross, Ph.D., author of the study and assistant professor in the UAB Department of Psychology. “The majority of older adults can continue to drive safely well into old age. However, there is a group of older drivers who are at greater risk for crashing.”

Driver license requirements for seniors vary by state. According to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety eight states and the District of Columbia require vision tests for seniors. Illinois is the only state that mandates a road test for those ages 75 and older. This means that all other states rely on seniors to self-regulate their driving.

“Testing visual acuity is not enough to predict crashes. The screenings that show true promise in determining whether or not a senior is able to drive safely are performance-based,” says Ross. “Until that happens, we found that receiving a suggestion to stop or limit driving had the greatest impact on seniors self-rated driving abilities.

“Clearly, there needs to be more open discussion among older adults, their family and friends, as well as physicians. Driving is essential to maintaining independence and mobility for many older adults, and discussions on limiting driving should not be taken lightly. It is a complex issue with real implications for older adults and their families,” Ross says.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says there were 32.3 million drivers over the age of 65 on the road in 2008 and they expect that number to surpass 40 million by 2020. A recent study using data from the National Automotive Sampling System’s General Estimates System revealed older drivers experience severe injuries and fatalities at a higher rate than any other age group.

Ross’ work is supported by the National Institutes of Health’s National Institute on Aging. Her co-authors are Joan E. Dodson, Jerri D. Edwards, Ph.D., Michelle Ackerman and the chair of the psychology department, Karlene Ball, Ph.D.

Category: HealthTags: aging, Perception, psychology, road safety, traffic | Comments (0)
Study suggests distractions increase crash risk even for driving pros
May 17, 2012 by Sue
From the University of Wisconsin-Madison press release via Physorg:

The ringing cell phone you’re reaching to answer. The text message that demands a reply now. The GPS you’re trying to program as you’re frantically rushing to your destination.

They’re just a few activities—among many—that divert drivers’ attention from the road and escalate their risk of having an accident.

And, an accident can happen in an instant, says driver distraction researcher John Lee, a professor of industrial and systems engineering at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.

“Studies dating back to the 1960s found the maximum time the eye can be diverted from a driving task without significant adverse effect is 1.5 to 2 seconds,” he says. “Attention to the road deteriorates the longer a driver looks away.”

That’s the case even for professional drivers such as commercial truck operators, bus drivers, police, and street and highway department crews.

The cabs of those drivers’ vehicles are chock-full of distractions: two-way radios, smartphones, GPS units, laptop computers, and an array of levers, knobs and touch screens that control equipment like plows and spreaders.

This complex mix of technologies might be inevitable-but accidents are not.

Proper technology placement and well-informed policies could reduce distracted driving. For example, in-cab controls should be easy to reach and drivers should be able to quickly complete each step of a task such as programming a GPS navigation system. If drivers need to read a map, do paperwork or use a cell phone, a policy could insist they stop away from traffic before completing the task.

Training professional drivers to recognize distractions and the factors that influence their attention to the road also is an important strategy for combatting distracted driving. Drivers can learn to minimize the length of time they look away or do so at locations with fewer potential conflicts.

“Some professional drivers know how to time their glances-unlike teens or other new drivers-although they cannot glance away from the driving task any longer than other drivers,” says Lee.

In Sauk County, Wisconsin, police, fire, public works and highway crews annually use a driving simulator for 95 percent of their defensive-driving training. There, safety risk manager Carl Gruber says the simulator effectively replicates a variety of road and pavement types and weather conditions. It can run hundreds of scenarios with situations that highway department drivers encounter in a snow event or road project-for example, high-volume traffic, tailgating, reduced visibility or a blown tire.

One advantage to the simulator is that Gruber can create complex challenges impossible to duplicate in on-the-road training. He recently programmed a test drive that required an operator to control the truck using only the steering wheel and gas pedal-without brakes-in simulated snowstorm conditions.

And, the county updates its simulator training module every year to address any problems that may have occurred the previous snow season. “It allows us to keep employees driving defensively in a whole range of situations that put them or the public at risk,” says Gruber.

In addition to their annual simulator training, Sauk County crews also attend the Highway Safety ROADeo sponsored Wisconsin County Mutual Insurance Corporation. It features a driver skills course, vehicle inspection training, a written exam and other programs, and enables drivers to try real-life truck maneuvers in tight situations and refresh their knowledge of safety issues.

While technology can contribute to driver distraction, technological advances also could help reduce it. New Hampshire recently installed voice-activated technology in more than 1,000 police cars in the state. The system uses a single interface operated by voice or touch screen to control multiple in-car technologies from different vendors-and similar technologies could be available in the future for public works and highway applications.

Also in development is a new generation of displays that project information from sensors onto the windshield glass, enhancing the driver’s ability to see objects in the road ahead. While the technology is improving, Lee says it has limitations because drivers can only see and process a few things at a time.

Ultimately, he says, there’s no substitute for eyes on the road. “There’s always a risk when a driver looks away from the road since there is no certainty about when an incident will happen,” he says. “And this risk increases as the length of time they are looking away increases.”

Category: HealthTags: attention, cellphones, distraction, road safety, technology, traffic | Comments (0)
Study looks at tasks that distract from driving
May 11, 2012 by Sue
From the Wichita State University press release via Newswise:

Of all the dangers on the road, drivers are what you have to watch out for the most.

Alex Chaparro, director of Wichita State University’s psychology department, studies drivers who multitask behind the wheel, especially drivers who try to text or call while driving.

“When you ask people to rate how good they are at driving and the kind of risks they pose, they often have very positive assessments,” said Chaparro. “They believe that they’re good drivers.”

“But what we see when we look at participants in our experiments is that their driving is affected. What people believe in terms of their capabilities isn’t reflected in the data.”

Chaparro has researched drivers’ behavior since 1998.

“Some tasks may be more distracting than others,” Chaparro said. “For example, there’s evidence that listening to a book on tape doesn’t seem to interfere much with driving.”

Driving interference

One of the experiments Chaparro conducted was reading a set of letters to each participant while driving. Some only had to repeat the letters back in the order they received them, and that didn’t seem to affect their driving.

“But when you asked drivers to alphabetize their set of letters it has a big impact on their driving,” he said. “Thinking about generating a response is perhaps the main source of interference in driving.”

Chaparro said when you’re thinking about generating a response, you’re not thinking about what’s going on in the road ahead.

Most recently he has been directing his research at texting while driving.

“We did an initial study looking at texting versus talking, and we found that texting was a lot worse,” he said. “On virtually every measure we found that drivers who were texting were significantly worse than drivers who were just talking on the phone.”

When you’re texting, Chaparro said, you have the cognitive demands of talking. But now, you also have to physically interact with a device using small buttons that require visual confirmation.

Chaparro cited a study done at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University that used video cameras in vehicles to record drivers’ behavior on the road. The study attempted to correlate crashes and near misses with the drivers’ behavior.

The study found evidence that texting while driving increases the chance of a crash by as much as 23 times. That compares to being four times as likely to crash while talking on the phone.

Timely research

With Kansas’ new laws against texting while driving, Chaparro’s research has become more timely than ever.

“I think the law highlights the difficulties faced by both the police and drivers when it has to be enforced,” he said.

Kansas law now allows law enforcement officers to stop motorists for “sending, receiving or reading text messages or emails on their wireless devices.”

“First, it appears that many drivers are not aware of the law and that it covers not only the typing of a text message but also the act of reading a text message,” Chaparro said. “A public education program may be needed to raise awareness and educate drivers.”

“Second, enforcement poses a challenge because it is not always clear from a short glance whether the driver was texting, using the phone to check the time or to turn off an alarm. Would all of these cases be treated as if the person was texting? Is dialing a telephone number any less risky than texting ‘got 2 go’?”

Even though some people are naturally better at multitasking than others, that doesn’t mean that they are immune from the risk, he said.

“When people are engaged in these tasks, even when they’re good at them, those tasks still place a burden on the driving performance,” Chaparro said.

This can be demonstrated without even getting in a car.

“We’ve been walking since about age 1. It’s the most practiced motor task that we engage in. Yet walking is affected by the simple task of listening for two tones and responding to just one of them,” he said.

We’re not nearly as practiced at driving as we are at walking.

Chaparro said that we shouldn’t be surprised that using a mobile device behind the wheel impacts driving performance.

“Anything that distracts drivers is a risk. Looking at accident statistics, you find that driver distraction is the most common cause of mishaps,” Chaparro said. “Anything in a car that serves as a source of distraction in a car is problematic.”

Category: HealthTags: attention, psychology, road safety, traffic | Comments (0)
Study suggests anticipation of cellphone use may contribute to motor vehicle crashes
April 30, 2012 by Sue
From the American Academy of Pediatrics press release via EurekAlert!:

It’s well-known that using a cell phone while driving can lead to motor vehicle crashes. New research — to be presented Sunday, April 29, at the Pediatric Academic Societies (PAS) annual meeting in Boston — shows that even anticipating calls or messages may distract drivers, increasing the risk of a crash.

Jennifer M. Whitehill, PhD, postdoctoral fellow at Harborview Injury Prevention and Research Center at the University of Washington, and her colleagues sought to determine whether compulsive cell phone use is associated with motor vehicle crashes. They enlisted undergraduate students to complete the Cell Phone Overuse Scale (CPOS), a 24-item instrument that assesses four aspects of problematic cell phone use: 1) frequent anticipation of calls/messages, 2) interference with normal activities (e.g., impacting friends/family), 3) a strong emotional reaction to the cell phone and 4) recognizing problem use.

The 384 students also took an online anonymous survey that included questions about driving history, prior crashes while operating a vehicle, and items assessing risk behaviors and psychological profile.

“Young drivers continue to use cell phones in the car, despite the known risk of crash. We were interested to explore how cell phone use contributes to distracted driving and to begin to understand the relationship between the driver and the phone,” said senior author Beth E. Ebel, MD, MSc, MPH, FAAP, director of the Harborview Injury Prevention and Research Center and associate professor of pediatrics at University of Washington.

Results showed that for each 1 point increase on the CPOS, there was an approximately 1 percent increase in the number of previous motor vehicle crashes. Of the four dimensions of compulsive cell phone use, a higher level of call anticipation was significantly associated with prior crashes.

“We know it is important to prevent young drivers from taking their hands off the wheel and eyes off the road to use a cell phone,” Dr. Whitehill said. “This study suggests that thinking about future cell phone calls and messages may be an additional source of distraction that could contribute to crashes.”

Category: HealthTags: psychology, road safety, traffic | Comments (0)
Study suggest vibrating steering wheel can guide drivers while keeping their eyes on road
April 24, 2012 by Sue
From the Carnegie Mellon press release:

A vibrating steering wheel is an effective way to keep a driver’s eyes safely on the road by providing an additional means to convey directions from a car’s navigation system, researchers at Carnegie Mellon University and AT&T Labs have shown.

The study, one of the first to evaluate combinations of audio, visual and haptic feedback for route guidance, found that younger drivers in particular were less distracted by a navigation system’s display screen when they received haptic feedback from the vibrating steering wheel.

For elder drivers, the haptic feedback reinforced the auditory cues they normally prefer.

Though the haptic steering wheel generally improved driver performance and safety, the study findings suggest that simply giving the driver additional sensory inputs isn’t always optimal. That’s particularly the case for older drivers because the additional sensory feedback can strain the brain’s capacity to process it.

“Our findings suggest that, as navigation systems become more elaborate, it would be best to personalize the sensory feedback system based, at least in part, on the driver’s age,” said SeungJun Kim, systems scientist in Carnegie Mellon’s Human-Computer Interaction Institute (HCII).

The findings will be presented June 21 at the International Conference on Pervasive Computing in Newcastle, England.

Vibrating steering wheels already are used by some car makers to alert drivers to such things as road hazards. But the haptic steering wheel under development by AT&T is capable of unusually nuanced pulsations and thus can convey more information. Twenty actuators on the rim of the AT&T wheel can be fired in any order. In this study, firing them in a clockwise sequence told a driver to turn right, while a counterclockwise sequence signaled a left turn.

“By using these types of vibration cues, we are taking advantage of what people are already familiar with, making them easier to learn,” explained Kevin A. Li, a researcher with AT&T’s user interface group in Florham Park, NJ.

Kim and fellow HCII scientists have developed methods for measuring the performance, attentiveness and cognitive load of drivers that involve a suite of sensors. For this study, they added the experimental AT&T steering wheel to their driving simulator.

Part of a research thrust of the National Science Foundation-sponsored Quality of Life Technology Center, the researchers were particularly interested in learning whether multi-modal feedback would improve the driving performance of elderly drivers. The number of drivers over the age of 65 is rapidly growing; improving the performance of older drivers despite progressive decay in their vision, hearing and general mobility can help maintain their mobility and independence.

Subjects of the study included 16 drivers ages 16-36 and 17 over the age of 65. In the HCII simulator, these people drove a course that included various traffic lights, stop signs and pedestrians while the researchers monitored their heart rate, pupil size, blink rate, brain wave activity and other measures of attention and cognitive load.

The researchers found that the proportion of time that a driver’s eyes were off of the road was significantly less with the combination of auditory and haptic feedback than with the audio and visual feedback typical of most conventional GPS systems – 4 percent less for elder drivers and 9 percent less for younger drivers.

Combining all three modalities – audio, visual and haptic – significantly reduced eye-off-the-road time for the younger drivers, but not the older drivers. Kim said this may have to do with driver preference; self-reports showed older drivers favored audio feedback while younger drivers relied more on visual feedback.

But the researchers also found that combining all three modalities didn’t reduce the cognitive workload of older drivers, a result that was in contrast to younger drivers. They concluded designers of navigation systems for older drivers may need to concentrate on reducing the driver’s cognitive burden rather than resolving issues regarding divided attention.

“We are very excited about the benefits of adding haptic feedback to traditional audio-visual interfaces,” said Anind K. Dey, associate professor in HCII. “In combination with our ability to measure cognitive load, we can not only design interfaces that people like and make them more efficient, but that also allow them to more easily focus on their task at hand.”

In addition to Dey, Kim and Li, the research team included Jodi Forlizzi, associate professor in HCII, and Jin-Hyuk Hong, a post-doctoral researcher in HCII. General Motors, the National Science Foundation and the Quality of Life Technology Center sponsored this study.

Category: HealthTags: aging, road safety, traffic | Comments (0)
Researchers develop technologies to support older drivers
April 23, 2012 by Sue
From the University of Newcastle press release via ScienceDaily:

A unique research car which monitors our concentration, stress levels and driving habits while we’re sat behind the steering wheel is being used to develop new technologies to support older drivers.

The Intelligent Transport team at Newcastle University have converted an electric car into a mobile laboratory.

Dubbed ‘DriveLAB’, the car is kitted out with tracking systems, eye trackers and bio-monitors in an effort to understand the challenges faced by older drivers and to identify where the key stress points are.

Research shows that giving up driving is one of the key factors responsible for a fall in health and well-being among older people, leading to them becoming more isolated and inactive.

Led by Professor Phil Blythe, the Newcastle team are investigating in-vehicle technologies for older drivers which they hope could help them to continue driving into later life.

These include bespoke navigation tools, night vision systems and intelligent speed adaptations.
Phil Blythe, Professor of Intelligent Transport Systems at Newcastle University, explains: “For many older people, particularly those living alone or in rural areas, driving is essential for maintaining their independence, giving them the freedom to get out and about without having to rely on others.

“But we all have to accept that as we get older our reactions slow down and this often results in people avoiding any potentially challenging driving conditions and losing confidence in their driving skills. The result is that people stop driving before they really need to.

“What we are doing is to look at ways of keeping people driving safely for longer, which in turn boosts independence and keeps us socially connected.”

Funded by Research Councils UK’s Digital Economy programme the research is part of the Social inclusion through the Digital Economy (SiDE) project, a £12m research hub led by Newcastle University.

Using the new DriveLAB as well as the University’s driving simulator, the team have been working with older people from across the North East and Scotland to understand their driving habits and fears and look at ways of overcoming them.

By incorporating the eye tracker and bio-monitor with the driving simulator the team are able to monitor eye movement, speed, reaction, lane position, acceleration, braking and driving efficiency.

Dr Amy Guo, the leading researcher on the older driver study, explains: “The DriveLAB is helping us to understand what the key stress triggers and difficulties are for older drivers and how we might use technology to address these problems.

“For example, most of us would expect older drivers always go slower than everyone else but surprisingly, we found that in 30mph zones they struggled to keep at a constant speed and so were more likely to break the speed limit and be at risk of getting fined.

“We’re looking at the benefits of systems which control your speed as a way of preventing that.”
Another solution is a tailored SatNav which uses pictures as turning cues, such as a post box or public house.

Researcher Chris Emmerson, explains: “One thing that came out of the focus groups was that while the older generation is often keen to try new technologies it’s their lack of experience with, and confidence in, digital technologies which puts them off. Also, they felt most were designed with younger people in mind.”

The work is being presented at the Aging, Mobility and Quality of Life conference in Michigan in June.
Edmund King, AA president and Visiting Professor of Transport at Newcastle University, said: “The car is a life-line for many older people as it helps keep them mobile, independent and connected to friends and family. The AA Charitable Trust has helped thousands of older drivers with our free “Drive Confident” courses but we feel that the pioneering work of DriveLAB will help with technological solutions to ensure that older drivers stay safer behind the wheel.”

The driving simulator is also being used to look at how distractions such as answering a mobile phone, sending a text or eating can affect our driving.

Category: HealthTags: aging, cognition, road safety, technology, traffic | Comments (0)
Study suggests searching for MP3s can increase risk for drivers
April 16, 2012 by Sue
From the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society (HFES) press release:

Consumers are increasingly using MP3 players in their vehicles, and auto makers have responded: Data show that 90% of new vehicles sold in the United States have MP3 connectivity. Makers of aftermarket MP3 controllers are also responding with devices that have claimed to decrease driver distraction. But according to human factors/ergonomics researcher John D. Lee and colleagues, MP3 players might increase distraction risk, depending on which devices drivers use and how long they look away from the road while searching for their favorite song. Aftermarket devices designed to reduce distraction can actually increase it.

In Lee et al.’s article, “Scrolling and Driving: How an MP3 Player and Its Aftermarket Controller Affect Driving Performance and Visual Behavior,” published in Human Factors: The Journal of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society, 50 drivers age 18 to 25 searched for specific songs in playlists of varying lengths using either an MP3 player or an aftermarket controller. They performed this task in a driving simulator while negotiating varying road segments with frequent changes in traffic patterns and construction activity. In comparison trials they were asked to tune the radio to a particular frequency while driving.

Lee and colleagues found that drivers who searched through long playlists (580 songs) glanced away from the road more frequently and for longer durations than did those scrolling through shorter playlists, resulting in degraded driving performance. The aftermarket controller was found to lengthen, not shorten, glances away from the road. “As seen in this study, these aftermarket devices do not always have the expected effect,” Lee noted.

These results are significant because they bring yet another dimension to the driver distraction challenge. The most recent figures from the U.S. Department of Transportation indicate that, despite the numerous education campaigns and laws aimed at mitigating driver distraction, the problem may actually be getting worse.

“New technology in the car often seems like familiar old technology, such as a radio, but is often much more likely to distract,” said Lee. “A simple task of selecting a song from a list can seduce you into looking away from the road longer than you might have intended, and long looks away from the road can kill.”

April 2012 is National Distracted Driving Awareness Month, and the traffic safety community has a simple message for drivers: “One Text or Call Could Wreck It All.” For more information about distracted driving, visit www.distraction.gov. To make the commitment to drive distraction-free, take the pledge at http://www.distraction.gov/content/get-involved/take-the-pledge.html.

For a full copy of the article, go to http://hfs.sagepub.com/content/54/2/250.full or contact HFES Communications Director Lois Smith (lois@hfes.org, 310/394-1811).

Category: NeuroscienceTags: attention, road safety, technology, traffic | Comments (0)

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