Cost-Benefit Analysis of a Distracted Pedestrian Intervention

American Journal of Lifestyle Medicine, 2012

As use of handheld multimedia devices has exploded globally, safety experts have begun to consider the impact of distraction while talking, text-messaging, or listening to music on traffic safety. This study was designed to test how talking on the phone, texting, and listening to music may influence pedestrian safety. 138 college students crossed an interactive, semi-immersive virtual pedestrian street. They were randomly assigned to one of four groups: crossing while talking on the phone, crossing while texting, crossing while listening to a personal music device, or crossing while undistracted. Participants distracted by music or texting were more likely to be hit by a vehicle in the virtual pedestrian environment than were undistracted participants. Participants in all three distracted groups were more likely to look away from the street environment (and look toward other places, such as their telephone or music device) than were undistracted participants. Findings were maintained after controlling for demographics, walking frequency, and media use frequency. Distraction from multimedia devices has a small but meaningful impact on college students' pedestrian safety. Future research should consider the cognitive demands of pedestrian safety, and how those processes may be impacted by distraction. Policymakers might consider ways to protect distracted pedestrians from harm and to reduce the number of individuals crossing streets while distracted.

Journal of American College Health, 2020

Objective: To estimate the incidence of mobile device use among street-crossing pedestrians and explore differences by sex and intersection type at a large public Southeastern university in the United States. Participants: All instances of campus pedestrians crossing the street during the observation period (N ¼ 4,878). Methods: Video recordings of crosswalk activity at four locations were analyzed for pedestrian use of a mobile device while crossing. Results: Device use while crossing was observed 1,201 (24.6%) times. Of male crossing instances, 277 (16.8%) were coded as using a device. Of female instances, 924 (28.6%) were coded as using a device. Differences in device use while crossing were found between sexes and some intersection types. Conclusions: This study estimates mobile device use while crossing the street and suggests differences by sex and intersection type. Future research should focus on improving understanding of the problem and evaluation of interventions to address the issue.

Public health reports (Washington, D.C. : 1974)

Distracted driving is an increasingly deadly threat to road safety. This study documents trends in and characteristics of pedestrian, bicycle rider, and other victim deaths caused by distracted drivers on U.S. public roads. We obtained data from the Fatality Analysis Reporting System database from 2005 to 2010 on every crash that resulted in at least one fatality within 30 days occurring on public roads in the U.S. Following the definition used by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, we identified distracted driving based on whether police investigators determined that a driver had been using a technological device, including a cell phone, onboard navigation system, computer, fax machine, two-way radio, or head-up display, or had been engaged in inattentive or careless activities. The rate of fatalities per 10 billion vehicle miles traveled increased from 116.1 in 2005 to 168.6 in 2010 for pedestrians and from 18.7 in 2005 to 24.6 in 2010 for bicyclists. Pedestrian vi...

Child Development, 2017

This paper examined the impact of mobile technology on young pedestrians, bicyclists, and drivers. A systematic search yielded 41 papers meeting inclusion criteria: peer-reviewed, published before 2/1/16, behavioral outcome related to pedestrian, bicycling, or driving in the presence of mobile technology use, youth sample. Eleven studies were meta-analyzed to evaluate increased risk for crash/near-crash while distracted. Risk of bias and quality of research were assessed. Across methodologies, developmental stages, and type of distracting task, mobile technology use impairs youth safety on the road. Quality of evidence was low (pedestrian) to moderate (driving). Findings are discussed from the perspective of cognitive and visual distractions. Policy and behavioral efforts should continue to reduce mobile technology use in transportation settings.

Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board, 2012

The purpose of this study is to provide an exploratory analysis of the proportion of pedestrians, bicyclists, and drivers exhibiting four specific behaviors at 12 intersections near transit stations in the San Francisco Bay Area. The target behaviors include: 1) pedestrians crossing the roadway while using a mobile device, such as a cell phone, 2) pedestrians crossing a signalized intersection against a red light, 3) bicyclists running a red light at a signalized intersection, and 4) automobiles turning right on red without stopping. These four behaviors are important because they may lead to pedestrian crashes. Overall, 8% of pedestrians used mobile devices while crossing, but the proportion ranged from less than 3% to more than 18% at specific study sites. At some locations fewer than 3% of non-motorized road users violated red lights, whereas approximately 70% did at other sites. The percentage of motorists turning right on red without stopping ranged from zero to more than 70%. Female pedestrians were more likely than males to talk on mobile devices while crossing the street, but males were more likely to violate traffic signals while walking or bicycling. However, these observations do not control for differences in gender and other characteristics among sites. As pedestrian and bicycle mode shares increase, it will be essential for all users to understand their rights and responsibilities in the roadway environment. Documenting behaviors helps provide a foundation for engineering, education, enforcement and encouragement countermeasures that will improve safety for pedestrians and other roadway users.

In this study, a mixed method approach was used to explore the influence of mobile electronic communication gadgets (MECGs) on pedestrian behaviour at five road crossings in Leeds, UK.

Accident Analysis & Prevention, 2010

With cellular phones and portable music players becoming a staple in everyday life, questions have arisen regarding the attentional deficits that might occur when such devices are used while performing other tasks. Here, we used a street-crossing task in an immersive virtual environment to test how this sort of divided attention affects pedestrian behavior when crossing a busy street. Thirty-six participants navigated through a series of unsigned intersections by walking on a manual treadmill in a virtual environment. While crossing, participants were undistracted, engaged in a hands free cell phone conversation, or listening to music on an iPod. Pedestrians were less likely to successfully cross the road when conversing on a cell phone than when listening to music, even though they took more time to initiate their crossing when conversing on a cell phone (∼1.5 s). This success rate difference was driven largely by failures to cross the road in the allotted trial time period (30 s), suggesting that when conversing on a cell phone pedestrians are less likely to recognize and act on crossing opportunities.

2021 IEEE 18th Annual Consumer Communications & Networking Conference (CCNC), 2021

The safety of distracted pedestrians presents a significant public health challenge in the United States and worldwide. An estimated 6,704 American pedestrians died and over 200,000 pedestrians were injured in traffic crashes in 2018, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) [1]. This number is increasing annually and many researchers posit that distraction by smartphones is a primary reason for the increasing number of pedestrian injuries and deaths. One strategy to prevent pedestrian injuries and death is to use intrusive interruptions that warn distracted pedestrians directly on their smartphones. To this end, we developed StreetBit, a Bluetooth beacon-based mobile application that alerts distracted pedestrians with a visual and/or audio interruption when they are distracted by their smartphones and are approaching a potentially-dangerous traffic intersection. In this paper, we present the background, architecture, and operations of the StreetBit Application.

2021

In modern times, any death or injury on the road is unacceptable given that transportation is part of economic life and users have the right to safe travel. Although walking has health benefits, the highest road death rates in Africa are among pedestrians after motorized four-wheeled vehicles. Road infrastructure has the potential to determine and affect the number and accessibilities of pedestrian movement. A report prepared for Governor Highway Safety Authority suggests that several state crushes noted on major roads on a pedestrian are a result of distraction, thus the study investigates how distracted walking affects pedestrian safety. The main objective of the study is to assess the effect of distracted walking on pedestrian safety in the Accra central business district. The specific objectives are to assess activities pedestrians engage in whiles walking along the roadside, to ascertain the effect of road infrastructure design on pedestrian safety, and lastly to assess some common risks associated with distracted walking. The study was conducted in the central business district of the Accra Metropolitan Assembly. A mixed research approach involving quantitative and qualitative methods of analysis was used. It employed four hundred (400) respondents in attempts to find answers to the research questions. A semi-structured questionnaire and an interview guide were designed to seek information from the respondents. Responses from the questionnaire were analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS version 25) with the help of the descriptive analysis tools. With regards to some qualitative data, the researcher used narratives to tell the story from the respondents. The study found out that, most pedestrian engages themselves in both technological and non-technological based distraction activities. Again, road facilities such as pave ways and pathways tend to ensure pedestrian safety. Lastly, concussions and cuts are some of the common risks pedestrians may encounter as a result of distracted walking. The study recommends that road infrastructures that ensure pedestrian safety should be provided adequately in road construction and also there should be legislation that will prohibit pedestrians from engaging in other activities while walking.

Proceedings of the 2021 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems

Vehicle manufacturers and government agencies are considering using vehicle-to-pedestrian (V2P) communication to improve pedestrian safety. However, there are unanswered questions about whether people will heed alerts and warnings presented through a smartphone. We conducted between-subject studies with younger and older adults where they physically crossed a virtual street. They received either permissive alerts (safe to cross), prohibitive warnings (not safe to cross), or no alerts or warnings (control). We found that both older and younger adults were highly likely to heed permissive alerts, even when this meant taking gaps between two vehicles that were smaller than they would typically take on their own. We also found that we could shift participants' road-crossing behavior toward greater caution when they were only alerted to cross very large gaps between two vehicles. Participants stated that alerts and warnings were useful, but that prohibitive warnings were annoying. These fndings give insights into V2P design and pedestrian behavior when smartphone assistance is provided. CCS CONCEPTS • Human-centered computing → Human computer interaction (HCI); Empirical studies in HCI; • Social and professional topics → User characteristics; Age; Seniors.