User preferences and design recommendations for voluntary smartphone applications to prevent distracted driving

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.trf.2019.04.018Get rights and content

Highlights

  • Younger drivers want to retain the ability to use music-playing functions while driving.

  • 90% of participants reported that they had not used these applications while driving.

  • Females are more likely to install and activate these applications.

  • Drivers familiar with these applications are less likely to install and activate them.

Abstract

Mobile phone distracted driving has been identified as a significant contributor to road trauma. The use of voluntary smartphone applications (or mobile phone functions) which are designed to prevent certain phone behaviours while driving is an emerging countermeasure for distracted driving. Despite the potential for voluntary smartphone applications to reduce crashes associated with mobile phone distracted driving, there has been limited research assessing how effective these applications are in reducing mobile phone use while driving, and the perceived acceptance of such applications. The overall aim of this study is to investigate factors that influence the use of voluntary smartphone applications to reduce the distraction associated with mobile phone use while driving. A total of 712 drivers from Australia participated in an online questionnaire about their preferences and opinions regarding smartphone applications to prevent mobile phone distracted driving. Statistical analyses including a random-effects logistic regression model were conducted to analyse the impact of the application functions on the participants’ willingness to install and activate the application. The willingness of participants to install and activate a mobile phone app was determined by the facility to disable visual-manual tasks and notifications and allow hands-free conversations. The facility to set up automatic responses to inform contacts that they are driving was also important. Females were significantly more likely to install and activate the app. Preferred functions included the blocking of visual-manual interactions such as texting and browsing but allowing applications that support driving such as GPS and Bluetooth. Participants also wanted to retain the ability to use music-playing functions. The ability to give commands to the phone exclusively through audio using a hands-free device or Bluetooth was also favoured. Some age-related differences were evident when examining preferred functions. Overall, findings suggest that the use of app-based technology is a potential intervention opportunity to reduce exposure to high-risk behaviours among motorists and particularly young drivers.

Introduction

Road traffic crashes are a major cause of fatal and non-fatal injuries worldwide and among the three leading causes of death for people between 5 and 44  years of age (United Nations Road Safety Collaboration, 2011). In Australia, land transport accidents were the 9th leading cause of premature death in 2010–2012 (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, 2015). Mobile phone distracted driving has been identified as a significant contributor to road trauma. Police crash reports in the U.S. have estimated that mobile phone distraction contributes to 18% of fatal crashes and 5% of injury crashes (Overton, Rives, Hecht, Shafi, & Gandhi, 2014). The most recent naturalistic study in the U.S. gathered data from over 3500 drivers across 3  years (Dingus et al., 2016). The study reported that visual-manual mobile phone interactions such as texting or dialling increase the odds of crash risk by a factor of 6.1 and 12.2, respectively. In addition, young drivers aged 16–29  years old seem to be at an increased risk of crash and injury compared to adult drivers aged 30–64  years (Guo et al., 2017). Mobile phone distracted driving is also a pervasive issue among young adolescents, with the most recent evidence confirming the high-prevalence and role of mobile phone distraction in road crashes (Oviedo-Trespalacios, Haque, King, & Washington, 2016). These results highlight the need to investigate efforts that prevent mobile phone use while driving, particularly among young drivers.

The use of voluntary smartphone apps which are designed to stop certain phone behaviours while driving is an emerging countermeasure for distracted driving. The apps are voluntary because the driver can decide to deactivate the app at any time. While the apps are intended to prevent interactions with the mobile phone while the vehicle is moving (Siuhi & Mwakalonge, 2016), the extent to which interactions are blocked depends on the specific technology. Most Voluntary Smartphone Apps to Prevent Mobile Phone Distracted Driving (VAPMoD) disable the use of texting and similar high-risk interactions while driving. For example, the ‘Do Not Disturb While Driving’ (DNDWD) app, which now comes preinstalled on all iOS mobile phones, disables a variety of phone functions, including texting and browsing, when it is detected that the car is in motion. However, the DNDWD application can be deactivated at any time by the driver. Similarly, there is a popular voluntary smartphone app for Android phones called the ‘Android Auto’ app which can also detect a moving vehicle and block high-risk visual-manual phone interactions while driving. This type of technology offers great potential to improve road safety through the reduction of exposure to high-risk mobile phone interactions. A recent content analysis of smartphone applications to prevent distracted driving concluded that these applications have the potential for reducing risky mobile phone interactions while driving (Oviedo-Trespalacios, King, Vaezipour, & Truelove, 2019). For example, the apps to prevent distracted driving, if used correctly, could reduce exposure to visual-manual mobile phone interaction such as texting or social media use.

Despite the potential for VAPMoDs to reduce crashes associated with mobile phone distracted driving, there has been limited research assessing how effective these apps are in reducing mobile phone use while driving, and the perceived acceptance of such apps. The scant literature that is available has suggested that many VAPMoDs are difficult to use, inconsistent, and therefore not always reliable (Sousa, 2015, Tchankue et al., 2012). One of the few studies that have examined voluntary mobile phone applications while driving used drivers in the U.S. to investigate whether psychosocial variables (i.e., attitudes, the likelihood of engaging, and frequency of reported texting and driving behaviours) predict the use of the voluntary app ‘DriveSafe.ly’ (McGinn, 2014). The results showed that these variables had little success in predicting drivers’ ongoing use of the application. In Australia, a study that investigated the use of smartphone applications to block mobile phone interactions among fleet drivers found that although participants recognise the risk of mobile phone use while driving, fleet drivers hold negative attitudes to mobile phone blocking technology (Ponte, Baldock, & Thompson, 2016). In a recent U.S study, it was revealed that approximately half (54%) of a sample of 153 teen drivers consider automatic phone locking while driving to be an effective strategy to prevent mobile phone use while driving (Delgado et al., 2018). A critical gap in the literature revealed by these previous studies is the need to explore driver acceptance and features that would increase the adoption of VAPMoDs.

The use of smartphone technology is an important avenue to explore the development of injury prevention strategies. The overall aim of this study is to investigate the current use and factors that influence the use of VAPMoDs. Due to the infancy of the technology, the nature of this study is exploratory and seeks to address three key gaps in the literature. First, despite the increasing interest in the use of voluntary applications to reduce mobile phone distracted driving, and the launch of the iOS DNDWD app in late 2017, there is no information on the familiarity and use of these apps among drivers in Australia.

Second, given that the voluntary nature of the apps has been identified as a major difficulty for its implementation success (Delgado et al., 2018, Oviedo-Trespalacios et al., 2019, Reagan and Cicchino, 2018), there is a need to investigate the potential factors that influence decisions to use such apps. In particular, drivers’ willingness to install and activate a VAPMoD will likely be affected by participant characteristics. As highlighted by Reagan and Cicchino (2018) some drivers, particularly those who engage less in mobile phone use while driving, might find the use of VAPMoDs more appealing. On the other hand, Oviedo-Trespalacios, King et al. (2019) found that there are many different applications available to drivers but they may not necessarily reduce the exposure to risky mobile phone use. Further research is therefore necessary to understand the complexity associated with drivers’ decision-making and subsequent adoption of such apps.

Third, in a recent content analysis of applications by Oviedo-Trespalacios, King et al. (2019), it was reported that there is a large number of features that can be embedded into the apps which could appeal to different groups of drivers. It is important therefore to understand at-risk drivers and the features that can protect them the most. In particular, young drivers, who are overrepresented in their willingness to use a phone while driving (Oviedo-Trespalacios, Haque, King, & Washington, 2018a), might have different feature preferences than adult and senior adult drivers. Also, research has documented gender differences in mobile phone use while driving (Oviedo-Trespalacios et al., 2018b, Young et al., 2010) and there is a need to understand if the VAPMoD feature preferences are consistent between male and females.

In summary, three research questions were defined in this study:

  • (1)

    What is the current familiarity and use of smartphone applications to prevent distracted driving by drivers in Australia?

  • (2)

    What personal characteristics and application variants influence drivers’ willingness to install and activate a mobile phone application to prevent distraction?

  • (3)

    What are the functions of the VAPMoDs that influence adoption among age groups and gender?

Section snippets

Methods

This study was approved by the Queensland University of Technology Human Research Ethics Committee (QUT ethics approval number 1800000170).

Mobile phone use while driving

Participants were asked how often they perform visual-manual interactions or hands-free conversations while driving. Consistent with previous research (Oviedo-Trespalacios, Haque, King, Demmel, 2018b), participants are generally more likely to perform hands-free conversations than visual-manual tasks such as texting, browsing, or emailing. Seventeen per cent of participants reported occasionally or sometimes performing a visual-manual task on their mobile phone while driving, 15% reported

Discussion

Reducing mobile phone distracted driving has been identified as a critical action for the 2018–2020 National Road Safety Action Plan (Commonwealth of Australia, 2018). This study makes an important contribution to the evidence base surrounding the use of smartphone technology as a potential avenue for the development of countermeasures.

Given that 94% of the sample had access to an Android or iOS device with available VAPMoDs, it is clear that these applications are increasingly ubiquitous and

Limitations and future research

Several methodological limitations are noted. Firstly, although diverse recruitment strategies were adopted (e.g., press releases, social media, emails from insurance companies, etc.), the majority of the study participants had completed or were currently enrolled in tertiary education. Furthermore, it is possible that certain sub-groups of the population may have been less likely to participate due to the online nature of the study (e.g., drivers with limited internet access, living in remote

Conclusions

In conclusion, this study provides critical insight into the familiarity, current use, intention to use, and the acceptability of smartphone applications to reduce mobile phone distracted driving. Overall, findings suggest that the familiarity and actual use of applications to prevent distracted driving is low (Research Question 1). Drivers are not benefitting from this technology although there are advantages to promoting these applications to reduce exposure to high-risk behaviours among

Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank all participants and staff who assisted in this project. This study was partially supported by a research grant from the Royal Automobile Club of Victoria (RACV) 2017–2018. The contents of this study are the sole responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of the Royal Automobile Club of Victoria (RACV).

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