Understanding the differences in non-driving task engagement between young and experienced drivers is crucial for developing effective policies to reduce distracted driving and distractedrelated crashes. This study examined the prevalence and types of non-driving task engagement among young (17-18 years) and experienced (25-62 years) drivers across various driving contexts, including the presence of passengers, whether the vehicle was in motion, and different light and weather conditions. Data were drawn from the Young Australian Naturalistic Driving Study (YANDS) and the Australian Naturalistic Driving Study (ANDS). Forty-two trips were randomly selected from each dataset (totalling 84 trips). To ensure data quality, trips lasting less than one minute or more than one hour were excluded. Analysts manually coded 29 different types of nondriving task engagement events from video footage. Generalized Linear Mixed Models (GLMM) with a negative binomial distribution and driver-level random effects were conducted to assess the impact of driver demographics and driving context on non-driving task engagement, accounting for multiple trips by the same driver. Both young and experienced drivers frequently engaged in non-driving tasks. Experienced drivers spent 45.3 % of their driving time on nondriving tasks, initiating a task every 1.8 min. In contrast, young drivers spent 58.4 % of their driving time on non-driving tasks, initiating a task every 3.1 min. Young drivers were more likely to engage in longer-duration tasks, such as talking or singing. In contrast, experienced drivers tended to engage in shorter, discrete tasks, like interacting with the centre console or adjusting non-critical vehicle controls. Additionally, compared to young drivers, experienced drivers were more likely to initiate non-driving tasks when the vehicle was stationary. Young drivers appeared less adept, often engaging in longer tasks more frequently while the vehicle was in motion. In contrast, experienced drivers demonstrated better self-regulation, typically engaging in nondriving tasks when the vehicle was stationary. These findings highlight the need for targeted interventions to educate young drivers about the risks of prolonged non-driving tasks and promote safer engagement strategies, which are critical for shaping road safety policies to reduce distraction-related crashes, particularly among young drivers.

Distracted driving is a leading cause of road trauma. While there is an understanding of some psychological mechanisms underlying distracted driving, there is limited knowledge on the role of executive function in the willingness to engage in non-driving tasks and even less is known about its potential role in drivers’ self-regulatory behaviour when distracted. This study investigated the relationship between executive function and driver engagement with technology. It specifically focussed on whether difficulties in everyday executive functioning impacts drivers’ ability to self-regulate behaviour when engaging with devices at the planning, decision and control levels. Twenty-five licenced drivers aged 20 to 65 years were recruited from the general driving public. Participants first completed the Behaviour Rating Inventory of Executive Function – Adult Version (BRIEF-A) and then filled in a series of trip diaries soon after driving over a four-week period. The diaries detailed their interactions with a range of on-board and portable devices during each trip. Generalised Estimated Equations were used to examine associations between executive function and drivers’ behavioural regulation when interacting with devices. Results revealed that difficulties with the behavioural regulation and metacognition aspects of executive function were associated with higher engagement with devices while driving. Executive function also had important links to drivers’ self-regulatory behaviours, particularly at the planning and decision levels. The relationship between executive function and self-regulation at the control level was less clear. These findings enhance our understanding of the mechanisms underlying distracted driving behaviour and suggest possible interventions to reduce engagement with devices and facilitate and enhance positive self-regulatory behaviours.

Naturalistic driving data (NDS), collected from fitted vehicles with multiple sensors, including cameras, is a rich source to understand how drivers become distracted. However, detecting the distraction events traditionally required watching NDS videos which is expensive and time-consuming. Adopting state-of-the-art machine learning techniques to automate distraction detection using videos will save effort and money. Reducing/annotating a random sample of the videos and using it to train a machine learning model to carry out the data reduction for the rest of the dataset is possible. This paper investigates the feasibility of using pre-trained deep neural networks and random forest to detect driver distraction in the Australian Naturalistic Driving Study (ANDS) video data.The pre-trained model was fine-tuned using transfer learning; therefore, it can be used to classify (i.e. distracted/non-distracted) successive frames independently. To capture the time dependency between the consecutive images/frame during the training phase, we converted the 1-D output probability of the fine-tuned model into a higher dimension space. The distraction probability of each frame at a time is transformed into a vector by concatenating the distraction output probabilities of all frames within a time window centred at time. Moreover, the vector centred at the time was assigned the actual label of the frame at this time. Then we used Random Forest (RF) classifier to model the non-linear relationship between the probabilities in this new space and the distracted/non-distracted labels. This proposed framework was trained using some ANDS trips and tested using another set of trips. When applied to the dashboard camera, the proposed framework achieved 0.609, 0.218 and 0.325 for the true positive rate (TPR), the false positive rate (FPR), and the precision, respectively. Moreover, the face camera achieved 0.748, 0.344 and 0.651 for TPR, the FPR and the precision, respectively. These promising results suggest the proposed framework can be used routinely in many other data reduction tasks.

Trams can go the wrong way at track switches causing disruption and safety risks. In 2019 Melbourne experienced 370 incidents, Toronto 155, and Zurich 194. This paper explores wrong-way incident occurrences and mitigations. It explores literature, reviews global practice, and mines an incident database in Melbourne. Driver fatigue is the principal cause of rail crashes in Australia. Cognitive secondary tasks such as point and call (PAC) can focus vigilance, but no published evidence on PAC effectiveness on railways was found beyond laboratory experiments. However, this study found evidence of PAC effectiveness in San Diego and Toronto, with a broadly 30% to 40% incident reduction impact. International practice shows widespread occurrence of incidents. Automated switch control systems and the removal of driver in-cab control of points can reduce incident occurrence, but not entirely. San Diego has in-cab control but low incident rates, which result from PAC-type measures. A review of Melbourne incidents found that January/February and November are high incident months and Monday/Friday high incident days: each have special event working, and on Monday drivers may be starting a new week of shifts. During the day, early prepeak services, 10 a.m., and evening peaks had high incident occurrences, potentially associated with shift start/changing patterns. Incidents were highly concentrated: 42% at only 10% of switches. New drivers had high incident rates: 15% of incidents in Melbourne, 30% in Toronto, and 33% in Zurich involved drivers in their first year. Findings on incident mitigation and directions for future research are identified.

The fear of being without a mobile phone has emerged as a global psycho-social phenomenon impacting smartphone users and their behaviour. Determining whether higher levels of nomophobia are associated with an increased likelihood of illegal smartphone use in vehicles may provide driver licencing authorities with avenues to reduce risk by developing programs and training aimed at mitigating nomophobia. This study builds upon a previous analysis that revealed only one of nomophobia's four factors—the fear of being without access to information—predicted the likelihood of illegal smartphone use while driving. By measuring total nomophobia scores in terms of severity, not factors, this study identified a stronger relationship than previously thought between driver's illegal smartphone use and the fear of being without a mobile phone. Indeed, using a sample of 2773 Australian smartphone users from the state of Victoria, individuals with ‘severe’ nomophobia were 85% more likely to engage in illegal use while driving. In other words, the odds of engaging in illegal smartphone use among those with severe nomophobia increased by a factor of 6.6. Given the global prevalence of severe nomophobia is over 20%, these findings become significant for road users around the world, especially in low to middle income countries where 90% of road traffic deaths occur. Developing educational and/or behavioural programs reducing nomophobia may reduce road traffic deaths.

This study investigated the relationship between mindfulness and nomophobia on technology engagement while driving and aberrant driving behaviours. Nine hundred and ninety participants completed an online survey (Female: 68.6%; Age: M = 51.2 years, SD = 15.7, Range = 18.0-84.0 years) that assessed mindfulness, nomophobia, technology engagement while driving, aberrant driving behaviour, and self-reported crashes and infringements during the past two years. Structural equation modelling (SEM) was used to examine the relationships between mindfulness and nomophobia, on one hand, with self-reported engagement with technology while driving and general aberrant driving behaviours (combination of errors, lapses and violations) on the other. The results of the SEM showed that, as expected, mindfulness shared negative relationships with nomophobia, engagement with technology and aberrant driving behaviours, while all other relationships were positive. In terms of engagement with technology, there were direct and indirect paths between nomophobia and mindfulness and engagement with technology. The results of this study demonstrate the positive influence mindfulness can have on nomophobia, engagement with technology while driving, and dangerous driving behaviours that have been associated with crash risk. Mindfulness practices may reduce the effect of nomophobia on engagement with technology while driving and increased dangerous behaviours as a result. This will be increasingly important as modern work and social practices encourage people to increasingly use the phone while driving, and the technology within smart devices, and connectivity of these to the vehicle, increase. More research is needed to understand whether mindfulness-based interventions can reduce nomophobia, and thereby improve driving behaviours and reduce crash rates.

Advertising campaigns have used threat appeals to increase the perceptions of risk associated with dangerous driving behaviours. Building on recent research that suggests increasing the pertinence of informal sanctions (sense of guilt, fear of peer disapproval, or fear of hurting oneself and others) decreases the likelihood of illegal smartphone engagement while driving, this study aimed to determine if perceptions of risk information, that is, how effective drivers believe the information is in deterring their illegal use, is associated with perceptions of informal sanctions. An online survey of 1027 Victorians who self-reported illegal smartphone use while driving asked participants to rate the personal deterrent effectiveness of five types of risks associated with illegal smartphone use while driving. A hierarchical linear regression model explored the associations between the most effective risks and each informal sanction. Female drivers were more likely than male drivers to experience guilt, fear of social loss and fear of physical loss when using their smartphones illegally. More frequent illegal smartphone engagement while driving was associated with decreased impact of informal sanctions. Female drivers were more likely than male drivers to perceive each risk as effective. The most effective piece of information was, "Contributes to 16% of Victorian road deaths and serious injuries annually"; it was also the least known (32.7% males, 26.7% females). This message, alongside, "Increases risk of a crash comparable to those associated with driving under the influence of alcohol or cannabis" and, "A 2 s glance at your phone while driving at 50 km/h effectively means driving blind for 27 m", were associated with stronger perceptions of guilt, fear of peer disapproval, or fear of hurting oneself and others when thinking about using a smartphone illegally while driving. These results suggest tailoring and targeting these specific risk information may be effective in deterring illegal smartphone use while driving.

INTRODUCTION:Aggressive driving contributes to crashes, which often result in serious or fatal injuries. Efforts to reduce road trauma need to include strategies to reduce emotional and aggressive driving. Thus far, solutions have not comprehensively addressed the reasons why drivers become aggressive. This study provides preliminary evidence of the effectiveness of the Reduce Aggressive driving (RAD) program in improving driver behavior. The RAD is based on group discussion, feedback, and goal setting to encourage more positive responses to triggers for aggressive driving. The aim of this study was to evaluate the delivery of the RAD and its impact on driver anger and aggression. METHOD:A total of 94 drivers, ranging in age from 18 to 74 years (Mean = 38; SD = 15; 56% males) attended one two-hour online RAD session during which they identified triggers for their aggression and developed individual strategies to avoid aggressive driving. Most (87%) participants agreed that the RAD helped them generate realistic strategies to avoid aggressive driving. A subset of 67 participants provided self-reported anger and aggressive driving tendencies one month, and four months after the RAD. RESULTS:When these were compared to baseline measures taken before participation in the RAD, decreases across all measures were observed. Thus, anger and aggressive driving significantly decreased one month after the RAD, and these decreases were maintained at the four month follow up; providing evidence of the effectiveness of the RAD in reducing these dangerous behaviors. Further research is needed to objectively measure changes in behavior to and support broader roll-out of the RAD program.

This paper describes a driving simulator study exploring driver willingness to engage in automated driving. The study aimed to explore factors that may influence willingness to engage (WTE) in automated driving and willingness to resume control (WTRC) in Level 3 automated vehicles during everyday driving. Automated driving is an emerging technology that promises a range of benefits. The first step towards sustainable automated driving is the successful introduction of Level 3 automated vehicles. This study investigates key factors that influence the driver’s willingness to engage in automated driving in a Level 3 automated vehicle. A purpose-built driving simulator was used. Forty participants were exposed to driving situations of differing complexity in both manual and automated driving modes, and their willingness to engage or disengage automated driving and perception of safety were recorded. Results demonstrated a strong negative effect of perceived situation complexity on willingness to engage in automated driving. Other significant factors that determine drivers’ willingness to engage in automated driving were trust in automation and driving enjoyment. The identification of perceived situation complexity as a significant factor in drivers’ willingness to engage the automated driving vehicle control mode was the major finding of this research. This finding suggests that it is possible to improve the rate of uptake and sustainability of automated driving with external interventions (technological, regulatory and publicity).

Introduction: Young drivers are the most vulnerable road users and most likely to use a smartphone illegally while driving. Although when compared with drink-driving, attitudes to illegal smartphone risk are nearly identical, smartphone use among young drivers continues to increase. Method: Four in-depth focus groups were conducted with 13 young (18-25 years) drivers to gain insight into their perceptions of the risks associated with the behavior. Our aim was to determine how drivers navigate that risk and if their behavior shapes and informs perceptions of norms. Results: Three key themes emerged: (a) participants perceived illegal smartphone use as commonplace, easy, and benign; (b) self-regulatory behaviors that compensate for risk are pervasive among illegal smartphone users; and (c) risk-compensation strategies rationalize risks and perceived norms, reducing the seriousness of transgression when compared with drink-driving. Young drivers rationalized their own use by comparing their selfregulatory smartphone and driving skills with those of "bad drivers," not law abiders. Practical Applications: These findings suggest that smartphone behaviors shape attitudes to risk, highlighting the importance for any countermeasure aimed at reducing illegal use to acknowledge how a young person's continued engagement in illegal smartphone use is justified by the dynamic composition of use, risk assessment and the perceived norms. (c) 2021 National Safety Council and Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Rail level crossings in urban areas are often located in areas of high visual clutter such as busy shopping strip areas. The impact of such visual clutter on drivers’ behavior and compliance with level crossing controls is not well understood. This study examines drivers’ visual scanning behavior on approach to five urban rail level crossings located in shopping strips. Twenty participants drove an instrumented vehicle around a pre-defined urban route containing a range of active (flashing light with boom barriers) rail level crossings. Drivers' eye glance and head check behavior during the 150 meter approach to each crossing was coded from video. Results revealed that drivers direct their visual attention off the forward roadway to a range of areas inside and outside the vehicle when approaching the crossing, with around 10 percent of glance fixations made to areas away from the forward roadway and the level crossing. Drivers made very few head checks of the crossing on approach, suggesting that they are heavily reliant on the crossing signals to alert them to the presence of a train. This study provides important insight into drivers’ visual behavior on approach to urban level crossings located in areas of high visual demand.

This study employed a mixed methods approach (a survey [n = 2,774] and focus groups [n = 16]) to understand the perceptions of younger drivers (18-25) on current smartphone laws in the Australian state of Victoria. First, by analysing quantitative data gathered from an online survey regarding smartphone laws, perceptions of punishment when breaking the law, and attitudes to both the law and fines, this study found younger drivers were less likely to understand the law around phone use while driving, even after direct or indirect experience with police. Additionally, the severity and impact of fines were perceived as more impactful and severe among younger drivers, women, and those on lower incomes, and the most common types of illegal use younger drivers engaged with were navigation, music applications, and hands-free calling, mostly facilitated through Bluetooth with their device placed out of sight. Consequently, focus groups were conducted with a subset of these younger drivers to explore these findings in more depth. It was revealed that smartphone laws were perceived to be ambiguous, at times unreasonable, and difficult to access conclusive information regarding the law or receive information throughout the Graduated Licencing Program. Additionally, of full licenced drivers breaking smartphone laws (n = 807), 61.7 percent never used a cradle. Among probationary drivers breaking the law (n = 209), 76.1 percent never used a cradle. This suggests rampant surreptitious illegal use. As such, younger drivers learning to drive are also learning methods to avoid punishment while breaking smartphone laws. This included not using a cradle and opting instead for Bluetooth connectivity or engaging in hand-held use, a choice that continued into Full Licensed driving. The severity of punishment was not common knowledge and was perceived to be incommensurate to the risks associated with certain types of use. In their opinion all of these factors reduced the legitimacy of the law. Addressing these factors with evidence-based countermeasures may increase compliance and road safety.

Anger and driver aggression increase crash risk. However, how these manifest according to the purpose of the journey (work vs personal) and the unique relationships between sources of anger and aggressive expressions of that anger is under-researched. The current study examined the relationships between different types of anger and aggression, recent crashes and infringements between drivers who drive mainly for work with those who drive mainly for personal reasons. Participants (N = 630) completed an online questionnaire reporting their driving anger tendencies across situations of travel delays, danger and hostility from others, frequency of aggressive driving (using the vehicle, verbal or physical) and crash and infringements in the previous year. Drivers were classified as work or personal drivers based on the percentage of the time they drove for each reason. Relationships between anger sources and aggression types were examined using Structural Equation Modelling, comparing models between the two groups. The relationships between aggression and safety outcomes were explored using Mann-Whitney U tests. The relationships between anger and aggression were similar across work and personal drivers. However, some group differences in the situations that contributed to anger and aggression were identified. Aggression was more frequent for drivers who drove mainly for work and had received a traffic violation, compared to those who had not received a traffic violation. These findings can inform the development of targeted interventions to manage the triggers of anger and aggression. Interventions are likely to impact work and personal drivers; thus, could target employers and road transport authorities.

The objective of this paper is to cast users of railway level crossings as flexible and adaptive decision-makers, and to apply a cognitive systems engineering approach to discover new behaviour-based insights for improving safety. Collisions between trains and road vehicles at railway level crossings/grade crossings remain a global issue. It is still far from apparent why drivers undertake some of the behaviours that lead to collisions, and there remains considerable justification for continuing to explore this issue with novel methods and approaches. In this study, 220 level crossing encounters by 22 car drivers were subject to analysis. Concurrent verbal protocols provided by drivers as they drove an instrumented vehicle around a pre-defined route were subject to content analysis and mapped onto Rasmussen’s Abstraction Decomposition Space. Three key results emerged. First, when they realise they are in a crossing environment, drivers’ natural tendencies are to look for trains (even if not required), slow down (again, even if not required), and for their behaviour to be shaped by a wide variety of constraints and affordances (some, but not all, put there for that purpose by railway authorities). The second result is that expert decision-making in these situations does not describe a trajectory from high-level system purposes to low-level physical objects. Instead, drivers remain at intermediate and lower levels of system abstraction, with many loops and iterations. The final finding is that current level crossing systems are inadvertently constraining some desirable behaviours, affording undesirable ones, and that unexpected system elements are driving behaviour in ways not previously considered. Railway level crossings need to be designed to reveal their functional purpose much more effectively than at present.

Introduction: Distraction is an emerging risk factor for cycling safety. Research from Europe, the United States and Japan indicate that the use of electronic devices is prevalent among cyclists in these countries. However, there is little known about the prevalence of Australian cyclists' engagement in potentially distracting tasks and in non-technology based tasks in particular. This study examined the prevalence of secondary task engagement among Australian cyclists to determine if characteristics, such as age, gender, cycling exposure and personality, predict the frequency of engagement in secondary tasks while riding. Methods: A sample of 646 regular cyclists (defined as cycling at least once per week) completed an online survey assessing the frequency with which they reportedly engage in a range of potentially distracting tasks. Results: Reported engagement in secondary tasks among Australian cyclists was low, particularly for technology-based tasks, with the average reported engagement for many tasks sitting between 'never' and 'hardly ever'. In addition, engagement in secondary tasks while riding was predicted by a number of cyclist characteristics including age, cycling frequency and impulsive/sensation seeking personality traits. Conclusions: Cyclist engagement in any form of distracted cycling may be particularly risky in the Australian context due to a lack of safe cycling infrastructure making the road network less tolerant of distraction-related errors. Findings from this study can inform the design and targeting of policies aimed at reducing distracted cycling in Australia and overseas.

Pedestrian distraction from smartphone use is a concern from a road safety perspective. This research examined the effectiveness of current and future potential countermeasures from an end-user perspective by means of interviews and a focus group with smartphone users. Four broad countermeasure categories were identified from a countermeasures review: behavioural; legislation/regulation; infrastructure initiatives and technology advances. Overall it was found that no single countermeasure category was perceived by end-users to be fully effective in removing the road safety risk of smartphone use by pedestrians, but rather an integrated approach that combines elements such as pedestrian infrastructure separation, publicity, legislation and a shared responsibility for safety amongst all road users, was deemed to be the most promising solution. Future work in this area, particularly focusing on countermeasure prioritisation and subsequent deployment, is then outlined. (c) 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Naturalistic driving research shows that drivers spend vast amounts of time engaging in secondary, non-driving tasks. Laboratory and simulation studies have demonstrated that, when engaging in a secondary task, drivers adopt strategies to interrupt, delay and resume the secondary task in order to manage their workload and risk. However, there is very little knowledge of the time-sharing strategies that drivers adopt for interweaving their attention across multiple tasks in real-world driving. This study examined the nature of observable visual and/or manual secondary task interruptions in real-word driving using naturalistic driving data. Video of 186 randomly selected trips from the Australian Naturalistic Driving Study were viewed to identify a range of secondary tasks and whether, when and why drivers interrupted engagement in these secondary tasks. It was found that under everyday naturalistic driving conditions, drivers interrupt (or temporarily disengage from) only a small percentage (13.5%) of the secondary tasks engaged in, with 87 percent of these tasks interrupted to re-engage in the driving task. The number of interruptions made to secondary tasks was found to differ according to a number of task characteristics, including task duration and visual load, with tasks of longer duration and higher visual load more likely to be interrupted. The results have a range of practical implications, particularly for the design of invehicle devices that better support drivers to break down long tasks into a series of sub-tasks, so that they can more easily disengage when driving demands necessitate.

Mobile phones are changing behaviour, relationships, communication and the dynamics of physical environments. As such, reliance on the device for everyday activities has increased. Consequently, “nomophobia”, defined as the fear of being without one’s mobile phone, has emerged as a new phobia. The current study aimed to determine if nomophobia can increase the likelihood of problematic dependent, prohibited and dangerous mobile phone use. The sample comprised 2838 participants (males n = 1337 females n = 1501) recruited from various online platforms. The instrument used to measure nomophobia was the Nomophobia Questionnaire (NMP-Q), while problematic mobile phone use was measured using the Problematic Mobile Phone Use Questionnaire (PMPUQ-R). The findings revealed a strong positive correlation between nomophobia and all three problematic use factors. In addition to nomophobia, regression models revealed younger age and more time spent on a mobile phone per day significantly increased problematic dependency, prohibited use and dangerous use. Males were more likely to engage in prohibited and dangerous use, while no significant gender differences were found in dependent use. These findings support the need for further research into the relationship between nomophobia and specific aspects of problematic mobile phone use, such as using a mobile phone while driving.

Anger is a common behaviour exhibited by road users when one's goals are perceived to have been blocked by another. Recent research has demonstrated that, generally, cyclists tend to deal with anger in constructive ways. However, when anger does manifest, it can result in behaviours that increase their crash risk. Amongst motor vehicle drivers, mindfulness levels have been associated with less anger and appear to mediate anger and associated aggression. The current study sought to understand whether mindfulness has similar associations with anger and aggression in a sample of cyclists. A total of 583 cyclists (males = 68 %) completed an online questionnaire that sought information on their levels of mindfulness, current mindfulness practices and tendencies for anger and aggression while cycling. The relationships between these were then examined using structural equation modelling. The results showed that cyclists with higher mindfulness levels tended to report less anger across a range of situations (e.g., interactions with pedestrians, cyclists, motor vehicle drivers and police). Both direct and indirect (through anger) relationships were found between mindfulness and aggression, again showing that more mindful cyclists tended to engage in less frequent aggression. These findings align with recent research investigating this relationship amongst motor vehicle drivers and suggest that mindfulness may be a promising strategy to reduce or avoid anger and aggression in cyclists.