Southern Legislative Conference:

Why Focus on Distraction in

Transportation?

Chairman Deborah A. P. Hersman

Eliminate Distraction in

Transportation

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Eliminate Distraction in

Transportation

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Distraction: Not just a highway

problem

• Highway

• Largo, Maryland (2002)

• Alexandria, Virginia (2004)

• Munfordville, Kentucky (2010)

• Gray Summit, Missouri (2010)

• Rail

• Clarendon, Texas (2002)

• Chatsworth, California (2008)

• Marine

• Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (2010)

• Aviation

• NWA 188 (2009)

• Mosby, MO (2011)

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Largo, MD - February 2002

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Clarendon, TX - May 2002

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Alexandria, VA - November 2004

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Chatsworth, CA - September 2008

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Minneapolis, MN - October 2009

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Munfordville, KY - March 2010

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Philadelphia, PA - July 2010

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Gray Summit, MO - August 2010

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Mosby, MO - April 2011

Recommendation to the states to

ban the nonemergency use

of PEDs for all drivers

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Recommendation to CTIA

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• Encourage development of

technology to disable PEDs use by

drivers, when vehicle is in motion.

• Should allow for emergency use and

should identify seating positions so

as not to interfere with passenger

use.

Attentive Driving:

Countermeasures to Distraction

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Washington, DC

March 27, 2012

What We Have Learned

• Distraction risks are universal

• Portable electronic devices pose cognitive, manual, auditory, and visual distractions

Risk for Teens

Future of Technology

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• A recent headline in the

New York Daily News

read “Driving while

wearing Google Glass:

Could the futuristic

device join handheld

cell phones, texting as

illegal?”

• Another headline in The

Verge read “California

woman gets ticket for

driving with Google

Glass”

What Can be Done?

• Legislate

• Educate

• Enforce

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How can NTSB help?

Steve Blackistone

State and Local Liaison

(202) 314-6005

blackis@ntsb.gov

Nicholas Worrell

Safety Advocate

(202) 314-6608

nicholas.worrell@ntsb.gov

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“No call, no text, no update

is worth a human life.”

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Driving and Texting

A brief description of Virginia’s new distracted driving law.

Virginia

The Path to Making Texting While Driving a Primary Offense

Mid-2000s – Virginia Had Little Focus On or Regulation Of Distracted Driving

Resistance to Legislation and Regulation

Rationales:

Personal Freedom

Why Punish Individuals When There Was No Accident

Concern About Empowering Police to Stop Drivers

Small Steps to Prohibit Distracted Driving

Prohibit cell phone use and restrict passengers and hours

of driving for 16 and 17 year olds

Prohibit texting while driving

New Laws Above Adopted as Secondary Offenses

No one can be stopped because of violating one of the new laws

Attempts to Improve Traffic Safety and Reduce Deaths Failed

Prohibit Hand Held Cell Phones

Require Seat Belt Use by Back Seat Passengers

Stop for Pedestrians in Crosswalks

Prohibit Open Containers of Alcohol

Administrative Suspensions of License Following DUI Arrest

Making Secondary Offense Primary Violations, eg. Drivers using Seat Belts

Very Few Charged with Distracted Driving Offenses

Most charged because of an accident

Despite Resistance, Legislation Introduced to Make Texting While

Driving a Primary Offense

Recommended by High School Students

After Several Years, Legislation Regarding Primary Offense Passed in 2013

Factors Were:

Persistence

Education

Advocacy

The Most Significant Factors, However, Were:

Overwhelming Public Support

Media Coverage of Fatalities

2013 Legislation on Texting While Driving

Bill as Passed General Assembly

Governor’s Amendments

Enforcement

Articulable Suspicion

Obtaining a Confession

Absent a Confession

Search and Seizure

Driver Distraction:

Past, Present, & Future

David Strayer Cognition and Neural Sciences

Department of Psychology

Automobile Dashboard

in 50’s and 60’s

Today’s Automobile Dashboard

Multi-tasking and Driving

“Any man who can drive safely while kissing a

pretty girl is simply not giving the kiss the

attention it deserves.”

-- Albert Einstein

FACT: Most simply cannot successfully perform

two or more tasks simultaneously without declines

in performance

The Driver Distraction Triad

Manual

Visual Cognitive High

Low

Moderate

Eyes off the Road

Hands off the Wheel

Mind off the Drive

Workload, Distraction, & Impairment

Cognitive Workload

• Attention required to perform a non-driving task

Cognitive Distraction

• Diversion of attention from driving in dual-task conditions

Impaired Driving

• Impairments to driving from dual-task performance

Observational Study

Cell Phone Usage 10.2%

OR: 2.21 (95% CI 2.09 to 2.33)

Cell Phone No Phone

Failed to Stop 2416 12567 1498

3

Stopped

Appropriately 3332 38294 4162

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5748 50861 5660

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Overview of AAA Project

• Most comprehensive study undertaken on cognitive distraction

• Systematic analysis, 3 studies, 150 participants, 8 conditions

• Analysis of different sources of distraction

• Driving simulator

• Instrumented vehicle

• Develop taxonomy of cognitive distraction

• (e.g., Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale Wind Scale)

• Category 1 -- Undistracted driver

• Category 5 -- Highest level of cognitive distraction

Measures of Cognitive Distraction

Workload

Primary

Secondary Subjective

Physiological

Sources of Cognitive Distraction

Driving Simulator and Instrumented Vehicle

Cognitive Distraction Scale

The Future of In-vehicle Technology

• Examination of speech-based in-vehicle interactions

• What speech-based activities are safe/unsafe?

• Siri, Entune, Sync, Onstar…

• Internet search to support navigation

• Dinner reservations (e.g., OpenTable)

• Facebook/twitter updates

• Quality of

• synthetic speech

• voice recognition

Summary and Conclusions

• Three sources of Driver Distraction

• Visual

• Manual

• Cognitive

• Cognitive Distraction

• Inattention blindness

• Impaired recognition memory, suppressed ERPs

• Impaired scanning (tunnel vision)

Fini