Differential impact of personality traits on distracted driving behaviors in teens and older adults

The association between the Big Five personality traits and driving behaviors: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Although a large number of studies have examined the relationship between the Big Five personality traits and driving behaviors, consistent evidence for their relationships is still lacking. The main purpose of this study was to systematically review the relationships between the Big Five personality traits and various driving behaviors with different intentions (including risky, aggressive, and positive driving behaviors) through a meta-analysis. A total of 34 articles met the inclusion criteria for the meta-analysis. The results showed that risky and aggressive driving behaviors were negatively associated with conscientiousness (r = -0.21; r = -0.26), agreeableness (r = -0.23; r = -0.37), and openness (r = -0.08; r = -0.07), positively associated with neuroticism (r = 0.11; r = 0.26), and nonsignificantly associated with extraversion (r = 0.06; r = -0.06). Positive driving behaviors were positively associated with conscientiousness (r = 0.30), agreeableness (r = 0.32) and openness (r = 0.20) but nonsignificantly associated with extraversion (r = 0.08) and neuroticism (r = -0.10). In addition, the association between the Big Five personality traits and driving behaviors could be moderated by age, gender and type of personality measure. In conclusion, this study contributes to the literature by quantitatively synthesizing existing findings and reconciling previous debates on the relationship between the Big Five personality traits and driving behaviors. From a practical perspective, our findings provide valuable insights into driver selection and screening, policy development, and safety intervention design.

Mobile phone use among truck drivers: The application and extension of the theory of planned behavior

Commercial truck drivers are particularly exposed to the risks associated with distracted driving, especially with mobile phone use while driving (MPWD), due to their higher driving exposure (DE) (e.g., high driving frequency, long driving hours and distance). However, despite being identified as one of the major causes in truck crashes, truck drivers' MPWD behavior has received little attention. In the current work, the theory of planned behavior (TPB), extended with DE, was applied to explore the determinants of MPWD among commercial truck drivers in China and examine the correlations between drivers' DE and psychological factors. We conducted an Internet survey and collected 420 valid questionnaires, which measured truck drivers' 5 standard TPB variables, DE and demographics. Structural equation modelling was used to analyze the data from the survey. The results showed strong support for the application of the proposed TPB model in explaining truck drivers' MPWD behavior. Specifically, truck drivers' behavioral intention (BI) had the greatest direct positive effect on MPWD behavior, while perceived behavioral control (PBC) had no direct positive effect. Moreover, PBC, attitude (ATT) and DE were significantly and positively associated with BI, while subjective norm was insignificant. As expected, DE has significant positive effects on truck drivers' psychological factors underlying MPWD behavior, especially on ATT and PBC, indicating that truck drivers with higher DE tend to have more positive attitudes toward MPWD and feel more confident about performing this risky behavior. These results may have notable practical implications in providing theoretical support for management and intervention of commercial truck drivers.

Born to Be a Risky Driver? The Relationship Between Cloninger's Temperament and Character Traits and Risky Driving

Temperament refers to basic, largely inherited, relatively stable personality traits which have been present since early childhood. Considering the very fundamental role of temperament in human development and behaviour, it is reasonable to assume that temperament is also related to risky driving and drivers' view of themselves as drivers. The aim of the present study was to investigate the relationships between Cloninger's temperament dimensions, risky driving and drivers' view of their perceptual motor and safety skills. The sample consisted of 335 Turkish drivers (aged 19-57; 53.7% men) who completed an Internet-based survey including Temperament and Character Inventory (TCI), Driver Behaviour Questionnaire (DBQ) and Driver Skill Inventory (DSI). Correlation analyses showed that TCI scale Cooperativeness correlated negatively with all DBQ scales indicating risky driving and positively with safety skills. In regression analyses after controlling age, gender and lifetime mileage, cooperativeness still was significantly related to all DBQ scales and safety skills. Persistence correlated negatively with ordinary violations, lapses and errors and positively with perceptual motor skills. In regression analyses, persistence was related to errors and lapses. Reward dependence was positively related to lapses and harm avoidance negatively to perceptual motor skills. The results of the present study indicate that largely innate temperament character traits may influence an individual's predisposition to risky driving. Future studies about temperament and risky driving with larger samples allowing sub-group analyses are needed.

Assessing Willingness to Engage in Risky Driving Behaviour Using Naturalistic Driving Footage: The Role of Age and Gender

Young novice drivers are more prone than older drivers to get involved in a risky driving situation. Some young drivers underestimate risk while overestimating their driving abilities, increasing the likelihood of engaging in risky behaviour. Age and inexperience both influence risk estimation, though it is not clear which of these variables is more important. Can drivers’ willingness to engage in risky behaviour be assessed in a similar way to hazard perception skill using video-based risky situations? The aim of the current study was to assess whether a video-based tool could measure the willingness to participate in risky driving situations and whether it can distinguish between different types of risky driving scenarios across gender and driver age groups. We also explored the moderating effect of age and gender on drivers’ experience in relation to the risky manoeuvres and participants’ willingness to engage in risky situations. Participants were presented with naturalistic videos from the perspective of the driver that contained active risky situations (result of driver’s own actions) and were asked to make a decision regarding a potential action (to overtake a bus/bicycle or pass through an amber light) and whether they would accelerate at this point. Participants reported that they were more willing to accelerate and overtake cyclists and buses and less willing to pass a light in amber. Young drivers were more willing to both engage in the risky behaviours and accelerate than older drivers, with young males reporting higher scores than the other groups. Gender differences were observed, with males being more prone to overtake and pass through a light in amber than females; however, this difference was not observed for the intention to accelerate. All the above effects remained when we tested the impact of experience on decision making while controlling for age and gender, although driving experience was no longer significant. These results demonstrate that drivers’ intention to assume risk can indeed be measured in a similar video-based methodology to that used by hazard perception tests. The findings raise the possibility of assessing and training drivers on a wider range of safety-related behaviours.

Psychosocial factors associated with the self-reported frequency of cell phone use while driving in Iran

Cell phone use while driving is a common contributing factor in thousands of road traffic injuries every year globally. Despite extensive research investigating the risks associated with cell phone use while driving, social media campaigns to raise public awareness and a number of laws banning phone use while driving, this behaviour remains prevalent throughout the world. The current study was conducted in Iran, where road traffic injuries are the leading causes of death and disability, and where drivers continue to use their cell phones, despite legislative bans restricting this behaviour. A total of 255 drivers in the city of Mashhad (male = 66.3%; mean age = 30.73 years; SD = 9.89) completed either an online or a paper-based survey assessing the self-reported frequency of using a cell phone while driving. Psychosocial factors contributing to cell phone use while driving and support for legislation restricting this behaviour, as well as the Big Five personality traits, were also measured. Overall, the results showed that almost 93% of drivers use their cell phones while driving at least once a week, with 32.5% reporting they always use their cell phones while driving. Ordinal logistic regression revealed that the presence of a child passenger, age, perceived benefits and risks of using cell phones while driving, as well as the perceived ability to drive safely while using a cell phone, were strongly associated with the frequency of cell phone use while driving. As for personality traits-extraversion, agreeableness and conscientiousness significantly predicted the frequency of cell phone use in this sample of Iranian drivers.

Demographic, driving experience, and psychosocial predictors of adolescent distracted driving beliefs

PURPOSE

The current study had three aims: 1) describe distracted driving beliefs among adolescents by various distraction types (i.e., talking on a hands-free/hands-held cell phone, texting or emailing, taking "selfies," and updating/checking social media); 2) examine the factor structure of distracted driving beliefs; and 3) test whether individual difference factors, shown in prior work to be related to distracted driving behavior, significantly predicted factors of distracted driving beliefs.

METHODS

Three hundred seventy-nine high school students enrolled in non-mandatory Driver's Education courses completed surveys of distracted driving beliefs, sensation seeking, and demographics.

RESULTS

A factor analysis revealed four factors of distracted driving beliefs: 1) self-acceptance of interacting with a cell phone while driving; 2) perceived peer acceptance of interacting with a cell phone while driving; 3) perceived threat of distracted driving to personal safety; and 4) self- and peer- acceptance of talking on a cell phone while driving. Adolescents perceived a greater threat to safety and less self- and peer-acceptance of interacting with cell phones while driving (i.e., texting/emailing, updating/posting to social media, taking selfies) than talking on a cell phone while driving. In general, men, those with more driving experience, higher in sensation seeking, and those placing more importance on checking notifications on a phone had riskier beliefs about distracted driving.

CONCLUSION

Findings suggest adolescent distracted driving beliefs are influenced by individual difference factors, providing some knowledge about the motivations for distracted driving. Future work should consider novel strategies for intervening to reduce this common yet extremely dangerous behavior among adolescents.

Who uses a mobile phone while driving for food delivery? The role of personality, risk perception, and driving self-efficacy

INTRODUCTION

The existing literature on mobile phone use while driving (MPUWD) mainly targets the participants from general population and the young adults, however, few studies pay attention to this form of distracted driving with samples in professional contexts. The present study aims to bridge the gap by identifying the extent of and the motives behind making use of mobile phones while driving for food dispatch among deliveryman.

METHOD

The snowball sampling was used to collect the data (N = 317) through a self-reported questionnaire, including demographics, personality traits, risk perception, driving self-efficacy, and mobile phone use while driving.

RESULTS

Descriptive analysis for the assessed MPUWD behaviors showed that 96.3% (N = 315) of food deliveryman undertook the MPUWD behaviors, though disproportionate distribution among these behaviors existed. Structural equation modeling analysis displayed that psychoticism and driving self-efficacy directly predicted the MPUWD behaviors. The mediating role of driving self-efficacy was verified with the findings that driving self-efficacy completely mediated the relationships that between risk perception and MPUWD behaviors and that between extraversion and MPUWD behaviors, as well as partially mediated the correlation between psychoticism and MPUWD behaviors.

CONCLUSIONS

The present study confirms the prevalence of MPUWD behaviors among food deliveryman. The SEM estimates and bootstrap estimates suggest that personality traits and perceived risk perception per se display limited predicting utility to MPUWD behaviors among food deliveryman, whereas driving self-efficacy and the proposed predictors together well illustrate the assessed MPUWD behaviors among food deliveryman. Practical Applications: These findings imply that developing and implementing intervention efforts in a concerted way would curb these behaviors effectively.

Analysis of Driving Behavior Based on Dynamic Changes of Personality States

This study investigated the relationship between personality states and driving behavior from a dynamic perspective. A personality baseline was introduced to reflect the driver's trait level and can be used as a basic reference for the dynamic change of personality states. Three kinds of simulated scenarios triggered by pedestrian crossing the street were established using a virtual reality driving simulator. Fifty licensed drivers completed the driving experiments and filled in the Neuroticism Extraversion Openness Five-Factor Inventory (NEO-FFI) questionnaire to measure the drivers' personality baselines. Key indicators were quantified to characterize the five types of personality states by K-means clustering algorithm. The results indicated that the high-risk situation had a greater impact on the drivers, especially for drivers with openness and extroversion. Furthermore, for the drivers of extroverted personality, the fluctuation of personality states in the high-risk scenario was more pronounced. This paper put forward a novel idea for the analysis of driving behavior, and the research results provide a personalized personality database for the selection of different driving modes.

Associations between emotional symptoms and self-reported aberrant driving behaviors in older adults

OBJECTIVE

To examine associations between internalizing symptoms and self-reported aberrant driving behaviors in a large sample (n = 341) of older adults (mean age = 62.6 years, SD = 4.8).

DESIGN

Cross-sectional survey.

RESULTS

Multiple regression analyses revealed that greater symptoms of emotional distress (i.e., higher scores on the Expanded Version of the Inventory of Depression and Anxiety Symptoms (IDAS-II) emotional distress composite) were associated with greater aberrant driving behaviors (i.e., higher scores on the Driving Behavior Questionnaire). In contrast, neither obsessions/fears nor emotional well-being were associated with greater aberrant driving behaviors. Follow-up regression analyses examining specific IDAS-II subscales revealed that greater suicidality, appetite gain, appetite loss, panic, and ill temper were associated with greater aberrant driving behaviors. Individuals reporting greater suicidality and appetite loss reported greater tendencies to unintentionally commit errors behind the wheel, while individuals reporting greater ill temper and appetite loss reported greater tendencies to intentionally engage in unsafe driving behaviors that may put other drivers in harm's way.

CONCLUSION

Older adults reporting emotional distress may be at risk for engaging in aberrant driving behaviors. In particular, certain symptoms of emotional distress (e.g., suicidality, ill temper) are tied to higher rates of aberrant driving behaviors within this population.

Neural Correlates of Simulated Driving While Performing a Secondary Task: A Review

Distracted driving consists in performing a secondary task while driving, such as cell-phone conversation. Given the limited resources of the attentional system, engaging in a secondary task while driving increases the risk to have car accidents. The secondary task engagement while driving can depend on or be affected by different factors, including driver's individual characteristics, necessities, environmental conditions, and so forth. In the present work, the neuroimaging studies that investigated the brain areas involved in simulated driving during the execution of a secondary task (visual and overall auditory tasks) were reviewed in light of driving settings. In general, although there are also differences in decrease and increase brain activations across studies, due to the varieties of paradigms used (simulators, secondary tasks and neuroimaging techniques), the dual-task condition (simulated driving plus secondary task), as compared to the simulated driving-alone condition, was generally found to yield a significant shift in activations from occipital to fronto-parietal brain regions. These findings show that when a secondary task is added during driving the neural system redirects attentional resources away from visual processing, increasing the possibility of incorrect, dangerous or risky behavioral responses. The shift of the attentional resources can occur even if driving behavior is not explicitly affected. Limits of the neuroimaging studies reviewed and future research directions, including the need to explore the role of personality factors in the modulation of the neural programs while engaging distracted driving, are briefly discussed.

The Context of Caution: An Examination of Age, Social Context, and Sex on Measures of Inhibitory Control and Risky Decision-Making

Understanding how older adults successfully navigate complex choices like driving requires the consideration of processing speed, inhibitory control, attentional processes, and risk management, and the context within which these decisions occur. The current study employed the Flanker task, the Stoplight task, and a personality inventory with 43 younger adults and 49 older adults either while they were alone or being observed by two same-sex, similarly aged peers. On the Flanker task, older adults performed more slowly, but with comparable accuracy. On the Stoplight task, there was a significant main effect of Context, and an Age-Group by Sex interaction, even after controlling for response time: All groups had a greater number of crashes when alone, and young adult males had significantly more crashes than any other group. These results emphasize the importance of considering the broader context of decision-making.

The association between sensation seeking and driving outcomes: A systematic review and meta-analysis

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the association between sensation seeking (SS) and driving outcomes (including four aberrant driving behaviors, accident involvement and tickets received) through a systematic review and meta-analysis. Forty-four eligible studies, representing 48 individual trials, were identified from a systematic literature search of four electronic databases, and included in the meta-analysis. Overall, the meta-analysis results showed that SS yielded significant positive correlations with risky driving (pooled r = 0.24, p < 0.001), aggressive driving (pooled r = 0.23, p = 0.019), and errors (pooled r = 0.22, p = 0.016). SS was also positively correlated with accident involvement (pooled r = 0.08, p < 0.001) and tickets received (pooled r = 0.19, p < 0.001), though at weaker levels. The correlations could also be moderated by a number of study and sample characteristics, such as country of origin, publication year, age, gender, driving experience and type of SS measure. The findings help facilitate our understanding of the role of SS in aberrant driving behaviors and accident risk, and provide new insight into the design of evidence-based driving education and accident prevention interventions.

The effects of personality types on self-reported safety behavior: Focused on plant workers in Korea

We sought to validate a safety behavior tool used in South Korean nuclear power plants, and to investigate the effects of HEXACO personality types on safety behaviors. The participants were 242 individuals employed in corporate safety management who answered the questionnaires on safety behaviors checklist, impulsiveness, affectivity, job burnout, and perfectionism. An exploratory factor analysis was conducted on the safety behavior items, and the convergent and discriminant validity were confirmed through correlational analyses with the existing related variables. To examine the individual effects of personality variables on the validated safety behavior questionnaire, we introduced control variables into a subsequent hierarchical regression analysis. The analyses revealed that the personality variables had significant effects on the subscales of the safety behavior scale. The present study is significant in that it revealed that personality, a broad construct, can predict human errors and safety behaviors, which have had previously been found to associate with only specific variables, such as stress, impulsiveness, and perfectionism.

The relationship between driving skill and driving behavior: Psychometric adaptation of the Driver Skill Inventory in China

Most road accidents are caused by human factors alone or in combination with other factors. Deficits in driving skill are a human factor that contributes to accidents. It is important to focus on driving skills to reduce traffic accidents and enhance safe driving. In this study, we adopted a Chinese version of the Driver Skill Inventory (DSI) and explored its correlation with driving behaviors, sociodemographic factors and personality. A total of 295 licensed drivers voluntarily completed a survey that covered the DSI, the Driver Behavior Questionnaire, the Positive Driver Behavior Scale, self-reported traffic accidents, penalty points and fines, the Big Five Inventory, and sociodemographic parameters. First, the results of principal axis analysis on the DSI yielded two clear factors: perceptual-motor skills and safety skills. Second, both perceptual-motor skills and safety skills were positively correlated with positive behaviors. Safety skills were negatively correlated with all aberrant driving behaviors (e.g., aggressive violations, ordinary violations, errors, and lapses), whereas perceptual-motor skills were negatively correlated with errors and lapses. Third, with regard to penalties, safety skills were negatively associated with penalty fines and points received within the past year, whereas perceptual-motor skills showed no such correlation. Fourth, with regard to sociodemographic parameters, perceptual-motor skills were positively correlated with years of holding a driving license, weekly driving distance and annual driving distance. Men reported higher perceptual-motor skills than women, whereas safety skills were unrelated to gender. Fifth, structural equation modeling was conducted to test the effects of personality traits on driving skill. The results showed that conscientiousness, neuroticism and openness to experience were significant predictors of perceptual-motor skills, whereas agreeableness and conscientiousness were significant predictors of safety skills. Overall, based on these results, the Chinese version of the DSI has acceptable internal consistency and a stable structure; thus, it represents a useful tool to measure driving skill. Moreover, the measurement of personality traits, which are important individual factors closely linked to driving skill, can aid in the education of professional drivers or to inform preventative and educational activities that focus on personality traits in addition to knowledge.

The driver-level crash risk associated with daily cellphone use and cellphone use while driving

This study examined the overall prevalence of cellphone use, including the rates of calls and texts both per day and hourly while driving, and assessed whether or not individual crash risk was correlated with cellphone use. The study used data from the Second Strategic Highway Research Program Naturalistic Driving Study (SHRP 2 NDS), which had more than 3500 participants who provided up to three years of driving data. Of these participants, 620 provided cellphone records, 564 of which included both call and text records. The prevalence of cellphone calls and texts per day was calculated. By overlaying the cellphone records with the SHRP 2 NDS data, we also evaluated the rates of calls and texts while driving by driver demographics. Crashes for these cellphone-using participants were also identified from the SHRP 2 NDS data. Negative binomial regression models were used to determine whether the crash rate was associated with cellphone use. Participants made an average of 27.1 texts and 7.3 calls per day. They averaged 1.6 texts and 1.2 calls per hour of driving. Cellphone use varied significantly by age, especially for texting. The texting rate for drivers aged 16-19 was 59.4 per day and 2.9 per hour of driving, four times higher than the 14.3 per day and 1.0 per hour for drivers 30-64 years old. The texting rate for drivers 20-29 years old was also high at 42.4 per day and 2.6 per hour of driving. Participants experienced 243 crashes in 216,231 h of driving. It was found that those who texted more often per day or per hour of driving had higher crash rates after adjusting for age and gender effects. The severe crash rate increases 0.58% for every additional text per day and all 8.3% for every text per hour of driving; overall crash rate increases 0.41% for every additional text per day and 6.46% for every text per hour of driving. The results show that cellphone texting and calling are quite common while driving. The texting rate for young drivers is substantially higher than for middle-aged and senior drivers. This study confirmed that those who text at a higher rate are associated with a higher crash risk.

Identifying the Causes of Drivers' Hazardous States Using Driver Characteristics, Vehicle Kinematics, and Physiological Measurements

Drivers’ hazardous physical and mental states (e.g., distraction, fatigue, stress, and high workload) have a major effect on driving performance and strongly contribute to 25–50% of all traffic accidents. They are caused by numerous factors, such as cell phone use or lack of sleep. However, while significant research has been done on detecting hazardous states, most studies have not tried to identify the causes of the hazardous states. Such information would be very useful, as it would allow intelligent vehicles to better respond to a detected hazardous state. Thus, this study examined whether the cause of a driver’s hazardous state can be automatically identified using a combination of driver characteristics, vehicle kinematics, and physiological measures. Twenty-one healthy participants took part in four 45-min sessions of simulated driving, of which they were mildly sleep-deprived for two sessions. Within each session, there were eight different scenarios with different weather (sunny or snowy), traffic density and cell phone usage (with or without cell phone). During each scenario, four physiological (respiration, electrocardiogram, skin conductance, and body temperature) and eight vehicle kinematics measures were monitored. Additionally, three self-reported driver characteristics were obtained: personality, stress level, and mood. Three feature sets were formed based on driver characteristics, vehicle kinematics, and physiological signals. All possible combinations of the three feature sets were used to classify sleep deprivation (drowsy vs. alert), traffic density (low vs. high), cell phone use, and weather conditions (foggy/snowy vs. sunny) with highest accuracies of 98.8%, 91.4%, 82.3%, and 71.5%, respectively. Vehicle kinematics were most useful for classification of weather and traffic density while physiology and driver characteristics were useful for classification of sleep deprivation and cell phone use. Furthermore, a second classification scheme was tested that also incorporates information about whether or not other causes of hazardous states are present, though this did not result in higher classification accuracy. In the future, these classifiers could be used to identify both the presence and cause of a driver’s hazardous state, which could serve as the basis for more intelligent intervention systems.

An exploratory study of long-haul truck drivers' secondary tasks and reasons for performing them

Research on drivers has shown how certain visual-manual secondary tasks, unrelated to driving, increase the risk of being involved in crashes. The purpose of the study was to investigate (1) if long-haul truck drivers in Sweden engage in secondary tasks while driving, what tasks are performed and how frequently, (2) the drivers' self-perceived reason/s for performing them, and (3) if psychological factors might reveal reasons for their engaging in secondary tasks. The study comprised 13 long-haul truck drivers and was conducted through observations, interviews, and questionnaires. The drivers performed secondary tasks, such as work environment related "necessities" (e.g., getting food and/or beverages from the refrigerator/bag, eating, drinking, removing a jacket, face rubbing, and adjusting the seat), interacting with a mobile phone/in-truck technology, and doing administrative tasks. The long-haul truck drivers feel bored and use secondary tasks as a coping strategy to alleviate boredom/drowsiness, and for social interaction. The higher number of performed secondary tasks could be explained by lower age, shorter driver experience, less openness to experience, lower honesty-humility, lower perceived stress, lower workload, and by higher health-related quality of life. These explanatory results may serve as a starting point for further studies on large samples to develop a safer and healthier environment for long-haul truck drivers.

Who is a Distracted Driver? Associations between Mobile Phone Use while Driving, Domain-Specific Risk Taking, and Personality

Mobile phone use while driving (MPUWD) is an increasingly common form of distracted driving. Given its widespread prevalence, it is important for researchers to identify factors that may predict who is more likely to engage in this risky behavior. The current study investigates associations between MPUWD risk behaviors, domain-specific risk perceptions, and broad personality dimensions. An Italian community sample (n = 804) completed a survey regarding MPUWD risk perceptions and engagement in MPUWD, in addition to the HEXACO-PI-R, a broad six-factor personality inventory (honesty-humility, emotionality, extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, openness to experience), and the DOSPERT, a six-factor domain-specific self-report risk-taking measure (health/safety, recreational, social, ethical, gambling, and investment). With respect to domain-specific risk taking, greater frequency of SMS use while driving most strongly was associated with greater risk taking for the health/safety, gambling, and ethical risk domains. Further, greater honesty-humility and conscientiousness, two traits related to cognitive control and risk behaviors, and to a lesser extent openness to experience, were associated with less frequent MPUWD, and positively associated with MPUWD risk perceptions. With growing public safety concern surrounding MPUWD, understanding associated personality factors is not only important for identifying psychological mechanisms underlying risk behavior, but also for more effective prevention and intervention programs.

Distracted Walking, Bicycling, and Driving: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Mobile Technology and Youth Crash Risk

This article examined the impact of mobile technology on young pedestrians, bicyclists, and drivers. A systematic search yielded 41 articles meeting inclusion criteria: peer-reviewed, published before February 1, 2016, 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.

The Role of Personality Traits through Habit and Intention on Determining Future Preferences of Public Transport Use

A complex set of factors may affect transportation mode choice. While earlier studies have often considered objective factors in determining preferences of public transport use as a sustainable transportation, subjective factors such as personality traits are underexplored. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the influence of personality traits on the number of future public transport use. Additionally, “car habit” and “intention toward using public modes” were considered to be important. For this purpose, a case study from departure passengers at Imam Khomeini International Airport (IKIA, Tehran, Iran) was conducted between January and February 2015 at IKIA. Results of structural equation modeling (SEM) shows that only neuroticism and extraversion personality traits were significant in determining future public transportation mode choice. However, the model indicates that these traits indirectly influence intention and car habit. Neuroticism was found to have a total effect of −0.022 on future public transport use, which represents a negative association with public transport use, while extraversion positively influenced future public transport use with a total effect of 0.031. Moreover, the results found interestingly that car access had a better fit to the data than the number of cars in household (NCH); both had significant positive effect on car habit, but only car access had a significant influence on intention. Furthermore, the effect of socio-demographic variables such as age, gender, educational level, income level, and body mass index (BMI) were determined to be significant in identifying choice of future transport mode to airports, which is explained in the discussion section of this paper.

The role of personality traits and driving experience in self-reported risky driving behaviors and accident risk among Chinese drivers

The purpose of this study was to explore the role of personality traits and driving experience in the prediction of risky driving behaviors and accident risk among Chinese population. A convenience sample of drivers (n=511; mean (SD) age=34.2 (8.8) years) completed a self-report questionnaire that was designed based on validated scales for measuring personality traits, risky driving behaviors and self-reported accident risk. Results from structural equation modeling analysis demonstrated that the data fit well with our theoretical model. While showing no direct effects on accident risk, personality traits had direct effects on risky driving behaviors, and yielded indirect effects on accident risk mediated by risky driving behaviors. Both driving experience and risky driving behaviors directly predicted accident risk and accounted for 15% of its variance. There was little gender difference in personality traits, risky driving behaviors and accident risk. The findings emphasized the importance of personality traits and driving experience in the understanding of risky driving behaviors and accident risk among Chinese drivers and provided new insight into the design of evidence-based driving education and accident prevention interventions.

Mechanisms behind distracted driving behavior: The role of age and executive function in the engagement of distracted driving

Performing secondary tasks, such as texting while driving, is associated with an increased risk of motor vehicle collisions (MVCs). While cognitive processes, such as executive function, are involved in driving, little is known about the relationship between executive control and willingness to engage in distracted driving. This study investigated the relationship between age, behavioral manifestations of executive function, and self-reported distracted driving behaviors. Executive difficulty (assessed with the BRIEF-A) as well as demographics (age and gender) was considered as possible predictors of engagement in distracted driving behaviors. Fifty-nine young, middle, and older adults self-reported executive difficulty and weekly engagement in distracted driving behaviors. Results revealed that while partially accounted for by age, global executive difficulty was uniquely related to engagement in distracted driving behaviors. Older age was associated with fewer weekly self-reported distracted driving behaviors while higher self-reported executive difficulty was associated with more frequent weekly engagement in distracted behavior. No significant differences were found between young and middle-aged adults on distracted driving behaviors. Findings conclude that distracted driving is a ubiquitous phenomenon evident in drivers of all ages. Possible mechanisms underlying distracted driving behavior could potentially be related to deficits in executive function.

Potential perils of peri-Pokémon perambulation: the dark reality of augmented reality?

Recently, the layering of augmented reality information on top of smartphone applications has created unprecedented user engagement and popularity. One augmented reality-based entertainment application, Pokémon Go (Pokémon Company, Tokyo, Japan) has become the most rapidly downloaded in history. This technology holds tremendous promise to promote ambulatory activity. However, there exists the obvious potential for distraction-related morbidity. We report two cases, presenting simultaneously to our trauma center, with injuries sustained secondary to gameplay with this augmented reality-based application.