Frequency of Driver Distraction

Funding

Bundesanstalt für Straßenwesen (BASt)

Duration

08/2016-01/2018

Topic

The goal of this research project is to determine the frequency of various secondary tasks while driving (e.g. food, smoking, mobile phone use), depending on traffic contexts, driver characteristics, driving conditions and situational conditions.

For this purpose, a large-scale survey study is conducted in four different regions of Germany. In this study, car drivers are asked about their trip on inner city parking areas as well as at motorway services.

In order to investigate how reliable information are, which drivers make to a just completed trip, a naturalistic driving study (NDS) is conducted. For this purpose, the vehicles of the participants are equipped with a camera system directed at the driver. These videos of the trips are compared with the subjective statements of the drivers about their engagements in secondary tasks. Thus their reported behaviour can be compared with their actual behavior. From this, it can be deduced how accurate the information of the drivers are with regard to the frequency of their engagement in secondary tasks.