The Prevalence of Cell Phone Use while Driving in Alberta Abu Sadat Nurullah Department of Sociology...
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Transcript of The Prevalence of Cell Phone Use while Driving in Alberta Abu Sadat Nurullah Department of Sociology...
The Prevalence of Cell Phone Use while Driving in Alberta
Abu Sadat Nurullah Department of Sociology University of Alberta
Background
Gradual increase of cell-phone use while driving
Talking on a cell phone increases crash risk by about 4 times (McEvoy et al. 2005; Redelmeier and Tibshirani, 1997)
Objective
To explore the current state of self-reported cell phone use while driving among Albertans aged between 18 and 65+.
Albertans’ attitude towards the danger and banning/ allowing the use of cell phone while driving
Previous Research
In Canada, 37% of drivers reported using a cell phone while driving in the past week, although 66% thought it is a very serious road safety problem (Vanlaar et al. 2006)
Alberta has the highest rate of cell phone use while driving, and Nova Scotia the lowest (Burns et al. 2008 )
Theories
Cognitive and visual deficiency (Drews, Pasupathi, & Strayer, 2008; Strayer, Drews, & Crouch, 2006)
Theory of planned behavior (Ajzen,
1991; Walsh & White, 2006; 2007)
Methodology
Data The 2007 Annual Alberta Survey the overall response rate is 36.5 %
Sample 1,185 participants
Results
Talk on a cell phone while operating a vehicle: 49.1%
Don’t have a cell phone: 21.2%turn off 6.2%voicemail 6.6%get off the road 7.3%other 6.9%do not drive 1.7%
Results (cont…)
Talk on a cell phone while operating a vehicle is dangerous: yes = 92.8% (87.3%)
How dangerous? slightly 6.5% (10.1%)
v/dangerous67.5% (50.8%)
Results (cont…)
Collision risk: unlikely 26.6% (41.8%)
v/likely 69.1% (56.5%)
Support a provincial law that bans the use of cell phones while driving:
yes = 72.7% (59.1%)
Logistic Regression
Significance
Understanding the prevalence of cell-phone related impaired driving among Albertans aged 18 to 64+
Diverse usage pattern of cell phone while driving within various socio-economic and demographic segments of the population in Alberta
Policy Implication
Restricting / banning the use of cell phones while driving in Alberta
Enforcement of cell phone bans produced longer term reductions in use (McCartt & Hellinga, 2007)
46 countries have banned the use of handheld phones while driving
In Canada, ban in Newfoundland and Labrador, Québec, and Nova Scotia (and in Ontario as of Oct. 26, 2009)
Limitation and Future Direction
Self-reports survey Other in-vehicle information (e.g., GPS)
and entertainment systems (e.g., music player, TV), and other distracting factors (e.g., eating and drinking, applying make-up)
Using GPS/ satellite monitoring to trace the actual use of cell phones while driving
Thank you