Putting the Brakes on Distracted Driving Philip S. Renaud, Executive - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Putting the Brakes on Distracted Driving

Philip S. Renaud, Executive Director, The Risk Institute Brittany Shoots-Reinhard, Ph. D, The Ohio State University

The Risk Institute Approach

The solution to end distracted driving won’t happen in courtrooms or laboratories. That’s why the Risk Institute takes a four-tiered, cross- disciplinary approach.

• Research. Urban Planning.
• Legislation. Technology.

Today, we want to take a deeper dive into some of

• ur most recent research examining driver

behaviors and motivations

Prevalence of Driver Distraction

33.5 29.5 25.9 10.4

Reality*

never <10% of trips <50% of trips 50% or more trips 100.0

Goal

How likely are you to use your phone for any reason while driving a car while the car is in motion?

Why do people drive distracted?

• Underestimation of distracted

driving: people just don’t see it as risky

• Overconfidence in driving ability:

people think risks apply to others, not them

• Affective reactions: see phones as

beneficial; downplay risk

• Motivated denial: people don’t want

to see risk; rationalize behavior

• Perceived norms: think others do it

and/or it’s not a big deal

Why do people drive distracted?

• Most common response was to never drive

distracted

• People that drive distracted…
• Think many other people drive distracted
• Are overconfident in their DD ability
• Think distracted driving is NOT risky
• See more benefits to using phone and driving
• Are attached to their phones
• Are high in reactance to attempts to change them (only

measured in Survey 2—predicts DD more than risk or gender)

• Are male (Survey 1 only) or younger (Survey 2 only)
• Have higher verbal intelligence

What existing methods to reduce DD does the public like? Support

1 2 3 4 5 6 app-respond bluetooth

• rg pledges

fines ins discounts teen coach (DRVN) teen educ programs Survey 1 Survey 2

What existing methods to reduce DD does the public dislike? Support

1 2 3 4 5 6 law bans* car pull over steering wheel sensors

• rg bans

coaching apps (Mentor) eye tracking read only apps Survey 1 Survey 2

So, how can we increase support for reducing DD?

One easy option: same policy, different language (i.e., framing)

1.0 2.0 3.0 4.0 5.0 6.0 *law banning cell use laws fining use charging bad drivers more charging good drivers less apps that prevent cell use apps that help you not use

Support

Next Steps

Reduce message resistance

• We recently developed a measure of message

resistance or reaction that is related to

• Driving distracted and greater perceived ability to do so
• Lower risk perceptions and greater benefit perceptions of

DD

• Being young and male
• Lower attitudes towards reducing distraction and less

message acceptance

Develop and test more effective messaging

• Less is more; keep it simple
• Evoke emotion
• Present numeric risk information and visual aids