Comprehensive review of distracted driving research released

The Governors Highway Safety Association (GHSA) in the US has released the first comprehensive overview summarising distracted driving research for state officials. The report considered research from more than 350 scientific papers published between 2000 and 2011.
April 18, 2012 Read time: 2 mins
RSSThe 4948 Governors Highway Safety Association (GHSA) in the US has released the first comprehensive overview summarising distracted driving research for state officials. The report considered research from more than 350 scientific papers published between 2000 and 2011.

GHSA produced the new report - Distracted Driving: What Research Shows and What States Can Do - with a grant from 2192 State Farm which services some 81 million motoring insurance policies and accounts throughout the US and Canada. The report, available at this link, summarises: what distracted driving is, how often drivers are distracted, how distraction impacts driver performance and crash risk, what countermeasures may be most effective and what states can do to reduce distracted driving.

"Despite all that has been written about driver distraction, there is still a lot that we do not know," said GHSA executive director Barbara Harsha, who oversaw the report's development. "Much of the research is incomplete or contradictory. Clearly, more studies need to be done addressing both the scope of the problem and how to effectively address it.

"While distracted driving is an emotional issue that raises the ire of many on the road, states must take a research-based approach to addressing the problem. Until more research is conducted, states need to proceed thoughtfully, methodically and objectively," Harsha said.

She also noted that high visibility texting and hand-held cell phone enforcement demonstration projects in New York and Connecticut, funded by the states and the 324 US Department of Transportation and modelled after the Click It or Ticket seat belt programme, are proving to be effective in helping to change motorist behaviour. "Our report includes the preliminary results of these cell phone crackdowns, which have prompted dramatic declines in hand-held cell phone use and texting behind the wheel. The final results are expected shortly and should be considered as states move forward with education and enforcement initiatives," Harsha added.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • e-Call emergency service doesn't go far enough
    January 30, 2012
    eCall misses the point and is only a tacit acknowledgement that the road safety issue has not yet been adequately addressed, according to FEMA's Aline Delhaye. According to the Federation of European Motorcyclists' Associations (FEMA), the European Commission's (EC's) ambitions for eCall implementation are premature and fail to take account of all road users' needs or of technological progress elsewhere.
    Read More
  • Unmanned vehicles ‘to transform transportation within a few years’
    March 10, 2015
    According to new analysis from Frost and Sullivan, advances in sensor fusion technologies with high imaging capabilities to enhance manoeuvrability are quickening the development of unmanned vehicles. The resulting increase in the use of unmanned vehicles will eventually alter the dynamics of the transportation industry. The report, Innovations in Unmanned Vehicles–Land, Air, and Sea, finds that high-quality image and navigation sensors such as light detection and ranging systems, radar, and advanced global
    Read More
  • Mileage based charging offers secure future for funding
    August 10, 2016
    HNTB’s Matthew Click sets out why a move to mileage-based pricing is inevitable. Infrastructure is the most neglected yet the most critical engine of our society, and our continued indifference could lead to a dystopian future. Our roads, bridges and highways have been largely passed by in the digital age—marginalised in an era when funding is limited and stewardship of physical assets has given way to our preoccupation with technological innovation and data—the stuff of the virtual realm.
    Read More
  • Countering congestion’s cost
    May 6, 2015
    A new report on the economic costs of traffic congestion predicts the problem will worsen significantly in future. Jon Masters reviews the figures and some suggested solutions. New figures on the rising economic and environmental costs of congestion have been published by the US traffic data specialist Inrix and the UK’s Centre for Economics & Business Research (Cebr). Their report finds the problem much bigger than previously thought.
    Read More

Highlighted Content