Texting drivers may believe they’re being more careful when they use the voice-to-text method, but new research findings suggest that those applications offer no real safety advantage over manual texting.

The study was sponsored by the Southwest Region University Transportation Center and conducted by the Texas A&M Transportation Institute (TTI). SWUTC is a part of the University Transportation Centers Program, which is a federally-funded program administered by the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Research and Innovative Technology Administration.

The study is the first of its kind, as it is based on the performance of 43 research participants driving an actual vehicle on a closed course. Other research efforts have evaluated manual versus voice-activated tasks using devices installed in a vehicle, but the TTI analysis is the first to compare voice-to-text and manual texting on a handheld device in an actual driving environment.

Drivers first navigated the course without any use of cell phones. Each driver then traveled the course three more times performing a series of texting exercises – once using each of two voice-to-text applications (Siri® for the iPhone and Vlingo® for Android), and once texting manually. Researchers then measured the time it took each driver to complete the tasks, and also noted how long it took for the drivers to respond to a light which came on at random intervals during the exercises.

Major findings from the study included:

• Driver response times were significantly delayed no matter which texting method was used. In each case, drivers took about twice as long to react as they did when they weren’t texting. With slower reaction times, drivers are less able to take action in response to sudden roadway hazards, such as a swerving vehicle or a pedestrian in the street.
• The amount of time that drivers spent looking at the roadway ahead was significantly less when they were texting, no matter which texting method was used.
• For most tasks, manual texting required slightly less time than the voice-to-text method, but driver performance was roughly the same with both.
• Drivers felt less safe when they were texting, but felt safer when using a voice-to-text application than when texting manually, even though driving performance suffered equally with both methods.

Christine Yager, a TTI Associate Transportation Researcher who managed the study, says the findings offer new insight, but only a part of the knowledge that’s needed to improve roadway safety. “Understanding the distracted driving issue is an evolving process, and this study is but one step in that process,” she says. “We believe it’s a useful step, and we’re eager to see what other studies may find.”

The study’s results are being published during National Distracted Driving Awareness Month. Numerous agencies, including the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) are sponsoring public awareness campaigns to highlight the dangers of driving distractions, particularly those associated with cell phone use.

Another TTI study now underway is examining the motivations and attitudes of distracted drivers. Results from the focus groups and a 3,000-driver survey are expected in late summer, and will include a look at which demographic groups are most affected by the distracted driving issue.

Additional Resources:

• Voice-to-Text study video
• SWUTC study
• Story on Center for Transportation Safety website

TTI Research Scientist Stacey Bricka presents at the Household Travel Survey Symposium.

The Southwest Region University Transportation Center (SWUTC) Household Travel Survey Symposium: From Tradition to Innovation was held in Dallas Nov. 8 and 9 and attended by more than 70 travel survey professionals from across the United States. Attendees represented an almost equal mix of agency, consultant and academic researchers.

The symposium started with a poster session, featuring research from 22 separate research efforts, followed by an opening session from Michael Morris, executive director of the North Central Texas Council of Governments, and a keynote speech from Dr. Kermit Wies of the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning. Attendees were encouraged to think outside the box and consider all users of travel survey data as their customers.

Following the opening remarks, discussion groups focused on identifying lessons learned and opportunities to advance methods, sampling approaches and uses of the survey data. Attendees presented their versions of the “travel survey of the future,” incorporating new technologies, known and on the horizon. The symposium also identified what can be implemented now and established a research agenda to move us toward the newly identified survey designs.

“The Travel Survey Symposium was very timely in that our traditional methods of travel survey have relied too heavily on the telephone, which is failing us,” said attendee Lisa Aultman-Hall, a professor with the University of Vermont’s School of Engineering and Transportation Research Center. “But at the same time, technologies such as smart phones and GPS are in widespread use and have great potential for travel data collection.”

Guy Rousseau, travel surveys and transportation model development manager for the Atlanta Regional Commission in Georgia, agrees with Aultman-Hall’s assessment. “The travel survey world is quickly evolving. Posters and presentations, accompanied by break-out sessions, were the ideal forum in which to discuss the latest trends in travel surveys, and share experiences.”

The TTI team that planned and managed the symposium presented findings from the event at several Transportation Research Board (TRB) committee meetings at the 2013 Annual Meeting. The TRB Travel Survey Committee members incorporated several of the research ideas into the research needs process. The research ideas are part of a National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) synthesis statement/idea, will be part of a proposal to the NCHRP quick response program, and will be used to support a full NCHRP problem statement.

“Louisiana State University and the University of New Orleans became a part of SWUTC this year, bringing to the consortium their national leadership in hurricane traffic analysis, evacuation strategies, and  modeling,” says Dock Burke, SWUTC director and Texas A&M Transportation Institute (TTI) research economist. “LSU and UNO offer some high-quality resources in terms of its faculty, students and some of their ongoing programs. We believe the entire Gulf Coast will benefit from this new alliance.”

Burke, who has been the “head coach” of SWUTC for 20 years, has been affiliated with the unique program since its inception in 1988. SWUTC is a part of a national effort to foster university-based, long-term research and education initiatives. Its major goal of attracting and developing students to become first-rate transportation professionals and industry leaders sets it apart from other transportation research programs.

“When you consider our consortium members, we have a critical mass of expertise that can address almost any topic you could conceivably think of in transportation,” Burke adds. “The consortium has long included TTI at Texas A&M, the University of Texas and Texas Southern University; and now the University of New Orleans and LSU have joined us.”

“In his wisdom, Dock told us from the beginning that he wanted to keep us autonomous, that SWUTC would not simply absorb us,” LSU’s Brian Wolshon says. Dr. Wolshon is a national expert on all matters related to emergency evacuation research, and he serves as the director of the Gulf Coast Research Center for Evacuation and Transportation Resiliency.  “TTI is the 800-pound gorilla of university-based transportation research. Dock is heading-up the UTC program with the philosophy that LSU is a vital part of the team that should keep its expertise whole.”

As part of this year’s grant funding from the U.S. Department of Transportation, SWUTC will focus its efforts on projects that improve lives through research. The LSU addition will last through the rest of the year with project work expected to continue through 2013.

“It’s possible that the LSU involvement with SWUTC could continue past this grant period,” Wolshon says. “I hope it does, because I believe our affiliation is a win-win situation.”

For more information, please see the Texas Transportation Researcher article “A New Era: The SWUTC Adds Two New Schools to Consortium.”