Episode 102. Eyes on the Road! Encouraging Behaviors to Reduce Distracted Driving.

Allan Rutter (00:14):
Howdy, everyone. Welcome to Thinking Transportation–conversations about how we get ourselves and the stuff we need from one place to another. I’m Allan Rutter with the Texas A&M Transportation Institute.

Allan Rutter (00:28):
I do a fair amount of driving for personal and professional reasons and notice a lot of my fellow drivers are doing other things behind the wheel. I see people holding their phone in front of them for directions. I see people in work trucks reaching across the passenger seat for papers. I don’t see people with cosmetics, but I have seen quite a few people working on their hair in the morning. All of these activities interfere with the act of driving, and this matter of distracted driving can lead to adverse safety outcomes for drivers, their passengers, and other vehicles around them. April is Distracted Driving Awareness Month, and today we are joined by two of my TTI colleagues who focus on transportation safety. First, Srini Geedipally is Crash Analytics Program Manager in the Center for Transportation Safety. We’re also speaking with Emily Martin, who is Road User Safety Program Manager in the same center and has been with TTI for about four years. Welcome to both of you.

Srinivas Geedipally (01:30):
Thanks Allan.

Emily Martin (01:31):
Thanks Allan. I’m glad to be here.

Allan Rutter (01:34):
So, April is Distracted Driving Awareness Month. Let’s start by talking about what transportation safety experts like you guys mean by distracted driving. What kinds of behavior are we talking about?

Emily Martin (01:51):
Distracted driving can be really broad. We usually see it fall into three main categories: visual, being taking your eyes off the road; manual, taking your hands off the wheel; or cognitive, taking your mind off of what’s at hand. As far as what behaviors look like in that, it can really vary. We see things from not paying attention to the road and, instead, paying attention to what’s going on in your car–maybe passengers that are in the car with you or messing with your infotainment system or using a cell phone. That’s a big one. We also see things like distraction outside of the car. So maybe you’re paying attention to what’s going on in the street or driving past a crash. We’ve all been in situations where we see everybody slow down because everybody’s turning around to see what’s going on. Those are a lot of the things that we see from that standpoint, as well as just kind of letting your mind wander while you’re driving and suddenly you get to where you’re going and don’t even realize how you got there.

Srinivas Geedipally (02:47):
Right. I mean, not just the mobile phone. I mean everyone thinks that distraction means it’s just a mobile phone, but there are other roadside things that can distract you, like digital billboards. If there is too much lighting then you know you try to read those messages, then you are distracted. You know, all these are considered under distracted driving.

Allan Rutter (03:10):
In terms of keeping track of how safety statistics work, what kinds of things are captured or calculated or recorded as distracted driving?

Srinivas Geedipally (03:21):
So when there is a crash, the police officer records the contributing factors. That’s why the driver, like if it’s a multi-vehicle crash, then you will have multiple contributing factors corresponding to each driver. And then there are three things that are used to quantify whether it’s a distracted driving or not. The three things that they use: is there a distraction in a vehicle, driver inattention, And cell phone or mobile phone usage. Those three contributing factors are defined as distracted driving.

Allan Rutter (04:02):
Okay, that’s helpful. In a little bit we’re gonna talk about some of the statistics around this. So we talked about what distracted driving is. What are the, sort of, contributing factors? How do those distractions of different kinds reduce safety for the driver? What’s the, sort of, functionality of how distracted driving affects the driving task and how does that add to risk?

Srinivas Geedipally (04:26):
Yeah, when you receive a small message, a very small message and when you are trying to read that on your cell phone–again, there was research done on this topic–when your eyes are off from the road and when you are checking your cell phone, that’s like a few seconds and at a highway speed you would be crossing a football field without looking at the road.

Allan Rutter (04:53):
So, particularly distractions at highway speed lead to a lot more risk.

Emily Martin (04:58):
Yeah. And then at lower speeds we see things manifest a little bit differently, but you take your eyes off the road and start paying attention elsewhere. You may not see pedestrians, your reaction time is lowered and then you also have just a higher cognitive load at the time, so your brain’s just gonna get a little bit more overwhelmed and you may see your driving capabilities decrease from that distraction.

Allan Rutter (05:23):
I think it’s probably part of one of those things where we all overestimate our driving abilities and the fact that driving often becomes almost a subconscious thing that, you know, we have such muscle memory; but it seems like we give ourselves a little more credit for this sort of background activity that leads to driving. What you guys are saying is that those elements of inattention raise the risks for something going wrong regardless of the kind of speed they’re traveling with. Is that kind of what we’re dealing with?

Emily Martin (05:57):
Yeah.

Allan Rutter (05:58):
So let’s talk a little bit about the, sort of, consequences of this. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reports that distracted driving on a national basis killed 3,275 people in 2023. Do we have figures for Texas fatalities and other crash statistics involving distracted driving, Srini? I think you’re kind of our crash records guy.

Srinivas Geedipally (06:26):
Sure. I did a search to see how many crashes were coded as caused by distracted driving. I see there are like 174 deaths that occurred due to distracted driving in 2023 [in Texas]. It’s consistent from the last three years. I checked from 2020 to 2023, or four years of data, and it’s been consistent, like 150-ish deaths every year on Texas roads.

Allan Rutter (06:56):
Okay.

Emily Martin (06:57):
We also know that a lot of times that distracted driving can be under-reported in our crash records because in many cases, unless that distracted activity is observed by a police officer or by a bystander or self-admitted by the person involved in the crash, it can be hard to assign that contributing factor to that individual. And so it, it is one of those factors that can be under reported.

Srinivas Geedipally (07:27):
Yes. Again, it’s one of those under-reported behaviors because it’s only after the crash has occurred, someone needs to tell the law enforcement officer that there was some kind of distraction. So it’s very much under-reported in my opinion.

Allan Rutter (07:46):
For those very, sort of, self-reporting things. You don’t wanna be the guy to admit that after you’ve been involved in a crash, oh, and by the way, this is what I did to cause this.

Emily Martin (07:57):
Right.

Allan Rutter (07:58):
But of those crashes that are coded this way, do we have any information about distracted driving and young or old or male or female? Are there some demographic distinctions around distracted driving?

Srinivas Geedipally (08:15):
Yeah, so I checked the demographics, and the female-to-male ratio is no different from distracted [driving] to other crash types. Male is about 55% and females are about 38%. That’s been consistent, I mean for distracted and non-distracted crashes–and even in the rural and urban areas–still the split is pretty much the same. However, the only thing that’s kind of an interesting one is for the drivers under 25, the distracted driving in that, their ratio, their proportion is about 40%. Whereas for the other crash types other than the distraction, it’s only 38%. So it’s like 2% more with respect to the younger drivers that had a little over-representation in distracted driving crashes.

Allan Rutter (09:14):
That’s interesting. And it gets me thinking that with a younger demographic more used to texting as their primary means of communication with each other, that kind of communication is the exact wrong thing to have in your vehicle. It’s one thing to worry about mobile phone use and handsfree versus holding the thing in your hand. It’s another to hold the cell phone in your hand because you’re using it as a keyboard, for all kinds of reasons. That’s not the kind of thing we wanna see when people are behind the wheel.

Srinivas Geedipally (09:49):
And again, you know, with the evaluation of this social media thing too, those age kids, they’re very curious about the posts that they do. You know, they want to see how many people reacted to those posts. So it’s very common in that age, social media, as a very big influence and in my opinion generally cause more distraction in that age group.

Allan Rutter (10:16):
So it sounds like it’s one of those things where use of those electronic devices is more active than passive. If you’re listening to the radio or listening to a podcast or listening to a baseball game, you’re less likely to be interacting with this device other than trying to fiddle with it while you’re doing this passive activity like you’re using your phone while you’re watching TV. But these more actively engaged things like texting or social media really have habits that are formed to interact more with that. Does that sort of describe the higher risk activities for use of those kinds of devices?

Srinivas Geedipally (10:57):
Right. Again, it’s all like how attentive they are with respect to the mobile device. So yes, I agree with you on that aspect.

Allan Rutter (11:07):
So we’ll follow up with what Texas traffic law tells us we should do while we’re driving. Let’s talk a little more about how we can change our habits. Emily, you work with employer-based safety programs that address many Texans who drive as part of their job. And so, employers and insurers are trying to do things to help people make better choices, to understand the risks of driving as part of your occupation. What are some of the things that those kinds of programs share with drivers to help them deal with or reduce distracted driving?

Emily Martin (11:49):
Yeah, there’s a lot of knowledge sharing that occurs at safety meetings or through one-on-one coaching that includes some of the basic habits like setting navigation while you’re stationary or utilizing phone mounts, handsfree devices, keeping your mind engaged on the road. But a big shift that we’re really seeing beyond some of these more typical pieces of advice is how technology can come into play in these situations and really reinforce the messaging and, in some cases, hold the drivers accountable for some of their driving behaviors. We see that in things like in-vehicle monitoring systems or driver phone monitoring, phone applications and things of that nature where the driver can get feedback on what their behaviors are, and in some cases their supervisors can get that same feedback in real time. And with that we really see a kind of a variance on what’s being documented, but there’s ways to kind of incentivize safe driving through those platforms.

Emily Martin (12:56):
We see things like leaderboards about safe driving behaviors, so it becomes a competition among a group. We see things like safety contests, et cetera. And then I think it’s also important to mention in a lot of these cases, there is really a need for clear and consistent messaging and company policy regarding distracted driving and making sure that our expectations or an employer’s expectations are in alignment with what those policies are. For example, if a company policy prohibits phone use while driving, then a supervisor needs to be comfortable and okay with the lag time it’s gonna take between when they reach out and contact an [employee] to when that [employee’s} at a safe spot to get back to them and give a response.

Allan Rutter (13:45):
Yeah, I think with as much virtual meeting as we do, yeah, there’s a tendency to act as if listening in on a meeting is okay in a way that having a conversation while driving isn’t. I think one of the things you said there, Emily, was how we interact with each other and provide some coaching to each other.

Emily Martin (14:08):
Mm-hmm <affirmative>.

Allan Rutter (14:08):
To say that, say you’re on a teams call with a bunch of people and you can hear and detect somebody’s driving, you can know that, right? There’s some gentle ways of saying, dude, our policy is we don’t do that. Right. It’s okay if you miss this meeting, I’d rather you be driving than listening in on this.

Emily Martin (14:27):
<affirmative> definitely. And consistency among the group in those situations I think is key–not sending conflicting messages.

Allan Rutter (14:34):
So Emily, you also mentioned the fact that there are two sets of reinforcement mechanisms. One is there are certain kinds of professional driving which involve in-cab facing cameras or other kinds of monitoring devices that help maintain after-driving coaching with people that are watching for hard braking and acceleration and attentiveness and watching the eyes to make sure that that’s going on. You also mentioned the fact that there are some device based reinforcement mechanisms that can help, even if you’re not thinking about it, that thing can tell you don’t touch this or can provide you some feedback. You might not have even known you were doing it, but here’s how often you were touching your phone.

Emily Martin (15:21):
Right. Yeah. And a lot of cases they give a score of safety for the driving path. So that’s a great way to get some feedback and notice when you may be having unintentional driving behaviors.

Allan Rutter (15:36):
So let’s talk a little bit about Texas traffic laws. One of the things I was able to look at is, with respect to distracted driving… One, Texas law says that making a phone call is only allowed while driving if it’s a handsfree device. Second, state law prohibits texting while driving. And then cell phone use while driving through a school zone is prohibited. And then what else should Texans know about requirements that are associated with mobile devices or other kinds of distractions? What can you guys tell us about, as drivers, what should we be keeping away from in terms of restrictions or law enforcement? These are the expectations when Texans are driving…

Emily Martin (16:24):
Handsfree ordinances can vary by municipality. So I think being aware of what the regulations are in the areas that you most frequently drive can be really helpful. And this comment doesn’t necessarily apply to all Texans, but particularly are ones that are commercial motor vehicle drivers and hold a commercial driver’s license or CDL, they do have additional regulations that apply if they are using a handheld device or even just reaching for it. There are financial implications to that both to the individual as well as the employer. So there’s kind of a double hit on an infraction if you are driving a commercial motor vehicle.

Allan Rutter (17:07):
Srini, anything to add on the, sort of, restrictions stuff?

Srinivas Geedipally (17:11):
Not about restrictions, but again, I know, like, if you of my friends ask like how do police know that I’m texting? I mean they can stop you and they can check your phone. And sometimes, like I saw in the news that they go in the buses and they check the cars, too. They see whether this person is texting or not. So there are multiple ways that they can check and they can give a citation to you.

Allan Rutter (17:38):
So the lesson there is, don’t guess about how enforcement’s gonna happen. Do your job the way you know you’re supposed to.

Srinivas Geedipally (17:46):
Yeah. Again, it’s against the law and then as well, it’s not safe for you, not safe for the others on the road.

Allan Rutter (17:54):
I’ve noticed that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has some educational materials and talking points out for this month. The National Safety Council does as well, which is more, sort of, aimed at employers and the the business community. What are some of the ways safety professionals use this kind of calendar-based focus to add to traffic safety awareness? How does a, sort of, timed messaging help people make better choices?

Srinivas Geedipally (18:25):
So again, there have been messages on the roads that say no texting, don’t use your cell phone. Messages that I think we see during the holidays, too, because people travel a lot around that time. But there are many safety campaigns that are going on either through social media or using the billboards on the road. Texas Department of Transportation spends a lot of money as well to improve the driver behavior with respect to the distraction.

Emily Martin (18:58):
Yeah, and I’ll add that I just think a designated time to make sure that we talk about important safety topics such as distracted driving–or we also have work zone awareness times and different topics–is just an important way to make sure that we’re hitting on these important subjects regularly. And a calendar can be a helpful way to do that. We also see that the media information that’s provided is often free and easily shareable. So it’s a great way to have a low-cost barrier of entry to getting these messages out there and having some content to share through your personal or professional networks.

Allan Rutter (19:37):
So we’ve talked a little bit about drivers and driving behavior and how to be smarter. I wanna talk a little bit about how we can help reinforce some of these safety messages when we find ourselves to be passengers. Sometimes I’m driving our larger family car that has the car seats for our two grandsons and our older grandson is smart and precocious enough to offer driving advice to his poppy–particularly during times when I proceed through an intersection, maybe well into the yellow phase of a traffic signal. What are some of the things that we can do when we’re passengers to offer encouragement to reduce distractions for those who are driving

Emily Martin (20:20):
Kids really can be great motivators. And we see that with several different driving tasks. Seat belts often being one of them too. We’re compelled to keep them safe and model safe driving behaviors for them. So that’s fabulous. But as adults, if we’re riding with other folks and want to be of help to reduce distractions, I think there’s a couple of things we can do. We can offer to be the navigator or if we see their phone going off or they’re tempted to pay attention to a technology distraction, we maybe help them out and offer to reply to a text message or answer a phone call or something if it’s really an important message that they need to respond to in a timely manner.

Allan Rutter (20:59):
So be the designated device person.

Emily Martin (21:01):
There we go. The other DD.

Srinivas Geedipally (21:04):
<laugh>.

Allan Rutter (21:05):
One of the things we haven’t really talked about in terms of distractions–and it goes back to some of the definitions that you offered early Emily–we’ve talked about devices, we’ve talked about taking our eyes off the road. One of the things that retail food establishments, particularly fast food, depend on is the fact that we use our vehicles as dining rooms. How much should we be concerned about eating while you’re driving or think about that as a distracted behavior?

Emily Martin (21:34):
Oh gosh, that’s a good question. And one I think we need to consider because it is distraction and it’s not only usually taking one or sometimes both hands off the wheel, but also drawing our attention away from the road. So we’re seeing kind of multiple types of distractions in those scenarios. And then if you drop a sauce or [have] some other messy catastrophe, it’s a whole big ordeal. So we certainly don’t have numbers or anything for what the occurrence of those types of situations are; but anytime that we can pull over to eat or make decisions to ensure that we’re not paying too much attention to what’s going on on our console or cup holder is a good thing.

Srinivas Geedipally (22:18):
Yeah, I agree. But to be fair, we all do [it], right? We go to Starbucks to pick [up] a coffee and then we drive. But again, eating is still very difficult because you have to use both of your hands, right? Even to eat a burger. But drinking–at least sometimes we use one hand; it’s still a distraction because you have the situations where you spill your coffee. I wish there was some statistics that we know, like, how many spills would occur out of, like, a hundred drivers or whatever that number is.

Emily Martin (22:54):
Mm-hmm <affirmative>.

Allan Rutter (22:54):
So one of the things I’m hearing is one, it’s making sure that’s only one hand is used. It’s something that you can do because it’s repetitive and you know where that cup is and you can access that cup of coffee without having to look at it or look for it. Other kinds of activity, where you’ve got stuff distributed across that front seat where you’re more tempted to take your eyes off the road because you’re looking for what it is that you’re trying to eat and that it’s more likely to involve one or more hands. I think one of the things I’m hearing is while there may not be crash records or statistics to tell us the incidents of that, we can try to tell each other that that’s the kind of thing, give yourself a little more time when you’re planning your trip so that you can eat at a place where they serve the food rather than in the vehicle while you’re driving.

Emily Martin (23:43):
Yep.

Srinivas Geedipally (23:44):
Right.

Allan Rutter (23:45):
So what are some other things that I haven’t covered that, if we wanna take advantage of this particular calendar based messaging, we wanna communicate to our podcast listeners, here’s some things you need to think about in terms of distraction.

Emily Martin (24:01):
I think one of the things we haven’t really hit on is the technology piece. So there are free apps that are readily available to help give people the feedback. We talked about it in the employer driver space, and those are usually organized by the employer, but we also see many insurance companies offering that type of technology to the private citizens that use that insurance. I know I just had the little beacon installed on my car and the app just this week. So I now am getting to see the results of my recent driving events, and that’s really neat. And then I also think it’s worth pitching a fabulous program that the Youth Transportation Safety Program at TTI does. And they have a Teens in the Driver’s Seat and U–the letter “U”–in the Driver’s Seat Program that offers great programming that’s peer-to-peer about a variety of safety topics, including distracted driving. And there’s also an app that goes with that that is free to sign up for. And youth that have safe driving trips get to earn rewards and get to redeem those rewards for gift cards to great places free of charge to them. So that’s a fabulous way to have a little bit of the teen accountability piece and give them some extra support as they’re learning to drive.

Allan Rutter (25:29):
Yeah, that’s important–reinforce good habits and good behaviors, build that into their driving history.

Emily Martin (25:35):
Mm-hmm <affirmative>.

Allan Rutter (25:36):
I think the other nice thing about some of those app-based approaches, particularly. It’s one thing if you’ve agreed with your auto insurer to install the magic dongle that offers you the possibility of 15 to 20% less on your premiums–that would be a nice thing, particularly if you find yourself in that demographic where you’re paying higher premiums to begin with. But sounds like there are other applications or apps that can offer both feedback and reinforcement voluntarily, not as a punitive thing, not as a gotcha deal, but as a way of offering accountability without the punitive thing that goes with that accountability.

Emily Martin (26:18):
Right.

Allan Rutter (26:19):
I think that there’s some smart things that we could do for ourselves to reinforce better habits.

Emily Martin (26:24):
Mm-hmm <affirmative>.

Allan Rutter (26:26):
I think one of the other things about reducing distractions, particularly on the devices themselves, are given the fact that we’ve got the ability to have connectivity between the device and your car through Bluetooth or even if there’s a connection that’s wired, it doesn’t have to be within your hand’s reach. The more we can do to put that device inside of something where you can’t touch it, the better off you’re gonna be.

Emily Martin (26:54):
Mm-hmm <affirmative>.

Allan Rutter (26:55):
And the fact that you’ve got that, sort, of flat screen nearby that you can control some of that activity without having to touch your phone. If there are ways to reduce the temptation by separating yourself from the device, that’s only gonna be better for you.

Emily Martin (27:14):
Right.

Allan Rutter (27:14):
Have you seen messaging along that kind of thing?

Emily Martin (27:18):
For sure. I think that’s right on. And I think there are also things like the “do not disturb” mode that can be set on many of the current phones so that if the phone is detecting that you’re driving, then it can automatically switch to that “do not disturb while driving” mode and help reduce the distraction because you won’t know that you’ve received a text message or a phone call, et cetera. And that can be really helpful too.

Allan Rutter (27:45):
Sounds like one of the things that you guys have grown into, and as part of your work to help lead to safer behavior so that people can get to where they need to be intact, there’s some passion that you guys bring to this process. Let me ask each of you, one of the things we ask all of our podcast guests. What is it that makes you excited or keeps you going about reporting to work each day at TTI? What are the things that lead to “this is the kinds of things that I want to do”? Srini, why don’t wanna start with you? What keeps you showing up at TTI?

Srinivas Geedipally (28:21):
My whole work is in traffic safety. I do crash data analysis every single day. And the thing that bothers me, when you see the news articles about the deaths on the road, right? It’s a tragedy and no one wants to go through that tragedy. Whatever research that we are doing at TTI here in the Center for Transportation Safety, it is helping to improve safety. People don’t realize, but there are more than [traffic safety] 40,000 deaths in the U.S., which is alarming. I mean, U.S. is one of the top countries in the world, so there is a need for the work that we have been doing. When I explain my friends the work I do, they easily understand. I do my research on road accidents and they were like, oh, really? Because everyone knows what a road accident is, a traffic crash, and there are victims either in their family or in a friend circle. So, it makes me happy when I feel like I’m improving safety and saving some lives.

Allan Rutter (29:30):
That’s great, Srini. Emily?

Emily Martin (29:32):
Yeah, Srini’s right on with the impact that these traffic crashes have on us all. And I will say for me personally, one of the things I focus a lot on is driver behavior. And that’s because we’ve made a lot of fabulous strides in engineering and education and a lot of these different realms. But I really feel passionate about making sure that we’re addressing kind of the driver’s needs and really making sure that we’re encouraging positive behaviors behind the wheel because we can make all of these engineering changes that we want, but ultimately if someone’s distracted, they still have the capability turn up the road or have a crash. And so it’s really important that we keep all aspects of the road in mind and address them all. And so that is the fun thing about the Center for Transportation Safety at TTI is that together our groups address a lot of these issues. And so when we get to partner with our colleagues across the institute and do good collaborative work, we really have the potential to see change.

Allan Rutter (30:37):
Well, that’s fabulous, and I am grateful that April has reminded us of this important work and given us the opportunity to talk to you two about the kinds of things that are driving your passion for making a difference in bringing about safer driving behavior. Thanks to both of you for spending time with us today.

Emily Martin (30:56):
Thank you. Appreciate having us.

Srinivas Geedipally (30:57):
Thanks, Allan.

Allan Rutter (31:00):
I was really struck by the point Srini made about driving and distance at highway speeds. At 65 miles per hour, your vehicle travels the distance of a football field every three seconds–just about one thousand yards in 10 seconds. When you’re distracted for more than 10 seconds, you could be missing a lot of what’s going on around you after talking with screen. And Emily, I’m now putting my phone inside the box, under the armrest between the front seats to reduce the temptation to fiddle with it. I think we can all think about ways we can make driving safer for ourselves and those around us.

Allan Rutter (31:37):
Thanks for listening. If you liked what you heard or learned something, please take just a minute to give us a review, subscribe and share this episode. I invite you to join us next time for another conversation about getting ourselves and the stuff we need from point A to point B. Thinking Transportation is a production of the Texas A&M Transportation Institute, a member of The Texas A&M University System. The show is edited and produced by Chris Pourteau. I’m your host, Allan Rutter. Thanks again for joining us. We’ll see you next time.