Engineering and Technology Journal

Assessing the Effect of Eating as a Distraction Factor While Driving on Drivers' Performance

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

Civil Engineering Dept., University of Technology-Iraq, Alsina’a street, 10066 Baghdad, Iraq.

Abstract

The increase in the number of traffic accidents, deaths, and injuries is a major concern for traffic and safety professionals. Distraction from the road is common, but increases safety concerns. Drivers engage in many behaviors that are a distraction from the task of driving, and these sources may be inside or outside the vehicle. The driver may not have a clear idea of the negative impact of such activities on achieving safe driving. The paper focused on one type of distraction that occurs inside the car, the factor of eating while driving in order to address the question of whether such activities cause anxiety. The effect of eating while driving as an additional task (dual task) compared to driving baseline (single task) on each driver's performance and safety was studied. This research was conducted at the University of Technology-Iraq uses a fixed and medium accuracy driving simulator. To measure driver performance, the driver's ability to maintain a set speed limit was tested. For safety, the driver's ability to avoid accidents was measured. The highway environment scenario was adopted to perform driving experiences for the 42 participants, the length of the road was 15 km, and the driving experience took (30) minutes at a rate of (10-15) minutes for each driving task. The results revealed a decrease in the mean journey speed of all participants during the (dual driving) experiment compared to the results of the mean journey speed (single driving). The speed of females decreased more than males. The youngest age group (19-29) years led at a faster rate than the age groups (30-39), (40-49), and (50-55). No accidents were recorded during the baseline driving task. In the dual driving task, females recorded a higher number of accidents than males. The youth category (19-29) was characterized by recording the largest number of accidents.

Highlights

  • Food and drink intake are a major driving distraction which evaluated using driving simulator.
  • Drivers mental work is affected with dual tasks of driving and food intake.
  • Driving risk is increased as drivers increased distraction due to food and drink intake.
  • The result of current work emphasizes the effect of distractions on driving performance. 

Keywords

References
[1] S. Amado and P. Ulupinar, The effects of conversation on attention and peripheral detection: Is talking with a passenger and talking on the cell phone different?, Transportation Research Part F: Traffic Psychology and Behaviour, 8 (2005) 383–395, doi: 10.1016/j.trf.2005.05.001.
[2] Qin, Li, Z. Chen, and D. A. Noyce, Introduction: Driver distraction has become a significant problem in transportation safety., (2019).
[3] A. U. H. Ramachandraraje, Effect of Cellphone Conversation and Text Messaging on Driver Behaviour: Distracted Driving, (2016), [Online]. Available: www.iranesrd.com.
[4] M. L. Alosco et al., Both Texting and Eating Are Associated With Impaired Simulated Driving Performance, Traffic Injury Prevention,. 13 (2012) 468–475, doi: 10.1080/15389588.2012.676697.
[5] E. N. P. M. O. J. V. D. A. A. R. T. A. B. G. H. S. P. E. M. J. G. W. R. Mazzae, Radio Tuning Effects on Visual and Driving Performance Measures-Simulator and Test Track Studies,( 2013). [Online]. Available: www.ntis.gov.
[6] I. Z. Sutalaksana, G. B. Pratama, P. Alif, R. Yamin, and H. R. Soetisna, THE EFFECTS OF FOOD AND DRINK INTAKE TO DRIVING PERFORMANCE: A SYSTEMATIC REVIEW, 14 (2019), doi: 10.20858/tp.2019.14.1.1.
[7] J. Hoff et al., Distracted driving and implications for injury prevention in adults., J. Trauma Nurs., 20 (2013), doi: 10.1097/jtn.0b013e318286616c.
[8] D. D. European Commission, Study on good practices for reducing road safety risks caused by road user distractions Final report, (2015).
[9] D. D. European Commission, (2018) Driver Distraction Driver Distraction-2, (2018).
[10] I. Central Statistical Organization, Accidents report for the year (2018), (2019).
[11] I. Central Statistical Organization, Accidents report for the year (2019), J. Artic.,( 2020).
[12] N. A. Younis, Road Congestion as a Driver Behavior.pdf, University of Mosul Collage of Engineering Civil Engineering Department Post Graduated - Transportation & Highway, (2020).
[13] A. A. Ibrahim, The Effects of Vehicle Speed and Type of Road Surface on the Longitudinal Slip of Tires and the Brake Stopping Distance, Eng. Technol. J., 31 (2013) 1854–1869.
[14] T. A. Jaber, Proposed Collision Avoidance System in Driverless Cars, Eng. Technol. J., 37 (2019) 1–5.
[15] E. Q. Abdullah, Urban Crowding in Iraqi Cities Zayona Area in Baghdad City – case study, Eng. Technol. J., 34(2016), 387–403.
[16] U. Kaewken, Driving distraction effects on reaction time in simulated driving, Transp. Res. Part F Traffic Psychol. Behav., 45(2016).
[17] C. Irwin, S. Monement, B. Desbrow, and C. Irwin, Title: Drinking, Texting, Eating: The influence of everyday distractions on simulated driving performance, (2014). [Online]. Available: http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/gcpi.
[18] T. J. Palumbo, The Effects of Texting and DUI Simulation on Driving Performance in a Driving Simulator, J. Ergon., 3 (2015), doi: 10.4172/2165-7556.s3-013.
[19] A. Goralzik and M. Vollrath, The effects of road, driver, and passenger presence on drivers’ choice of speed: A driving simulator study, Transp. Res. Procedia, 25 (2017) 2061–2075, doi: 10.1016/j.trpro.2017.05.400.
[20] K. L. Young, S. Koppel, A. N. Stephens, R. Osborne, R. Chambers, and C. Hassed, Mindfulness predicts driver engagement in distracting activities, Mindfulness (N. Y)., 10 (2019) 913–922.
[21] J. Stutts et al., The causes and consequences of distraction in everyday driving, in Annual Proceedings/Association for the Advancement of Automotive Medicine, 47(2003), 235.
[22] J. W. Jenness, R. J. Lattanzio, M. O’Toole, and N. Taylor, Voice-activated dialing or eating a cheeseburger: which is more distracting during simulated driving?, in Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Annual Meeting, 46 (2002) 592–596.
[23] G. Yannis, E. Papadimitriou, X. Karekla, and E. Kontodima, Mobile phone use by young drivers: effects on traffic speed and headways, Transp. Plan. Technol., 33 (2010) 385–394.
[24] Young, J. M. Mahfoud, G. H. Walker, D. P. Jenkins, and N. A. Stanton, Crash dieting: The effects of eating and drinking on driving performance, Accid. Anal. Prev., 40 (2008) 142-148.
[25] J. Stutts et al., Driver’s exposure to distractions in their natural driving environment, Accid. Anal. Prev., 37(2005) 1093–1101.
Engineering and Technology Journal
Volume 39, Issue 12
Civil Engineering
December 2021
Page 1851-1859
Files
Share
Export Citation
Statistics