Effects of listening to music, and of using a handheld and handsfree telephone on cycling behaviour

Abstract

Effects of listening to music, and of using a handheld and handsfree telephone on cycling behaviour De Waard, D.; Edlinger, K.M.; Brookhuis, K.A. AbstractThe effects of listening to music on cycling behaviour were evaluated. Twenty-five participants completed a track on a bicycle while listening to music with two standard earbuds, with one earbud, and with two in-ear buds. Conditions with high tempo music and loud volume were also included in the experiment, as were two mobile phone conditions, one in which participants operated the phone hand held and one handsfree condition. Cycle speed was not affected by listening to music, but was reduced in the telephone conditions. In general the response to auditory signals worsened when participants listened to music, in particular when listening with in-earbuds loud auditory stop signals were missed in 68% of the cases. However, when listening with only one standard earbud performance was not affected. In the conditions when participants listened to high volume and to high tempo music, the auditory stop signal was also heard in significantly fewer cases. Completing a task on the mobile phone, using both handheld and handsfree sets, resulted in increased response time to an auditory stop signal and also reduced overall auditory perception. Furthermore, handsfree operation only had minor advantages opposed to hand held operation, with only response time to an auditory stop signal resulting in faster performance. This is likely to be related to the fact that both hands could be used for braking. It is concluded that listening to music worsens auditory perception, in particular if in-ear buds are used. Furthermore, both handheld and handsfree operation of mobile phones has a negative effect on perception, potentially forming a threat to cyclist traffic safety.

The Use of Cell Phones While Driving - A Case Study in Serbia

“…From 129 analyzed accidents, 76% was the collision with the rear of the vehicle, 2.3% were traffi c accidents with only one vehicle, 2.3% was knocking down pedestrians, and 19% were categorized as "other". In contrast to the results obtained in the United States, the highest number of accidents was related to the phase [4,1,6] of 'phone usage "(32% to dial a number, 42% answering a call, 5.4% ending calls) compared to only 16% of drivers that were talking when the crash happened. At 42% of drivers who were answering a call at the time of the accident, the behavior was described as "looking to the side, trying to reach the phone," and "careless driving at the time when the phone rings.…”

Bicyclists’ visual strategies when conducting self-paced vs. system-paced smartphone tasks in traffic

“…While a lot of research has been devoted to the use of mobile phones while driving cars (for summaries of the research see Horrey & Wickens, 2006;Kircher, Ahlstrom, & Patten, 2011;Regan, Lee, & Victor, 2013), the research in the field of bicycling is rather limited (e.g. de Waard, Edlinger, & Brookhuis, 2011;de Waard, Lewis-Evans, Jelijs, Tucha, & Brookhuis, 2014;de Waard, Schepers, Ormel, & Brookhuis, 2010;Terzano, 2013). The findings from vehicle traffic cannot uncritically be applied to cycling as there are many differences between the two modes of transportation.…”

Cyclist–Motorist Crash Patterns in Denmark: A Latent Class Clustering Approach

“…The second and more ample stream concentrates on bicycle crash and injury rates and can be crudely divided into 4 main research lines. The first line explores the effect of cyclists' behaviors on crash and injury rates, with particular attention devoted to helmet use (e.g., Elvik 2011; Kopjar and Wickizer 2000;Robinson 2007; J. T. Wang et al 2009), intoxication (e.g., Andersson and Bunketorp 2002;Crocker et al 2012;Olkkonen and Honkanen 1990), and cell phone use (de Waard et al 2011). The second line examines the effect of infrastructure characteristics on crash and injury rates, in particular bicycle paths (e.g., Gårder et al 1994), intersections (e.g., Phillips et al 2011;Schepers et al 2011;Y.…”