Factors Affecting Drivers’ Cell Phone Use Behavior

The purpose of this study was to examine drivers’ cell phone use behavior as reflected in naturalistic driving data. Video data from 1 week's worth of driving for 108 participants were visually scored for all instances of cell phone use, including conversation and visual or manual (VM) tasks. The frequency of cell phone use for each participant was used to classify drivers’ behavior. Three frequency groups (low, moderate, and high) were scored across all drivers for conversation and VM tasks separately. The regression tree method was used to classify drivers’ cell phone use behavior and identify associated factors. Drivers’ individual factors, including age, annual driving mileage, and education levels, as well as situational factors, including use duration, time of day, road type, lighting (day and night), traffic conditions, and speed when initiating cell phone use, impacted drivers’ cell phone use behavior. The impacts of these factors were different for cell phone conversation and VM tasks. Traffic conditions were identified as affecting drivers’ cell phone VM task use frequency but not cell phone conversation frequency. The study also looked at driver self-regulation behavior based on the frequency of cell phone use.