Effects of smartphone usage on driver safety level performance in urban road conditions

Drivers error is one of the key factor that contributes to road traffic accidents, often in the form of distracted driving which is when drivers are engaged in a secondary task other than driving. Other than the traditional calling and texting, the multi-capabilities of modern smartphones nowadays enable us to realise a wide range of tasks such as emailing, surfing the net and social networking. However, these activities can be considered road hazards if performed while driving. The main objective of this paper is to conduct a study of the impact of smartphone usage on the driver behaviour on urban road segments using real world data. In total, three activities are deployed for participants to undertake. These are conversing on the phone in handheld and handsfree modes and using instant messaging application. Findings from this study revealed that all of the three activities involving smartphone usage require drivers to compensate their driving in order to maintain the safety level at the “feel safe” zone. The phone activity that involves instant messaging has shown to require the highest attention level from a driver, and consequently the compensation level is at the highest. Taking all aspects into considerations, a figure of merit in terms of the compensation level was proposed, which can be used as an indicator to characterise the driving performance for each distracted phone activities.