What is the difference between perceived and actual risk of distracted driving? A field study on a real highway.

Li, Zhen; Wang, Chang; Fu, Rui; Sun, Qinyu; Zhang, Hongjia · 2020 · DOAJ

DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0231151

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Summary

This study investigates the discrepancy between drivers' perceived risk and the actual safety impact of low-perceived-risk secondary tasks during distracted driving. While high-risk behaviors like mobile phone use are legally restricted, common activities such as conversation (cognitive distraction) and observing surrounding traffic (visual distraction) are often underestimated by drivers. The research aims to determine how these specific distractions affect lateral vehicle control and lane-keeping performance in real-world conditions, addressing a gap in field-based studies regarding low-risk tasks. The researchers conducted a field study on a real highway involving 17 experienced non-professional drivers. Participants performed three trials in an instrumented vehicle equipped with a lane mark recognition system and high-speed cameras: normal driving, a cognitive distraction task involving continuous mental arithmetic, and a visual distraction task requiring drivers to estimate the speed and distance of approaching rear vehicles via the rearview mirror. Lane deviation was calculated as the primary metric for lateral performance, defined as the change in the vehicle's lateral position relative to the lane center. One-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) and regression analyses were used to evaluate the effects of distraction type and duration on driving stability. The results revealed significant differences in how cognitive and visual distractions affect lane-keeping. During cognitive distraction, lane-keeping ability was actually enhanced, with the rate of lane deviation decreasing to 4.38 cm compared to 5.00 cm during normal driving. In contrast, visual distraction severely impaired performance, increasing the rate of lane deviation to 8.25 cm, which was twice as high as during cognitive distraction. Furthermore, the study found that lane deviation increased with the duration of visual distraction. More than 50% of visual distractions lasted between 1 and 2 seconds, but deviations grew significantly as duration extended, reaching 36.76 cm for distractions lasting 3.5 to 6.0 seconds. Quadratic regression indicated that the growth rate of lane deviation accelerates with longer distraction durations. The findings demonstrate that drivers misjudge the risks associated with visual tasks, which pose a significantly higher threat to driving safety than cognitive tasks like conversation. This discrepancy between perceived and actual risk suggests that self-regulation based on subjective risk assessment is insufficient for preventing accidents caused by visual distractions. The study concludes that these insights are critical for designing advanced driving-assistance systems and improving professional driver training programs, potentially reducing traffic accidents by targeting the specific dangers of visual distraction.

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Summary generated by qwen3.6-27b-prismaquant on 2026-06-25; verification: verified.

Topics

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• visual
• external distraction
• visual manual
• manual
• cognitive
• temporal

Information type

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• Empirical Findings: behavioral performance data, observational prevalence
• Theoretical Contribution: theory or model