A study in real traffic examining glance behaviour of teenage cyclists when listening to music: Results and ethical considerations

Abstract

Listening to music while cycling impairs cyclists' auditory perception and may decrease their awareness of approaching vehicles. If the impaired auditory perception is not compensated by the cyclist himself or other road users involved, crashes may occur. The first aim of this study was to investigate in real traffic whether teenage cyclists (aged 16-18) compensate for listening to music by increasing their visual performance. Research in real traffic may pose a risk for participants. Although no standard ethical codes exist for road safety research, we took a number of ethical considerations into account to protect participants. Our second aim was to present this study as a case study demonstrating ethical dilemmas related to performing research in real traffic. The third aim was to examine to what extent the applied experimental setup is suitable to examine bicyclists' visual behaviour in situations crucial for their safety. Semi-naturalistic data was gathered. Participants' eye movements were recorded by a head-mounted eye-tracker during two of their regular trips in urban environments. During one of the trips, cyclists were listening to music (music condition); during the other trip they were 'just' cycling (the baseline condition). As for cyclists' visual behaviour, overall results show that it was not affected by listening to music. Descriptive statistics showed that 21-36% of participants increased their visual performance in the music condition, while 43-64% decreased their visual performance while listening to music. Due to ethical considerations, the study was therefore terminated after fourteen cyclists had participated. Potential implications of these results for cycling safety and cycling safety research are discussed. The methodology used in this study did not allow us to investigate cyclists' behaviour in demanding traffic environment. However, for now, no other research method seems suitable to address this research gap.

Bicyclists’ adaptation strategies when interacting with text messages in urban environments

“…Listening to music via earphones did not have significant effects on workload (NASA-RTLX) or the behaviour measures examined here. This is in agreement with other studies on cyclists (Ahlstrom et al 2016;Stelling-Konczak et al 2018) as well as on pedestrians (Hyman et al 2010;. On the top of the list of self-reported behaviour adaptations, as a means to compensate for the loss of auditory information, is increased visual attention (Adell et al 2014;Stelling-Konczak et al 2017).…”

“…On the top of the list of self-reported behaviour adaptations, as a means to compensate for the loss of auditory information, is increased visual attention (Adell et al 2014;Stelling-Konczak et al 2017). Stelling- Konczak et al (2018) found that 21% of the cyclists increased and 57% decreased their visual scanning to the right in intersections, when listening to music. Out of the total amount of intersections, 49% were attended in baseline and 41% in the music condition.…”

“…Also on the streets intersecting the cycle path, traffic volumes were low. Stelling-Konczak et al (2018) investigated visual behaviour amongst teenage cyclists when listening to music on a route from their home to school. They found no significant changes in visual behaviour when listening to music and concluded that the teenagers did not adapt to the music task by increased visual scanning, as claimed by other cyclists in self-reports.…”

Mobile phone conversations, listening to music and quiet (electric) cars: Are traffic sounds important for safe cycling?

“…The findings concerning visual behaviour of cyclists found in our study and other surveys appear inconsistent with the results of on-road studies. Specifically, the increase in visual behaviour reported by cyclists in survey studies is not found in on-road research in which cyclists' visual behaviour whilst listening to music was similar to the visual behaviour while 'just' cycling (Ahlstrom et al, 2016;Stelling-Kończak et al, 2018). As for talking on the phone, cyclists who engaged in this activity were in the study of Ahlstrom et al found to use visual strategies: they decreased their glances towards traffic-irrelevant targets and shortened glance durations to traffic relevant targets, while maintaining the number of glances.…”

Attentional requirements on cyclists and drivers in urban intersections

“…Kircher & Ahlstrom, 2017a;Lemonnier et al, 2015;Robbins & Chapman, 2018;Underwood, Chapman, Brocklehurst, Underwood, & Crundall, 2003;Walker & Brosnan, 2007;Werneke & Vollrath, 2012) and cyclists (e.g. Ahlstrom, Kircher, Thorslund, & Adell, 2015;Frings, Parkin, & Ridley, 2014;Nygårdhs, Ahlström, Ihlström, & Kircher, 2018;Stelling-Konczak et al, 2018;Uetake & Shimoda, 2014). Typically, it is studied what the road user looks at/allocates attention to, depending on various factors.…”