Self-Reported Behaviors and Habits of Distracted College Pedestrians While Walking

Abstract

Walking requires paying attention to the surrounding environment to ensure safe maneuvers. Walkers engaging in multitask activities such as texting, calling, listening to music, snacking, and reading while walking have detrimental effects on safety similar to those experienced with distracted drivers. Because this is an emerging problem, few data have been collected to assess the negative impact of distracted walking on safety. The present survey was conducted to collect information on distracted walking by college students. The objectives were to estimate the extent of distracting activities of college pedestrians and to assess the perception of the safety problem of college pedestrians while walking. The survey was sent to the potential student population of 5,000 by Survey Monkey at South Carolina State University in Orangeburg, and 297 surveys were completed. The results indicated that about 55% of respondents always checked their electronic devices while walking. Further, about 4% of the respondents reported that they or their immediate family members sustained injuries resulting from distracted walking. More important, approximately 53% of the respondents had seen near crashes resulting from pedestrians engaging in distracting activities while walking. In this survey, males engaged more in distracting activities than females. About 70% of females perceived that distracted walking had become a problem, compared with 30% of males. The most common proposed interventions by the respondents to curb distracted walking include education, outreach programs, citations, and legislation.

Distraction From Smartphones Changed Pedestrians’ Walking Behaviors in Open Areas

“…A slower walking speed coupled with a more cautious gait has been associated with a more precarious balance (Nymark et al, 2005). Moreover, distracted walking also reduces our information processing capacity as a result of the elevated cognitive, manual, and visual workloads of performing multiple tasks simultaneously (walking and smartphone operations; White et al, 2017). Therefore, the combination of the factors aforementioned could result in considerable injury propensities while walking in complex and dynamic environments.…”

“…Our perception and attention have a limit (Shapiro, 2001). Distractions that divert an individual's attention away from their primary task and toward a secondary one can affect how well the primary task is completed (White et al, 2017). Likewise, it is believed that the use of smartphones impacts pedestrians' performance of the primary task-walking-by increasing their cognitive (Nasar et al, 2008), motor (Lin & Huang, 2017), and visual workloads (Lim et al, 2015;Lin & Huang, 2017) as well as reducing their ability to perceive the environment.…”

Influences of Smartphone Operation on Gait and Posture During Outdoor Walking Task

“…Most of the previous studies have focused on situation awareness reduction and related risk of collision injuries. Moreover, the distraction caused by smartphone operation can also affect human locomotion and gait performance and subsequently increase the risk of falling (White et al, 2017).…”

Psychological Factors Influencing College Students’ Mobile Phone Use While Walking

“…With advancements in communication technology and the rise in popularity of mobile phones, mobile phones have become an integral part of contemporary life. Several observational studies (7)(8)(9)(10)(11)(12)(13) and questionnaire surveys (14)(15)(16)(17) have indicated that mobile phone use by pedestrians is widespread.…”

“…Distracted walking is linked to slower walking speeds (18)(19)(20)(21)(22)(23)(24), a smaller perceptual visual field (25,26), longer response times (27,28), less awareness of the surroundings (29)(30)(31)(32)(33), and a lower capacity for cognitive processing (34,35). Furthermore, walking while distracted may increase the likelihood of engaging in unsafe walking behaviors (36)(37)(38)(39)(40)(41)(42) and the probability of being involved in a traffic collision (17,(43)(44)(45)(46).…”