Chronic pain affects one in five Australians, and this could impact daily activities such as driving. Driving is a complex task, which requires the cognitive and physical ability to predict, identify, and respond to hazards to avoid crashing. However, research exploring the factors that influence safe driving behaviour for chronic pain individuals is limited. A qualitative study was conducted which involved semi-structured interviews with 23 people who had experienced persistent pain for at least three months and 17 health professionals who had experience working with individuals with chronic pain. The aim of this study was to obtain a deeper understanding of the experiences and challenges that people with chronic pain may have in their day-to-day driving. Participants were also asked about currently available driving assessments and strategies for individuals with chronic pain in the Australian healthcare system. The themes emerging from the interviews highlighted the need for clearer guidelines and educational materials regarding the impact of chronic pain on an individual's ability to drive. These themes included the physical and cognitive challenges resulting from chronic pain, as well as the potential side effects of pain medications. In addition, participants identified a number of self-regulation strategies and driving assessments currently available for monitoring safe driving behaviour in Australia. This study improves our understanding of how chronic pain affects driving behaviour, as reported by individuals experiencing the pain and relevant health professionals. Recommendations for improving the safety of drivers with chronic pain are discussed, including possible technological interventions and better public education. ... Read more

Driving is a complex task that requires both the ability to rapidly identify potential hazards and respond appropriately to driving situations to avoid crashing. A great deal of research has sought to increase road safety by focusing on risky behaviours, very few of which have explored the effects of chronic pain (CP) on driving behaviour. This systematic review aimed to assess driving behaviour and motor vehicle crash risk in drivers with CP. Four databases (Embase, PubMed, Scopus, and PsycINFO) were searched using relevant search terms. From 8543 studies, 22 studies met the eligibility criteria for inclusion in this review. A driving behaviour framework, based on the Michon model of driving behaviour, is proposed to map the effect of CP on driving behaviour. Findings suggest that drivers with CP engage in risk-compensatory strategies that are positive from a precautionary perspective. However, there is considerable variability in the use of such strategies across different samples, suggesting that there are significant barriers and facilitators involved in these decisions. Moreover, our findings provide some evidence that CP could increase crash risk and change driving behaviour. Evidence-based recommendations for practitioners and policymakers are proposed regarding the risks of driving in individuals experiencing CP. Future research into CP in driving could benefit from having a unified evidence-based approach to determine behaviour at all levels of the driving task. ... Read more

In road safety research, few studies have examined driving behaviour in chronic pain cohorts. The aim of this study was to investigate driving behaviour among drivers experiencing chronic pain. We compared individuals with chronic pain with age-gender matched healthy controls. Participants completed: (i) an anonymous online survey that included participant demographics, transport characteristics, self-reported driving behaviour, and pain characteristics (ii) a response-time hazard perception test and a verbal-response hazard prediction test for drivers, and (iii) a driving diary in which participants recorded their driving over two weeks. The results showed that participants with chronic pain were not significantly worse than controls for hazard perception and prediction test scores, self-reported attention-related errors, driving errors, driving violations, and involuntary distraction. Drivers with chronic pain did report significantly more driving lapses but this effect became non-significant when variables confounded with chronic pain, such as fatigue, were adjusted for. We also found that participants who reported particularly high levels of chronic pain performed worse in the hazard prediction test compared to the control group (and this effect could not be accounted for by other variables associated with chronic pain). In addition, participants with chronic pain reported significantly higher driving workload (mental demand, physical demand, effort, and frustration) compared with controls. The findings of this study provide new insights into driving behaviour in individuals with chronic pain and recommendations for future research in terms of driving assessment and self-regulation strategies are provided. ... Read more

Eco-safe driving is a promising approach to improve road safety while reducing transport emissions. The application of an eco-safe driving system is feasible with the support of vehicle-to-vehicle/infrastructure technologies. To guarantee system usability and safety appropriateness, a key precondition is to ensure that driver mental workload and visual demands required for using the system are reasonable. This study explored how drivers’ mental workload and visual demands were affected when driving with an eco-safe driving HMI (human-machine-interface). Four in-vehicle eco-safe HMI information conditions were evaluated, including baseline, advice only, feedback only, and advice & feedback. Two traffic scenarios (stop-sign intersection with traffic vs. stop-sign intersection without traffic) were simulated using an advanced driving simulator. Behavioural variables (e.g. brake force, acceleration), visual variables (e.g. blink metrics, pupil size) and subjective workload scores were collected from 36 licensed Australian drivers. The experiment results showed that the HMI prompted drivers to apply a smooth and stable brake force when they approached the intersection and a smooth acceleration when they left the intersection. Drivers’ mental workload indicated by visual measurements were consistent with their subjective reported workload levels. Drivers had a higher mental workload when they received and processed additional eco-safe information in the advice & feedback condition. An increase in mental workload induced by the in-vehicle cognitive task initiated more blink activities while the increase in visual demand caused by a complex road situation led to blink inhibition. The study shows the HMI could significantly promote eco-safe driving behaivours without causing excessive mental and visual workload of drivers. ... Read more

Distracted driving is one of the most prevalent risky behaviours worldwide. Research has highlighted that current approaches to distracted driving based on education and police enforcement have shown low effectiveness. Smartphone applications to reduce distracted driving are an emerging technology with the potential to prevent road crashes. However, recent evidence has shown that the adoption of these applications has been limited. A qualitative study was carried out to investigate the acceptability of smartphone applications that are designed to prevent distracted driving. A total of 35 drivers (57% females) aged 19–44 years (Mean = 28.43) participated in interviews which explored acceptability constructs for in-vehicle intelligent technology as defined by Regan et al. (2012): usefulness, usability, effectiveness, social acceptability, affordability, and willingness to use the application functions. Generally, drivers perceived that these applications have the potential to increase safety and reduce voluntary and involuntary mobile phone interactions while driving. Nonetheless, it was also found that drivers want to retain some of the functionalities of their mobile phone, such as music playing applications, accessing GPS/maps and being able to interact with certain groups of people through their phones while driving. Finally, barriers to the uptake of the applications among drivers who use their mobile phone while driving are discussed. A frequent barrier that needs to be overcome is the perceived need and pressure to respond to their phone while driving to communicate for work purposes or with people with strong social ties to the driver, for example, a parent or spouse. ... Read more

Mobile phone use while driving is a pervasive problem that continues to increase, notwithstanding the large crash risk this behaviour constitutes. A number of phone applications have been developed with the intention of utilising the technology to prevent dangerous phone behaviours while driving. Despite the potential these applications have in preventing crashes associated with distracted driving, research is yet to explore these emergent applications. Therefore, this study provided a review of the current smartphone applications developed to prevent distracted driving. A content analysis was conducted to identify the smartphone applications targeted at stopping, preventing or reducing phone use behaviour while driving. Their functionality was determined based on the ecosystem of smartphone applications: application-mobile phone interaction, application-driver interaction, and application-context interaction. A total of 29 relevant applications in English language were identified. Most of these applications focused on blocking specific phone functions (e.g. texting or calling) while allowing more desirable driving phone functions to be accessed (e.g. music applications and GPS functions). The specific functions which are blocked or allowed varied greatly between applications. Out of the different application interactions, the function which sends an automatic text message to a contact who texts the driver (associated with external communicator interactions) was the most common feature. A major limitation of the applications was their reliance on blocking specific phone functions as opposed to managing workload while driving or simplifying specific phone tasks to be more compatible with driving. Simply blocking phone functions may not be attractive to drivers who view their phone as a necessity. As such, these drivers are unlikely to use these voluntary applications at all while driving. Smartphone applications designed to prevent phone use while driving show potential for playing a large role in a systemic intervention to prevent mobile phone distracted driving, yet there is a substantial need for further development of these applications. ... Read more