No link between traffic accidents and phone use?

The scientists, amongst whom Dr Bert van Wee of the Transport and Logistic and colleagues of the Institute for Road Safety Research (SWOV), were themselves puzzled by their findings, which they recently described in the journal Accident Analysis and Prevention.

“We had to give our results some good thought,” says Van Wee. “Maybe the results are skewed. This could happen if only the more agile cyclists dare to undertake these activities.” 

Youngsters especially tend to combine phone use with cycling

Van Wee and his colleagues carried out an Internet survey among 2249 cyclists in three age groups (teenage, adult and older cyclists). Youngsters especially tend to combine phone use with cycling. In an earlier Dutch survey, 77% of teenage cyclists and 34% of older cyclists reported using mobile phones while cycling.

Respondents were included if they cycled at least once a week and had no major hearing deficiencies. Besides being asked about recent cycling crashes or incidents that almost lead to a crash, respondents were asked about the frequency of device use and whether they were listening to music, talking on the phone, texting or searching for information on the phone while cycling in general, and while cycling in more demanding traffic situations. And they were asked whether there were any specific traffic conditions in which they decided not to listen to music or to talk on the phone.

‘Maybe respondents lied about their crashes and phone use out of shame’

“We found out that people look around more frequently and reduce their speed when they use their phone,” says Van Wee. “This compensatory behaviour could also explain why we didn’t find a link between phone use and accidents. Other possible factors: maybe our sample was not big enough, or maybe respondents lied about their crashes and phone use out of shame.”

Puzzling it still is. An earlier study, from 2012, by SWOV scientists, did find an association between phone use and self-reported bicycle crash involvement. The overall risk of a self-reported crash for cyclists who used electronic devices on every trip was found to be a factor 1.6 higher for teenagers and a factor 1.8 higher for young adults compared with their respective age counterparts who never used devices while cycling.

“We certainly do not say that it is okay to use your phone while riding a bicycle,” says Van Wee. “We cannot draw that conclusion from this research.”