A systematic review of observational studies investigating the influence of mobile phone distraction on road crossing behaviour of pedestrians

Abstract

The growing prevalence of technological distractions amongst pedestrians makes it an important road safety concern. Observational studies are considered a reliable method to investigate the influence of mobile phone distraction on pedestrian road crossing behaviour and crash risks. The present study conducts a systematic review of international literature on pedestrian distraction observations by following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines. A total of 792 studies were identified from the literature search on six research databases: Scopus, Google Scholar, Web of Science, PubMed, Cochrane library, and Transportation Research International Documentation (TRID). Finally, 39 research articles were assessed using the systematic classification scheme based on the following five research aspects: prevalence of mobile phone distraction, study locations, performance measures, analysis techniques, and additional factors associated with mobile phone use among pedestrians. Over 35% of the studies were conducted in the United States of America (USA) and 69% of the investigations were done in the last five years. Overall, the findings across the studies indicate that mobile phone distraction plays a major role in pedestrian risky road crossing behaviour and violation tendencies. Visual distractions (such as texting) exhibited higher behavioural impairment compared to cognitive distractions (e.g., listening to music, and conversations). Pedestrian characteristics such as gender and age were the key factors examined in 77% and 67% of the observational studies. Finally, important directions for future research are illustrated to aid the researchers working in the area of pedestrian safety.