Secondary task engagement in German cyclists – An observational study

Abstract

Bicycling in traffic requires continuous attention to be paid to one’s environment. In addition, motor coordination is needed to safely handle a bicycle. Accordingly, distracted cycling has been demonstrated to impair cycling performance (De Waard et al., 2015). We conducted an observational study of cycling behavior in Braunschweig, Germany, in which we observed 2187 cyclists. Overall, 22.7% (95% CI: 20.9–24.4%) of all cyclists were engaged in any secondary task, with wearing headphones or earphones being the most frequent behavior (13.1%, 95% CI: 11.7–14.5%), followed by interactions with other cyclists (7.0%, 95% CI: 5.9–8.0%). Mobile phones were used by 2.0% of all cyclists (95% CI: 1.4–2.6%), with most of them (1.5%, 95% CI: 1.0–2.0%) conversing on their phones. Secondary tasks were more frequent in the morning, and mobile phone use was less frequent in bad weather. Females and young cyclists were more frequently engaged in a secondary task than males and older cyclists. Being engaged in a secondary task was also shown to correlate with less frequent helmet use. Engagement in secondary tasks, especially using the smartphone and wearing headphones or earphones was more often found in cyclists riding hands-free. Overall, these frequencies are in accordance with the findings of the limited number of studies that have been conducted. When riding a bike, acoustic impairment from wearing headphones or earphones seems to be the major problem. The correlation with other safety precautions like not wearing a helmet indicates that this might be due to a lack of awareness concerning the possible dangers of these behaviors.