Tendency of intra-city bus drivers to use cell phone while driving using ordered probit model

Abstract

Road crashes due to driver's distraction have become a major concern these days and Cell phone use while driving is considered as one of the most pivotal ones in this regard. To prevent drivers from using cell phones while driving and to bring down injuries in road accidents, superior apprehension is required about the factors that motivate a driver to use cell phone while driving. This study attempted to pinpoint the contributing factors affecting cell phone use while driving with broad considerations of driver's demographic characteristics, driving characteristics, crash history, road and environmental characteristics using ordered probit model. To gather data, a questionnaire survey has been adopted. 125 intra city bus drivers were interviewed to collect data at different locations of the capital city of Bangladesh, Dhaka. From information related to driver, crash, road and environmental characteristics, 24 factors were selected for modeling and 57 independent variables were applied in the analysis. Finally 10 significant variables were obtained from the model which has been used to formulate a forecasting equation to predict the tendency of a bus driver's cell phone use while driving. Factors such as age, type of cell phone, marital status, income level, number of trips per day, road surface condition and speed of bus were found to be significantly associated with cell phone use while driving. The discoveries of this study provide groundwork for developing potent countermeasures to better road safety perception regarding cell phone use of a bus driver while driving.