Driver Boredom Research Articles

Strategies Used by Young Male Drivers for Coping with Driver Boredom

Strategies Used by Young Male Drivers for Coping with Driver Boredom

From road distraction to safe driving: Evaluating the effects of boredom and gamification on driving behaviour, physiological arousal, and subjective experience

Boredom and low levels of task engagement while driving can pose road safety risks, e.g., inattention during low traffic, routine trips, or semi-automated driving. Digital technology interventions that increase task engagement, e.g., through performance feedback, increased challenge, and incentives (often referred to as ‘gamification’), could therefore offer safety benefits. To explore the impact of such interventions, we conducted experiments in a high-fidelity driving simulator with thirty-two participants. In two counterbalanced conditions (control and intervention), we compared driving behaviour, physiological arousal, and subjective experience. Results indicate that the gamified boredom intervention reduced unsafe coping mechanisms such as speeding while promoting anticipatory driving. We can further infer that the intervention not only increased one's attention and arousal during the intermittent gamification challenges, but that these intermittent stimuli may also help sustain one's attention and arousal in between challenges and throughout a drive. At the same time, the gamified condition led to slower hazard reactions and short off-road glances. Our contributions deepen our understanding of driver boredom and pave the way for engaging interventions for safety critical tasks.

The antecedents, experience, and coping strategies of driver boredom in young adult males

IntroductionRoad crash statistics are evidence of the severe consequences resulting from human error, especially among young adult males. Drivers perform best and safest when they are adequately engaged in the driving task. Boredom and a lack of engagement in the driving task may cause risk taking and phone use. However, the antecedents to driver boredom, the subjective experience itself, as well as the coping strategies to combat boredom are not well understood. The aim of this study was to investigate these aspects. MethodWe carried out a qualitative study in a simulated, safe, yet highly immersive driving environment. The 24 participants included male drivers aged 18 to 25 susceptible to risky driving and phone use. A phenomenological framework was used to analyze their accounts of the experience of boredom while driving. ResultsResults indicate that situations giving rise to driver boredom include low traffic, slow or constant speed, and routine drives. Feelings comprising the experience were frustration, vigilance, relaxing, autopilot, mind wandering, and discomfort. Coping mechanisms manifest themselves in approach strategies related to the driving task such as speeding, which are often dangerous, and avoidance strategies, which include phone use. ConclusionsWe conclude that driver boredom bears similarities to the experience of boredom at work (unlike boredom at home) due to the situational constraints, where people feel stuck, trapped, or obliged to remain vigilant. Practical applicationsThe findings present an opportunity for the road safety and automotive technology community to address the issue of under-stimulation through safety interventions aimed at increased task engagement. Our work can also aid in investigating driver experiences in partially automated driving, which is likely to induce boredom as well.

Driver boredom: Its individual difference predictors and behavioural effects

Driver boredom has received little research attention in efforts to develop understanding of driver behaviour and further road safety. This study aimed to develop understanding of relationships between individual differences and driver boredom as well as between driver boredom and driver behaviour. A self-report questionnaire was developed and used to gather data pertaining to individual differences, driver boredom, and driver behaviour. The sample comprised 1550 male and female drivers aged between 17 and 65+ years. The results of this study show that people who are younger, less conscientious, and less enthusiastic about driving are more likely to pose a high threat to road safety because they are more likely to suffer driver boredom. Those more enthusiastic about driving seem less likely to suffer driver boredom due to their being more engaged in the driving task. Further research should be conducted to test whether engagement in the driving task and levels of perceived stimulation therein explain relations between driver enthusiasm and driver boredom. If this is the case, intervention programmes could be developed and tested in order to encourage engagement in the driving task and so limit driver boredom.

The categorisation of drivers in relation to boredom

This paper develops the concept of driver boredom by utilising a cluster analysis to describe different types of driver. A two-step cluster analysis of a 49-item questionnaire measuring driver boredom attitudes and perceptions was performed on 1563 UK drivers, yielding four groups, labelled as ‘young, inattentive and dangerous’, ‘enthusiastic and attentive’, ‘slow and unwilling’ and ‘safe and experienced’. These clusters are compared to ascertain personality and affect differences and whether or not there are different crash and penalty histories. The significant differences found enable the clusters to be seen in wider terms than simply boredom; they are considered in terms of theories of flow and arousal and also in light of previous attempts to classify driver types. This paper reports analyses that are part of a larger study of driver boredom.

Factors that comprise driver boredom and their relationships to preferred driving speed and demographic variables

Driver boredom is an area of driver behaviour that has received limited attention. This study explores the factor structure underlying driver boredom and investigates age and gender differences in the experience of driver boredom, and preferred driving speeds using a self-report questionnaire. A rotated principle components analysis of 49 attitude items yielded four dimensions: responses to under-stimulation; flow; lapse and error-proneness; and anxiety. Age and gender differences were found in these dimensions as well as in preferred driving speeds; two of the factors, responses to under-stimulation and flow were particularly related to preferred driving speeds on all but urban roads. These findings are considered in terms of cognitive capacity required for driving, self-reporting of cognitive failure and error-proneness and the implications for drivers maintaining safety margins when bored.