Opinion: we need to talk about handsfree

In this latest opinion piece, three experts outline how the potential displacement from handheld to handsfree phone use, as a result of existing enforcement efforts, could prove to be ‘hugely problematic’ for road safety.

The piece was written by Gemma Briggs (Open University), Helen Wells (Keele University) and Leanne Savigar-Shaw (Staffordshire University).

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Mobile phone use on UK roads is a growing problem.

It is increasingly common to see drivers texting while stopped in traffic or using their devices to check routes or change music. It is equally common to hear drivers on handsfree mobile phone calls, or to see them seemingly talking to themselves as they drive. When driver distraction is mentioned in the media it is usually with reference to the illegal – handheld – form of the behaviour. 

We all know that it is unsafe to look away from the road and to take your hands off the steering wheel to interact with a phone, so it makes sense that legislation is in place to ban such dangerous behaviour. Nevertheless, people continue to engage in this risky behaviour, perhaps because they feel they are a better than average driver, that they can multitask, or simply that they feel it unlikely that they will get caught by the police.

To better understand phone use by drivers, we recently surveyed, via YouGov, 1500 drivers on their phone use. 54% of respondents claimed not to use their phone in any way while driving. Of those who claimed to use their phones:

• 3.1% admitted to using their phone handheld to make or receive calls, compared with 34.9% who claimed to make/receive calls using hands free technology.
• 4.2% admitted to using their phone handheld to text, compared with 7.3% who said that they text using handsfree technology.
• 2.9% of respondents said that they use their phone handheld to either play games, watch videos, select music or search the internet, compared with 5.9% of respondents who said they use handsfree technology to carry out such tasks.

On first inspection, this data offers promise: more than half of drivers claim not to be distracted by their phones at all, and most of those who do use their phones do so in accordance with the law (handsfree). Nevertheless, a minority of drivers admit to handheld phone use, despite this being illegal. Such a finding isn’t really surprising as we know that motorists violate various laws, which is why enforcement of the law is important. When we look at this data in the context of research findings, however, we would argue that there is far less promise in terms of road safety.

Over the last 30 years, research has demonstrated the impact of phone use on driving performance by measuring aspects such as hazard detection ability, reaction times and eye movements. Findings reveal that regardless of whether a phone is used handheld or handsfree, phone using drivers are four times more likely to be involved in a collision than undistracted drivers, and this increased risk persists for around five minutes after a call has ended. 

Phone using drivers (again, whether handheld or handsfree) demonstrate poor hazard detection ability – even for hazards which occur directly in front of them – and take significantly longer to react to any hazards they do notice, leading to increased stopping distances. Such research has highlighted that the key issue with phone use is the cognitive distraction it imposes, rather than simply the manual and visual distraction of holding and looking at a phone. 

This is compellingly demonstrated in research showing that handsfree phone-using drivers can look directly at a hazard yet fail to see it (a phenomenon known as inattentional blindness) as their attention is focused on their phone conversation. The findings on the effects of phone use are emphatic: having both hands on the wheel and both eyes on the road doesn’t mitigate the distraction phone-using drivers experience.

Despite compelling research evidence on the equal dangers of handsfree phone use, the law – and therefore enforcement efforts – remains focused on handheld use. Various different enforcement approaches are used to detect illegal phone use, including specific police operations (e.g. Operation Tramline), third-party reporting, where members of the public can submit footage of other drivers’ phone use to the police for assessment, and most recently AI assisted camera technology which detects handheld phone use. All these approaches have a shared aim of reducing the level of driver distraction on the roads and improving road safety. 

However, we would argue that while enforcement of the law is of course a priority, only addressing one type of distraction (the illegal type) will not meaningfully improve road safety globally. 

If effective, on paper, these approaches could collectively eradicate all handheld phone use by drivers: there would be a much higher chance of drivers being caught and prosecuted which, in turn, could lead to a widespread shift in attitude and behaviour in respect to phone use. But what about handsfree phone using drivers who remain legally distracted on our roads? And what is the most likely course of action for a driver who is caught and punished for using their handheld phone?

To address this latter question, we asked those respondents in our survey who admitted to handheld phone use how they would behave in future if they were caught doing so by the police or by other enforcement technologies:

• 30.8% said they would not use their phone at all in future.
• 11.3% said they would continue to use their handheld phone. Of those who said they would continue with illegal phone use, 19.2% said they would limit their use and 8.8% said they would try to hide it.
• 33.2% of respondents said they would switch to using their phone handsfree.

This data demonstrates that, for some drivers, being caught by the police might be enough to make them cut out phone use (at least, that’s what they say!). 

However, others would clearly continue to engage in illegal phone use while attempting to avoid detection, and others would simply switch to a legal form of the behaviour. This potential displacement from handheld to handsfree phone use, as a result of detection, is hugely problematic – drivers remain just as distracted, causing just as many collisions and incidents – but do so legally. We would argue that, in this instance, the data on contributory factors to incidents would look very promising in respect to phone use by drivers…but that coincidentally, the number of incidents attributed to ‘driver error’ would likely increase!

So, what can we do? In the absence of any change to the law, we can:

• encourage the sharing of education on the equal dangers of handsfree use to all detected handheld phone offenders.
• explore the (re)introduction of courses for mobile phone offenders, using evidence-based practice to educate drivers about the safety risks, not just the enforcement risks, of phone use.
• train police officers to discourage handsfree phone use in their interactions with offenders.
• increase public awareness on the dangers of handsfree phone use.
• encourage fleets to lead by example and ban all phone use for their employees.

If we continue to see enforcement as the answer to our distracted driver problem, we won’t save the lives and prevent the harm that we might expect. We NEED to talk about handsfree.

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