THE USE OF SMARTPHONES WHILST DRIVING: AN INVESTIGATION OF THE ‘SOCIAL NETWORKING’ DRIVER INTERNATIONAL COMPARISON BETWEEN INDONESIA AND UK
BUNGA ANINDYA PRAMONO, Prof. Dr. Ir. Siti Malkamah, M.Sc.
2013 | Tesis | S2 Mag. S. & T.Transportasi-
Background: It is becoming a routine that people use the advance mobile phone (smartphone) to access instant information globally as well as access social networks to communicate with others rather than only use it for calling and texting at anywhere, including while they drive. However, using smartphone whilst driving would distract drivers‟ attention on the main driving task, which then might reduce the awareness to the surrounding and impair drivers‟ ability to control the vehicle. In fact, it is reported that driving distraction of mobile phone usage causing accident by 0,31% in the UK in 2011 (Department for Transport, 2012) and 1.67% of accident in Indonesia (Polda Metro Jaya as cited in Ministry of Information and Communication of Republic of Indonesia, 2012). Objectives: to investigate the prevalence use of smartphones whilst driving for social networking in Indonesia and UK, the characteristics of „social networking‟ driver, the drivers‟ perceived risk of social networking whilst driving, how personality trait and risky driving behaviour influence driver on their risk perception, and to investigate drivers‟ awareness of existing regulation of mobile phone use while driving in Indonesia and UK. Method: A cross-sectional study was conducted to determine statistical associations between two dichotomous variables (i.e. female vs. male) towards accessing social network sites whilst driving. Analysis employed data from 62 respondents in UK and 66 respondents in Indonesia that randomly collected using an online questionnaire spread thru emails and social media sites. The Chi Square will be used to test the significant difference between variables. The Odds Ratio will be used to describe the strength association between two dichotomous variables. The Breslow-Day statistic test is used to test the homogeneity of odds ratio and the Cochran-Mantel-Haenszel is used to test the conditional independence between variables (Agresti, 2007). Results: Smartphone use whilst driving for social networking is more prevalent in Indonesia than in UK, with Odds ratio 14.82 (95% CI: 6.185-35.528). Moreover, there were no statistical associations between gender, age, occupation, driving experience and sensation seeking trait towards accessing social networking whilst driving. Which means that any driver would have the same probability to access social network sites behind the wheel. However, this study found that aggressive driving behaviour does affect how driver perceive the risk of social networking whilst driving, which then influence the driver in accessing social network sites whilst driving. Suggestions to minimise the use of smartphones whilst driving were provided.
Kata Kunci : safety, driving distraction, smartphone use, social networking, sensation seeking trait, aggressive driving behaviour, regulation awareness
