Objective: Mobile phone use while driving is a major cause of distraction and area for concern. Numerous factors have been shown to be associated with engagement in mobile phone use while driving, including peer influences and social media content encouraging the behavior. Phone detection cameras are being increasingly utilized to enforce the hand-held mobile phone use while driving ban in Australia, yet this has been accompanied by an emergence of camera location pages on social media platforms such as Facebook. Research is clearly needed to explore the nature and extent of this online content, since such information can be used to counteract any negative effects on enforcement. Methods: Accordingly, this exploratory study analyzed content on Facebook pertaining to mobile phone use while driving, enforcement of the behavior and legal penalties associated with the behavior. Results: A total of 167 public Facebook posts shared within Australia in January to October 2021 were examined. Overall, it was found that: (a) a large proportion (74%) of posts focused on the location of mobile phone cameras, (b) whilst most discussions centered around discouraging mobile phone use while driving, a large number also aimed to facilitate avoiding detection for the behavior. Finally, very few posts/comments acknowledged the risks associated with the behavior, including the risk of being caught. Conclusions: This research provides preliminary evidence that social media platforms appear to provide an avenue to reduce the likelihood of apprehension. Avenues for future research are discussed.@en

Research into phone use while driving has found that the threat of legal sanctions has limited effectiveness on reducing this behaviour, yet the impact of these countermeasures on concealed phone use has been frequently overlooked. This study sought to understand how legal enforcement and perceptions of safety influence concealed phone use while driving using a mixed methods approach. First, focus groups were conducted among young drivers aged between 17 and 25 years (n = 60). Observing police presence was identified as an effective deterrent, however it was also considered easy to evade detection. Reading messages while driving was the most common type of phone use while driving engaged in, and this behaviour can be considered easy to conceal; therefore, this behaviour was the focus of the subsequent quantitative study. A longitudinal repeated measures survey (n = 192) on young drivers was conducted 3 months apart to quantitatively examine the factors that influence subsequent engagement in concealed and general reading messages while driving. The results suggest that concealing the phone increases the incidence rates of phone use while driving behaviour. Punishment avoidance and perceptions of safety were: (a) highly correlated and (b) significantly predicted engagement in both concealed and general reading messages while driving. The results provide support for education campaigns that target perceptions of safety, as well as increasing apprehension certainty (e.g., via the implementation of cameras) in order for legal countermeasures to act as a larger deterrent, as opposed to counterintuitively influencing concealed phone use behaviour.@en

In Australia, the number of collisions at level crossings (LCs) remains stable and even increased between 2003 and 2011. A consistent number of crashes between trains and pedestrians compared to a decreasing number of crashes between trains and vehicles calls for a better understanding of the factors underpinning pedestrians’ decision-making at such risky intersections. This study reports on an innovative method used to measure pedestrians’ crossing intentions and risk perceptions in crossing scenarios recorded at three representative LCs for Queensland (Australia). Predictors of crossing intentions were examined and compared between five scenarios. An online survey featuring the footages of the crossing scenarios was completed by 222 participants. The results revealed that pedestrians’ intentions to transgress depend on the situation, justifying the use of such methodology. Pedestrians perceived the lowest risk and reported the highest likelihood of risk-taking after the pedestrian lights are active, but before the pedestrian gates have started moving, confirming that pedestrian gates are an efficient safety measure. It was found that pedestrians perceive others as more prone to risk-taking at LCs, but not as being more at risk of fatal consequences, suggesting that the risk of being hit by a train as a pedestrian is generally perceived as low. Past unsafe behaviour, descriptive norms and perceived risk of being involved in a crash were found to be consistent predictors of the likelihood to engage in risk-taking behaviour at LCs across the different scenarios. Implications for future research and strategies to reduce habitual unsafe behaviour are discussed.@en