Upper-Extremity Activities in Driving

We recently completed an interesting study looking at upper-extremity activities in driving. We coded nearly 10k snapshots from videos of over 100 drivers who participated in a naturalistic driving study. The activities of the left and right hand and forearm were documented, including contacts (e.g., steering wheel or armrest) and whether they were holding an object. Drivers had left, right, and both hands on the steering wheel in 64%, 46%, and 28%, respectively, of frames in which the hand placements could be determined. The driver’s left elbow was in contact with the door or armrest in 18% of frames, and the driver’s right elbow was contacting the center console armrest in 29% of frames. Women were more likely to have a phone in their right hands than men, and women were twice as likely as men to be wearing sunglasses during trips taken in daylight hours. For more information, see the report, now available online.