Rear Passenger Behavior and Belt Fit

Last year, my colleagues and I published the first large-scale naturalistic study of front-seat passenger postures and behaviors using a vehicle interior camera. Although it was not the focus of the study, the video also included views of the rear seat passengers. We coded the video using the same techniques we'd applied to the front seat and were able to describe some interesting aspects of rear occupancy and behaviors. One of the more notable findings was a dramatically lower second-row belt use rate in two ride-hailing (Uber) vehicles that were included in the study. This has concerning implications for potential future mobility if ride-hailing begins to account for a larger proportion of trip. This paper was presented at the AAAM annual meeting and i Traffic Injury Prevention.