Driving and using a cellphone is not a good mix, research from scientists observed proof that the kind of music teens listen to can lead to hazardous driving. Apart from car maintenance tips, there should also be proper guidance for teen driving.
Changing tunes and fiddling with the tunes is not the only thing that can cause the driver to divert his/her focus on the road. Studies said that music alone can cause the teen’s ability to lose focus on driving.
Music Impacts Teen Driving
“Drivers ignore activities that may cause distraction, that is generally appropriate although not always safe, a wide range of regular activities including tuning in to your favorite music can cause distraction. ” Journal of Accident Analysis and Prevention.
The research workers were able to recruit 85 beginner drivers with ages 17 and 18. Approximately, half the recruited participants were men, and they acquired a driver’s license for nearly 7 months. Every participant was asked to drive a number of tracks together with a professional driving coach using an especially wired car.
The drive took about 40 minutes. Within that time frame, in two occasions, the driver had been told to bring a playlist to listen to. The rest of the driver participants use no music, or just tuned in to instrumental music designed specifically to promote safe driving.
Following every trip, participants finished a post-trip set of questions scoring their capability to drive carefully and their observed degree of entertainment from the music being played. The driving instructor had written a short comment explaining the driver’s demeanor within the trip, after which finished data to record any driving problems that took place.
As outlined by the data compiled from the activity, the young adults played their music at even louder volumes. Their mood was considerably higher when enjoying their own chosen music compared to the other conditions.
On the other hand, they also experienced a lot more errors in driving while tuned in to their own choice of music, this includes hazardous actions like speeding, lack of control, and weaving.
All participants made three serious mistakes (at the least) concerning safety in one or two of the six trips.
“Young-novice drivers remain more prone to distraction as they are less efficient in processing visual information needed to drive safely while engaging in other non-driving tasks – such as music listening,” Brodsky and Slor conclude.
Brodsky and Slor conclude: “Young novices are more likely to be distracted because they are much less reliable at managing the visual info required for safe driving when ever coping with various other non-driving things (just like listening to good tunes).”
Oddly enough, another experiment observed that music didn’t have a critical influence on professional drivers. The truth is, occasionally it could improve driver efficiency.
“It’s really logical. People need some ‘excitement’ to stop getting bored. In boring traffic circumstances, music is a distraction that helps concentration on the road,”
On the other hand, while music might not have an influence on experienced drivers mentally, it might have a distinct impact in young, unskilled drivers.