Hands-free phone use is legal and the most common type of secondary task engagement among cyclists. However, cognitive distraction due to interacting with somebody verbally may also interfere with cycling, especially for understanding complex traffic situations and anticipating other people’s behavior. Therefore, its effect on cyclists’ behaviour should be examined. This study investigates the behavioural effects of handsfree secondary cognitive task engagement among cyclists with a particular focus on overtaking and behavioural response in potentially critical situations.
In a cycling simulator 58 participants cycled 12 road segments with the possibility to overtake a slow cyclist. The road segments varied in road design and occurrence of critical events. The secondary task included three conditions that varied in level of cognitive demand. After the ride participants were asked to self-assess their cycling performance, perceived safety, and perceived distraction.
Results show a behavioural effect of road design but not of secondary task engagement, even though self-reported distraction increases with increasing cognitive demand. Overall, results indicate that the detrimental effects of engagement in secondary cognitive tasks are limited when the cycling tasks are on the skill-based or rule-based level and therefore require only limited cognitive resources. Thus, further studies should focus on more complex traffic situations which also could have a higher crash risk. On the other hand, at least for the level of complexity examined here, there seems to be no need to change legislation to reduce cyclists’ crash risk.