Distracted driving and driver interpretation of short term construction and maintenance work zones in urban environments

Previous literature of distracted driving and inattention has found that secondary tasks not associated with the task of driving increase vehicular accidents and near miss accidents. Distracted drivers are comparatively different to non -- distracted drivers when driving distracted, because predominant use of mobile devices such as cell phones have hazardous effects on slowed reaction time to roadway hazards, driver decision making process, and speed control. This is concerning to construction entities performing roadway construction and maintenance, because the associated hazards with performing such work becomes intuitively more dangerous for construction workers due to distracted drivers. This study compared motorist's speeds who were determined to be distracted and non -- distracted, to differentiate how distracted drivers behaved differently around work zones. Observational case studies, standard safety surveys, and brief worker surveys, were conducted at four locations for specifically targeted work zones, 4,450 non -- distracted, and 921 distracted drivers were observed. A statistical comparison for driver speeds, determined that there was no significant difference in non -- distracted and distracted driver speeds. Additionally, North Carolina work zone accident data was statistically analyzed to determine the accident severity between work zone activity, and urban or rural location. A significant trend appeared from 2009 to 2013 for urban vs. rural work zones, accidents which occurred in rural work zones were more severe than ones which occurred in urban areas.