A methodological approach for studying public bus transit driver distraction

The increase in bus transit ridership along with the proliferation of personal electronic control and communication gadgets is causing more distractions for the drivers. For transit vehicles, some distractions are caused by factors beyond the driver's control such as operating additional equipment, attending to passengers, and communicating with the operations center. Several driver distraction studies have been conducted for personal vehicles and commercial vehicles. But bus transit driver distraction has received limited attention in the literature even though bus transit accidents may cause more injuries due to larger number of passengers. Hence, their distraction is not clearly understood; furthermore, no established methodology is available to conduct a detailed study at a transit agency because of inadequate research in the field.