Next year will see mobile phone detection cameras used across the ACT.
Two fixed cameras will be located on Hindmarsh Drive and Gungahlin Drive, and three transportable cameras will be moved across Canberra, including Canberra Avenue, Tuggeranong Parkway, and Yamba Drive.
But will they deter Canberra drivers from using their mobile phones?
Dr Amanda George, an associate professor in psychology at the University of Canberra spoke with ABC Radio Canberra’s Anna Vidot.
Transcript:
Anna Vidot 0:00
Drive with Anna Vidot on ABC Radio Canberra. You are in your car right now put your phone down, made you look or listen. Anyway, look, we know, using your phone while driving is never a good idea. We know this, it’s a big distraction that you and your fellow road users just don’t need. But if that knowledge alone, that it’s a bad idea. If that’s not enough, you’re going to want to keep off your phone anyway, as those mobile phone detection cameras are finally being rolled out across Canberra, two fixed cameras on high mass drive and Gungahlin drive, and three other movable ones which be moved around the city. But also why isn’t the knowledge that this is a bad idea using your phone while driving? Why isn’t that knowledge enough to stop us doing it? Why do we do things like using our phones while we drive when we know it’s dangerous? And to things like detection cameras and the threat of punishment? Work? We’re just good sense doesn’t it? Well, someone who’s studied exactly these kinds of questions, is Dr. Amanda George, who’s associate professor in psychology at the University of Canberra. Hello, Amanda, how are you?
Dr. Amanda George 1:16 p.m
Hi, I’m good. Thanks How are you going?
Anna Vidot 1:19
I’m good. I’m good. I’m curious about this. Just things like speeding and mobile phone detection cameras really work to make us change our behavior on the roads?
Dr Amanda George 1:29
Look, great question. I think at present, we know that such legal deterrence. So by that I mean the risk of being caught by the police using the phone while driving. Certainly our research to date has demonstrated that that is not an effective deterrent to reduce or cease mobile phone use while driving. My research is predominantly focused on young drivers, because there are multiple reasons, including that they’re overrepresented in road crashes and road fatalities. And we also know that mobile phone use while driving is particularly prevalent among younger drivers. But when we talk to young drivers, they report that we all know it can be easy to use the phone undetected, and that it’s easy to conceal it if they do see somebody. So hopefully the introduction of mobile phone detection cameras might alter that certainly what we’ve identified today, is that actually non legal deterrence, likely to be more effective at present. But of course, we don’t have the mobile phone detection cameras yet.
Anna Vidot 2:40
Right indeed. So let’s talk a bit about that. Because I mean, look, we know that I’m using my own life as an example. I know certainly as say like a 21 year old, I was definitely guilty of using my phone while I was driving, you know, 20 years later, almost Absolutely not. Absolutely not do that. But how much of this is just about growing up and learning to be a bit more sensible, being a bit more responsible? How much time is really the key to changing our behavior?
Dr. Amanda George 3:12 p.m
Yeah, I think that’s a good question. I mean, it’s also important to note that, you know, mobile phone use while driving is not just a younger driver behavior. We know it is also prevalent among other age groups, we just know, it’s particularly prevalent among young age groups. And it’s quite complicated because we, you know, we know that we’re more dependent on our phones, we’ve grown up using the phones within that generation, they might have seen their parents use the friends while driving. So that behavior is also being modeled. So I think the current climate is also different from, say, previous generations, and our phones have a lot more capacity to do a lot more, and we are more reliant on them. So for many people, they’re portable, it’s difficult to discontinue that just because they’re entering the vehicle can often be just an extension of their typical frame. Yes.
Anna Vidot 4:01
So I guess for young people, for people of any age, if we’re not exactly sure what the impact of these cameras might be in the AC T yet, what are some of the other deterrence that you think might work?
Dr. Amanda George 4:12 p.m
Yeah, well, I think also, it’s important to note that the introduction of mobile phone detects cameras, presumably that is going to increase the risk of being caught. So in the community, there might be a greater perceived certainty of being caught when using a phone while driving. So I think that does help promise for reducing mobile phone use while driving when we look at legal deterrence. We know that certainty of being caught is a more important predictor. It’s just in our research today, we’ve noted that non legal deterrence is more important. So, you know in research that was led by Joanna Ogden here at UC with Dr. Brown and I, we found that other aspects of deterrence particularly things like anticipated regret, So regretting using the phone, or your concern of injuring yourself or others, when you have when you do use your phone are a lot more important than those legal currents . And earlier research we conducted with young ATT drivers also looked at things like the perceived risk of having a crash, which was identified as important, whereas the perceived risk of being caught by the police was not. We also know things like mobile phone dependence, of course, are important. So when we’re looking at how we might target mobile phone use, while driving, you know, these protection cameras definitely hold promise. But I think it’s also important that we do consider a multi-pronged approach to try and reduce the behavior as well. We know it’s very normalized and knowing that a lot of our friends engage in the behavior is also a risk for engaging in it ourselves.
Anna Vidot 5:50
On ABC Radio Canberra, the voice you’re hearing is that of Dr. Amanda George, who’s an associate professor in psychology at the University of Canberra, talking about, you know, whether it is cameras, maybe it is, but also what are some of the things that do make us change our behavior? When it comes to risky things while driving like using our mobile phones, something we all know we shouldn’t do? And yet, and yet, Amanda, how, what role do public education or information campaigns have in all of this? Just generally, with road safety in the past, we’ve seen sometimes these waves of very confronting public sort of safety and health messaging. Do those things work, things that make us scared or shock us?
Dr. Amanda George 6:32
Well, when we’re looking at that sort of link between, you know, an effective message while being a fearful one, we’ve got, we’ve got to be careful there. Because something that produces too much fear is often not effective. And we also know that, you know, the education campaigns, they have a place, but they’re often limited in their effectiveness. And young drivers. You know, in some of our focus group findings, for example, they reported that often those messages were also communicated in a way that they wouldn’t speak normally themselves. So what we’ve really taken from that is the need to co-design those types of messages and educational aspects with young drivers in particular, rather than sort of the implementation of a top down approach. And again, it’s one aspect because one thing we can do to try and reduce the behavior, but we can’t rely on any one mechanism alone, I would suggest. Yeah,
Anna Vidot 7:33
So it’s a combination, I suppose, by the sounds of things. And of course, Amanda, we’re talking here about really things that the state can do, but we all have people in our lives is peer to peer advice, encouragement, parental advice, or encouragement not to use a phone is that helpful ?
Dr Amanda George 7:52
Look, I think our research does demonstrate that that has a place particularly because we know that people who think their friends also do it and more likely to do it. So having those peer to peer conversations. Interestingly, in our focus groups, Young Drivers also reported that they often felt compelled to answer their phone, if it was their parents, phoning them. So you know, there’s a capacity there for if you are a parent listening to this, to have that conversation with your young driver as an example. And to communicate you wait, what you know, wait until you can pull out safely or wait until you get home? I think very few parents would actually want their child to answer the phone while they are driving. And we also know that sometimes drivers communicate that it can be hard to know what’s legal and what’s not. The laws can be quite complicated. They can also differ slightly across jurisdictions. So anything that would, you know, come about in terms of simplifying those messages and confirming for drivers what they can and can’t do, I think would also be really welcomed.
Anna Vidot 9:04
Really interesting. And it will be very interesting, Amanda to see what impact there is, are you going to continue doing these studying is that as the cameras come into effect?
Dr. Amanda George 9:13
Yes. So my colleague, Dr. Brown and I are planning a study with students to look into this further next year as well.
Anna Vidot 9:23
Look forward to it. Thanks so much, Amanda, really appreciate your time this afternoon.
Dr. Amanda George 9:27 a.m
My pleasure. Thanks for having me.
Anna Vidot 9:28
Thank you. It’s Dr. Amanda George, associate professor in the discipline of Psychology at the University of Canberra, talking to us on ABC Radio camera about some of her and her colleagues’ research, mobile phone detection cameras. Are they going to be the thing that makes you change your behavior? I wonder if you are someone who maybe just sometimes uses your phone while driving even though you know, you shouldn’t do it. Drive with Anna Vidot on ABC Radio Canberra.
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