Transit Bus Operator Distraction Policies (2013)

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TRANSIT BUS OPERATOR DISTRACTION POLICIES Since 2009, addressing distracted driving across all modes has become one of the U.S.DOT’s top safety initiatives. That year, President Obama signed an executive order prohibiting text messaging by federal government employees and contractors while operating vehicles on government business or government-funded business activities. Similarly, by 2012, 18 states and the District of Columbia have passed laws specifically forbidding the use of any hand-held or hands-free cellular phone by public transit, school, and commercial bus operators while driving a bus. The objective of this study is to report the state of knowledge and practice in public tran- sit bus operations intended to address and prevent distracted driving incidents. The areas covered in this study include: research that has or is being conducted to examine behavioral science factors and intergenerational or other demographic issues in an attempt to define distracted driving causes; the development and enforcement of existing and proposed poli- cies and disciplinary actions; the development and implementation of employee training programs; practices to mitigate on-board distractions such as passenger interaction, mobile data terminal and other integral electronic device use; and the evaluation and monitoring of policies and programs that have been put in place, to determine the overall effectiveness. It will also highlight some of the external forces—positive and negative—of state laws and/or the action by some states to prohibit locally created laws related to distracted driving activi- ties among all drivers or specifically bus operators. The ultimate goal of this synthesis is to provide public transit agencies with information about bus transit operator distraction poli- cies in order to assist them in evaluating and developing their own policies and programs to address and prevent distracted driving incidents. The study methodology included a literature review of U.S.DOT/FTA documents and resources, available transit agency policies, state laws, state-level accident statistics, industry standards, research studies, and training programs; and a survey of transit system operations, safety, and labor representatives. The survey was sent to 39 individuals, representing 35 pub- lic transit agencies. Thirty-six participants, representing 33 agencies, submitted a completed survey, a response rate of 92%. The survey was followed by the development of case examples documenting the efforts of three public transit systems to identify and catalog their processes and results. Several key findings were identified through this survey. First, 27 of the 33 systems that participated in the survey had conducted workplace and job-duty assessments of bus operators to identify conditions, factors, and behavioral patterns that cause or contribute to distracted-driving practices and incidents. Nineteen of the 33 systems that participated in the survey have already implemented policies addressing and prohibiting distracted driving practices while operating a vehicle, prohibitions that include but are not limited to the use of cell phones or other electronic devices. APTA has issued a comprehensive Recommended Practice, as part its Standards Develop- ment Program, entitled “Reducing Driver-Controlled Distractions While Operating a Vehicle on Agency Time.” A number of studies on the topic of distracted driving have been published, SUMMARY

2 including reports by the National Safety Council, Virginia Tech Transportation Institute, and the University of Utah; and DriveCam, Inc. conducted a study specifically on transit bus operators. All of these concluded that drivers in collisions were, on average, two times more likely to be distracted by cell phones or behaviors such as eating or drinking while driving. The Virginia Tech study concluded that the risk of a crash or near crash is six times greater for drivers who are dialing a cell phone and 23 times greater for those who text and drive. There are technologies currently available that can prevent cell or smart-phone use with the installation of hardware and/or software uploads. Lastly, the Center for Urban Transpor- tation Research (CUTR) at the University of South Florida, in conjunction with the Florida Department of Transportation and the FTA, has developed a 30-minute on-line instructional course, specifically for transit operators, on the dangers of distracted driving. Although these practices, legislative and research efforts, and training and outreach pro- grams are making progress in addressing the issue, additional work needs to be done at all levels to better define and mitigate distracted driving behaviors and other factors in public transit bus operations. Unlike personal vehicle usage or even commercial truck driving— which involves a separate and unique set of factors—transit bus operations has been and remains an increasingly “distracted” occupation. Ever-present passenger populations, driv- ing environments, work/rest schedules and breaks, increased implementation of cameras, monitors, alarms, radios, and automatic vehicle location; and the individual driver’s desire or need to be in communication with children or other dependents have significantly increased the level of distraction. Before targeted steps can be taken to address and mitigate these and possibly other factors, additional research needs to be done to identify and prioritize the fac- tors in order of severity and frequency of occurrence. Future research efforts that could benefit bus transit systems in their efforts to increase operator and passenger safety include: • An analysis of the effectiveness of distracted driving policies and penalties to determine successful models for discouraging distracted driving behaviors and enforcing associ- ated rules; • The development of a standardized process for evaluating policies, enforcement proce- dures, intervention methods, and training programs to determine successes and areas of needed improvement; • The development of a model plan for a distracted driver program that addresses all types of distractions through work-space and job-duty assessments, rules, training, techno- logical improvements, and intervention programs; • A pilot program to evaluate some of the barrier or “geofencing” technologies on the market or in development for their effectiveness in preventing the use of cell phones and other electronic devices.