Does music affect performance on a hazard perception test for cyclists?

Abstract

Whereas it has been shown that listening to music impairs the detection of auditory and visual signals, it is unclear to what extent music affects a cyclist’s ability to detect and interpret hazardous traffic situations. In the current experiment, thirty-seven participants carried out a hazard perception test for cyclists. Participants were divided into three groups: control, passive, or active. The control group did the test without hearing music. The passive and active group did hear music, yet the passive group was asked to ignore the music, while the active group was asked to pay attention to the lyrics. Results showed no differences in reaction rate, reaction time, or gaze behaviour between any of the groups. These findings temper the existing safety concerns about the negative effect of music on traffic safety. Nevertheless, music might still have consequences under certain conditions or in certain risk-groups such as children.

Practitioner summary: It is unclear how music affects traffic safety. The current experiment tested to what extent hazard perception was affected by listening actively or passively to music. Under the current experimental conditions, listening to music was found to have no effect on hazard perception.

Abbreviation: NHTSA: national highway traffic safety administration; AOI: area of interest; TTFS: time to first saccade; FFD: first fixation duration

Keywords:

• Distraction
• bicycle safety
• traffic safety
• attention
• reaction time

Acknowledgements

No funding was received for this study. This research was performed in the context of the Honours Programme in Life Sciences: 'Breaking frontiers’ at the Ghent University.

Disclosure statement

No potential competing interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available on request from the corresponding author, PV. The data are not publicly available due to privacy restrictions.