Appendix D - Survey Question Justification

Appendix D: Justification for survey questions

Item numbers 1 - 4

Standard demographic questions

Item number 5

For sampling purposes, it is essential to know the general geographic location in which each participant lives. This will let the research team know if the participants reside in the intervention areas.

Item number 6

Frequency of driving enables researchers to control for driving exposure and to gauge the actual frequency of certain driving behaviors in subsequent questions that require estimations based on a proportion of driving trips (e.g., “I talk on my phone on about half of my driving trips”).

Item number 7

This question identifies the respondent’s usual driving vehicle. It focuses the respondent on a particular type of vehicle when answering. Anchoring later questions to a specific vehicle type is designed to improve the accuracy of the data collection and could impact the types of countermeasures ultimately used to detect and deter distracted driving.

Item numbers 8 – 9

These questions examine the general frequency of potentially distracting behaviors while driving.

Item numbers 10 – 12

This series of questions assesses a participant’s awareness of State laws banning hand-held cellular phones. The question also assesses the perceived likelihood of receiving a ticket for violating the law.

Item numbers 13 - 14

These questions determine whether participants have had direct contact with law enforcement officers as a result of violating State bans on the use of a hand-held cellular phone while driving.

Item numbers 15

This item measures whether participants are aware of enforcement efforts focused on distracted driving in their community.

Item numbers 16 – 17

This series of items examines whether respondents have been exposed to messages discouraging distracted driving, what they have been exposed to and where they saw the message(s).