How travel habits can predict driving and distraction behaviors

A recent study found that young men are more prone to distracted driving than other groups. People who characterized themselves as neurotic or extroverted are also more distracted. Older women who feel like they are in control over their behavior tend to be less distracted.

The study published in Frontiers in Psychology looks at the driving habits of Norwegian high schoolers and adults, and could hold powerful ramifications for the auto insurance industry.

Carriers price premiums based on traditional metrics like credit, gender, claims history, and where you park your car. Risk assessments typically don’t consider driver psychology or distraction.

But distraction is a major problem facing insurers today, whether it’s tracked or not. Forty-percent of Americans are distracted for 15 minutes of every hour they drive. Yet only 25% of people say they use their phone while driving.

This distraction gap demonstrates that drivers are more distracted than they think. Besides the tragic loss of life, insurers face mounting losses due to crashes caused by distraction. In recent insurer studies, we found that for every point of distraction, an insurer’s loss ratio increases by two points. Depending on the size of a carrier’s book, this could be worth tens or hundreds of millions of dollars in losses.

Related: New data highlights misperceptions about distracted driving

Looking at the Norwegian study, we wondered if certain psychological traits can account for more aggressive distracted driving, could behaviors from a person’s life outside of the car reveal how they behave behind the wheel?

For example, if a person is a cyclist and has to worry about the threat of cars as they ride, are they safer drivers than the general population? What about frequent fliers, who are always rushing off to their next meeting? Do they make more phone calls while they drive? Commuters on public transportation are accustomed to using their phones as they travel. Does that behavior follow them when they get behind the wheel?

To find out, we looked at the driving behaviors of more than 6,000 thousand drivers over the past couple months. We collected data from smartphone sensors and ran it through machine learning algorithms to identify drivers who are also cyclists, frequent fliers, or public transportation commuters.

Our analysis includes the amount of driving time they spend using their phone. We analyzed how often they text, use apps, and make handheld and hands-free phone calls while driving. We also looked at how often they speed and slam on the brakes for every 100 miles. Note that we’re comparing each segment against the general population of drivers, not against each other.

Here’s what we found.

Cyclists are safer drivers than you

Cyclists know the dangers of the road. This knowledge seems to translate to their driving behavior and how often they use their phone while driving.

Cyclists spend 21% less time speeding than the typical driver. They have 14% fewer hard brakes. They’re also generally less distracted than the average driver. They spend less time texting and using apps by 6%. But cyclists aren’t saints. They spend 11% more time than average on handheld calls.

Overall, cyclists are safer and less distracted drivers than the general population.

Related: Distracted living: What it means for insurance

Think twice about driving with a frequent flier

Frequent fliers have things to do, places to be, people to see, and their driving behaviors reveal their life in the fast lane, quite literally.

Frequent fliers spend 35% more time speeding than the average driver. Yet, somehow, they make fewer hard brakes. Frequent fliers are more distracted, spending 10% more of their time with phone-related activities.

Additionally, frequent fliers spend 77% more time on hands-free phone calls than the typical driver. This was an astonishing finding. Frequent fliers appear riskier than average drivers because they speed more and are more distracted.

Public transit commuters have picked up bad habits

It’s easy to use your phone when you’re on the bus or train. It’s one of the perks of commuting by public transportation. But our research shows that it may be a difficult habit to kick when public transit commuters get behind the wheel.

Commuters are 7% more distracted than the average driver.

They text more often and make more hands-free and handheld phone calls. But, they also spend 11% less time speeding and make 13% fewer hard brakes. In terms of an overall risk profile, speeding and braking less certainly help. However, the heavier levels of distraction significantly increase commuters’ probability of crashing.

The upshot: Should you charge frequent fliers more and cyclists less?

In a world without personalized and dynamic data, these findings would suggest that insurers should update their risk profiles to add transportation behaviors to their rating variables. But we know that every driver is unique regardless of his or her behavior outside of the car. Some frequent fliers never use their phones when they drive, and some cyclists can be complete maniacs behind the wheel.

The key is that all of this information is knowable today through smartphone telematics and usage-based insurance.

Smartphone telematics collects typical driving behaviors like speeding, acceleration, and braking. It also exposes distracted driving activities. But what’s more is that smartphone telematics can reveal behaviors and activities beyond the car, as we’ve shown in this analysis. Insurers can use this data to build complete and personalized risk profiles for all their drivers.

It doesn’t matter if they fly, cycle, or ride the train, and as long as insurers include distraction in driver risk profiles, they can avoid higher loss ratios.

Related: 5 best practices to fight the effects of distracted driving

Ted Gramer is Chief Executive Officer at TrueMotion. He has more than 20 years of experience in the insurance and finance industries, including more than a decade with Liberty Mutual Insurance in a variety of executive leadership positions, including Executive Vice President & Chief Claims Officer and Executive Vice President of Liberty International. Connect with him on LinkedIn.