Revealed: The music you shouldn’t listen to when driving

Findings from a range of studies have revealed that drivers who listen to music while behind the wheel are at a higher risk of various dangers than those driving in silence. These include more collisions, poorer speed control, and shorter following distances.

Whether you’re doing the school pick up or heading on a family road trip, hitting shuffle on your favourite playlist is often one of the first things drivers do when jumping in the car.

According to UK data, approximately 80 per cent of drivers listen to music.

“We don't have any reason to think the numbers would be vastly different in Australia,” said Associate Professor of Urban Risk, Resilience and Mobility at the University of Melbourne, Milad Haghani.

While Haghani said music isn’t the biggest risk factor on the road “in the grand scheme of things,” it does affect how we drive, and sometimes this can be detrimental to safety.

“It can nudge the driving towards a less safe style,” he told carsales.

“The overall pool of international research, which is predominantly from driving simulators, has shown that when drivers listen to music and drive in laboratory conditions, they crash more often, and their speed control and safe distance control become slightly poorer, compared to when they drive in silence,” he said.

“Other aspects of driving, such as reaction time and lane keeping, we don't have any converging evidence to convince us they get affected, too. So, it's only certain elements of driver performance that get noticeably affected, what we call the ‘longitudinal performance’ (speed and distance control) as opposed to ‘lateral performance’”.

And some drivers are more at risk than others, the studies show, with young and inexperienced drivers most susceptible. The genre or type of music can also play a part.

“We know, for example, the tempo per se does not tangibly affect the performance of a generally experienced driver in a notable way, but it does so for young inexperienced drivers and nudges them to faster driving,” says Haghani.

 “Similarly, with aggressive genre, while it has a universal impact, the impact is much more notable when it comes to young, inexperienced drivers. But the risk is in the nuance. It's a loud and aggressive genre or unfamiliar and disliked music that has the most adverse impacts.”

For the music buffs out there, the good news is, you don’t need to hit pause on your go-to driving mix.

“The risk is completely manageable,” said Haghani.

“You just need to know how it impacts you and what type of music can have potential adverse impacts, and just avoid that.” 

Additionally, singing along to a banger while driving can also have its benefits.

“It can potentially improve drivers' mood…and it can keep drivers mentally alert on long drives. Although that effect seems to be transient and wears off after half an hour or so, and it may require a reset. But it's not free of benefits.”

To safely drive and listen to music, Haghani suggests the following tips:

“Overall, the risk associated with music is completely manageable, and you just need to know how and when.

“Evidence doesn't suggest we need to cancel the music in cars.”