EFFECTS OF MUSIC TEMPO ON DRIVING PERFORMANCE AND ROAD SAFETY: A REPEATED-MEASURES DRIVING SIMULATOR EXPERIMENT

Music is frequently present during driving, yet its effect on driver performance remains inconclusive. This paper investigates whether driving without music, with medium-tempo music, and with high-tempo music produces differences in road-safety-related performance. We conducted a repeated-measures driving simulator experiment with 37 university students. Each participant completed the same urban driving scenarios under three conditions: i) no music, ii) medium-tempo music, and iii) high-tempo music. The scenarios included unexpected events and recorded reaction times, simulated crashes, traffic violations, vehicle-handling errors, speed-limit exceedances, and overall simulator scores. Repeated-measures analysis of variance (ANOVA) showed that music condition significantly affected reaction time (F = 16,102, p < 0,001, partial η² = 0,091), with lower reaction times under music conditions. Simulator score also differed significantly across conditions (F = 3,341, p = 0,042, partial η² = 0,040), with higher scores under high-tempo music than under no music. Although the overall effect on simulated crashes was significant (p = 0,029), Bonferroni-adjusted pairwise comparisons were not statistically significant. The findings suggest that music may improve selected aspects of simulator-based driving performance, while the specific role of tempo requires further investigation.