Intentional and Habitual Mobile Phone Use While Driving
CARSP Webinar Series
Date/Time
Date(s) - July 21, 2026
12:00 pm EDT - 1:00 pm EDT
This webinar will share emerging evidence on mobile phone use while driving, with a particular focus on habitual and cue-driven processes that remain underexamined in the literature. The presentation aims to broaden current intervention thinking beyond intentional decision-making and toward behaviour change strategies that also address automatic phone use while driving.
The speakers will present findings from an MTO-funded project on mobile phone use while driving. Across a scoping review, a survey study, and a pilot experimental study, the speakers examined both intentional and habitual mechanisms underlying this behaviour.
CARSP webinars are free for CARSP members. Webinar recordings are posted 1-2 days after the live webinar takes place. They are immediately available to CARSP members, and after one month, to the general public. Not a CARSP member, you have two options for viewing the webinar. You can pay a one-time $50 fee to watch the live webinar, plus have immediate access to the webinar recording once it is posted. To take advantage of this option, check the applicable box on the registration form. The second option is to join CARSP! Join here.
Speaker
Sila Demir, Ph.D.
Sila Demir is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology at Lakehead University on the Orillia campus. She holds a Ph.D. in Social Psychology and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health in Toronto.
Her research applies social psychological theory to real-world safety and health contexts, with a particular focus on driver behaviour. She examines how attitudes, social norms, and interpersonal influences shape risky driving practices, including mobile phone use while driving, speeding, seat belt use, and impaired driving. Using a multi-method approach, her work aims to inform interventions and policies that promote safer road use.
More broadly, her research also addresses health-related decision-making, including organ donation, vaccination, and preventive health behaviours, as well as mental health in medical education, bringing a social psychological perspective to understanding why people make the choices they do.
Başar Demir, Ph.D.
Başar Demir is an independent researcher with a Ph.D. in Social Psychology. He recently completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Toronto, where he worked on projects funded by the Ministry of Transportation Ontario, the City of Toronto, Mitacs, and Transport Canada.
His research adapts decision-making and behaviour change approaches from social and health psychology to road safety. He combines evidence synthesis, advanced statistical techniques such as structural equation modelling, and experimental methods to understand and change road user behaviours, with a focus on drivers and pedestrians. His research has been published in leading journals such as Accident Analysis & Prevention and Transportation Research Part F. His recent projects include a three-phase study of intentional and habitual mobile phone use while driving and a telematics-based coaching intervention for municipal fleet drivers.
Sheena Mirpuri
Sheena Mirpuri is a Principal Advisor at BIT Americas, where she leads the portfolios focused on Transportation and Sustainability. Sheena specializes in the design of behavioral interventions and evaluation through randomized controlled trials and qualitative methods.
In the transportation sector, Sheena has led on projects spanning topics such as reducing fare evasion, exploring transportation choices, increasing sustainable transportation choices, reducing distracted driving, and supporting local government with transportation safety planning efforts.
Prior to joining BIT, she worked at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, designing and evaluating behaviorally informed interventions to improve the well-being of taxi and for-hire vehicle drivers in New York City. She holds a BA in Psychology from Emory University and a PhD in Psychology from Fordham University.
Brianne Kirkpatrick
Brianne Kirkpatrick is Director and founding member of BIT Canada. Brianne leads BIT Canada’s health portfolio, which includes BIT’s work on road safety.
Prior to joining BIT, Brianne led a behavioural insights unit from within government, overseeing dozens of experiments to improve policy, program and service design. Brianne has also worked with public sector clients as a management consultant, and as a strategic planner focused on hospital quality improvement.
She holds a Master of Public Policy from the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy, University of Toronto.