SAN ANTONIO — Driving playlists are quickly filling up with audible reading material as audiobooks continue to grow in popularity worldwide.
Searches like "best audiobooks for road trips" have skyrocketed 275% in the last few months but there is a limit to how much people can comfortably listen to and absorb information.
Experts at Virtual Speech agree that 150-160 words per minute (wpm) is estimated to be the upper range at which people can comfortably hear and vocalize words.
An overabundance of this amount could cause distractions while drivers are behind the wheel.
Researchers at Nationwide Vehicle Contracts analyzed the average wpm of the 50 most popular audiobooks on Spotify and revealed the most distracting culprits.
Most distracting audiobooks to drive to:
- "Icebreaker" by Hannah Grace
- "It Starts with Us by Colleen Hoover
- "Everything I know About Love" by Dolly Alderton
- "A Court of Thorns and Roses" by Sarah J. Maas
- "A Court of Wings and Ruin" by Sarah J. Maas
- "It Ends with Us" by Colleen Hoover
- "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" by Douglas Adams
- "Yellowface" by Rebecca F. Kuang
- "Funny Story" by Emily Henry
- "Fairy Tale" by Stephen King
These popular audiobooks are above the 150-160 wpm range - which means they require more concentration due to the high volume of words being spoken and could easily lead to distracted driving.
Majority of the top 10 audiobooks with high wpm are romance novels - so drivers may want to avoid this particular genre.
“It’s important to be fully focused when behind the wheel for both your safety and those around you. Your attention needs to always be on what’s happening on the road. If you are caught driving without due care and attention, most states allow law enforcement to issue a traffic citation for distracted driving," Keith Hawes Director at NVC said.
