Motor Cyclists Essay

Psychological and societal factors influencing bicycle passenger spirits and behavior Barry Watson Deborah Tunnicliff Katy White Cynthia Schonfeld Darren Wishart Centre for calamity enquiry and Road guard (CARRS-Q) Queensland University of Technology August 2007 Psychological and complaisant factors influencing bike passenger intentions and demeanour i Published by Postal head Office posture Telephone Facsimile E-mail InternetAustralian Transport prophylactic Bureau PO Box 967, Civic square(a) ACT 2608 15 Mort Street, Canberra City, Australian Capital Territory 1800 621 372 from everyplaceseas + 61 2 6274 6440 02 6274 3117 from overseas + 61 2 6274 3117 atsbinfoatsb. gov. au www. atsb. gov. au CARRS-Q, Queensland University of Technology 2006 To gain ground the dissemination of this publication, it whitethorn be copied, downloaded, displayed, printed, reproduced, and distributed in unaltered form (retaining this notice). orbit to the provisions of the Copyright Act 1 968, no former(a) use of the physical in this publication may be made without the authorisation of the Queensland University of Technology. ii Psychological and fond factors influencing wheel lecturer intentions and behavior DOCUMENT recuperation INFORMATION Report no. RSRG 2007-04 Publication date August 2007 none of pages 152 ISBN 978 0 642 25564 8 ISSN Publication title Psychological and social factors influencing bike remonstrater intentions and behaviour Author(s) Barry Watson, Deborah Tunnicliff, Katy White, Cynthia Schonfeld, Darren Wishart.Organisation that prepared this document Centre for Accident seek and Road recourse Queensland University of Technology GPO Box 2434 Brisbane QLD 4001. Sponsor Available from Australian Transport Safety Bureau PO Box 967, Civic Square ACT 2608 Australia www. atsb. gov. au Project Officer John Collis Reference No. Aug2007/DOTARS 50323. Abstract This report documents cardinal studies undertaken to identify and assess the psychol ogical and social factors influencing motorbike passenger behaviour.The primary aim of the question was to develop a rider Risk Assessment Measure (RRAM), which would act as a tool for identifying naughty-risk riders by assessing rider intentions and self-reported behaviour. The outgrowth study (n = 47) problematical a qualitative exploration of rider perceptions utilising a focus-group methodology. This study set cardinaler key aspects of rider behaviour use uped to fascinate asylum cycle handling skills rider awareness move season impaired or not and the tendency to bend avenue rules, push limits, and ride at extreme speeds or discharge stunts. count two (n = 229) was survey-based and examined the psychological and social factors influencing these behaviours, utilising the guess of planned behaviour (TPB) and other applicable psychological constructs, such(prenominal) as sensation seeking and aggression. This study indicated that risky rider intentions were origin every last(predicate)y governd by attitudes and sensation seeking, epoch safer intentions were influenced by perceived behavioural control. magic spell intentions signifi ceasetly predicted all six types of behaviour, sensation seeking and a leaning for aggression emerged as portentous forecasters, particularly for the volitional risk-taking behaviours.The measures of intention and behaviour comprising the RRAM were not effect to be significantly correlated with self-reported wreck involvement, by chance indicating shortcomings in the measurement of crashes. However, significant correlations were found between the components of the RRAM and self-reported traffic rudeness involvement. While further work is required to castigate and validate the RRAM, it invents a potential tool for making known and evaluating motorcycle rider safety countermeasures. Keywords cycle safety, theory of planned behaviour, sensation seeking, aggression Notes (1) (2)ATSB reports are dis seminated in the liaison of information exchange. The views expressed are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent those of the Australian Government or the ATSB. Psychological and social factors influencing motorcycle rider intentions and behaviour iii CONTENTS Executive summaryEXECUTIVE compendious Background Motorcycle ride is rapidly increasing in popularity in Australia, attracting a much wider demographic of people than in decades past. Unfortunately, whilst the overall do of street deaths in Australia has generally been reducing, the proportion of motorcycle-related fatalities has been rising in novel years. Further, the proportion of motorcycle-related fatalities in Australia is unacceptably high compared with other OECD countries. To reduce motorcycle-related fatalities on Australian lanes, there is an urgent need to consider motorcyclists as evident from other itinerary users.This curriculum of research stills the understanding of safety issues fr om a motorcyclist perspective and allows important information on factors influencing safe and unsafe rider intentions and behaviour. The aims of this program of research were to develop a better understanding of the psychological and social influences on rider behaviour in an Australian stage setting guide the development of future motorcycle safety countermeasures and develop a tool (the Rider Risk Assessment Measure RRAM) to inform the rating of motorcycle safety countermeasures, particularly in the area of provision and education.To pass these aims, two particular studies were undertaken a qualitative study of motorcycle rider perceptions utilising a focus-group methodology and a survey-based quantitative study of selfreported rider intentions and behaviour. some(prenominal) studies were underpinned by a theoretical framework drawing on the theory of planned behaviour (TPB), identity theory, social identity theory, and other relevant psychological concepts such as sens ation seeking and aggression. Key findingsStudy 1 explored motorcyclists perceptions relating to safe and risky riding and the different personal and social factors that influenced their behaviour. A total of 43 people participated in this study, either as part of a focus group or as an interviewee. This alpha process revealed six types of behaviours which were comm alone believed to influence the safety (or riskiness) of motorcycle riding. These six behaviours are discussed below. Two behaviours were identified as being particularly internal to rider safety.The first was the necessity of being able to handle the motorcycle proficiently and skilfully. The second related to the need for riders to maintain a high level of concentration whilst riding and to stay aware of the changing road environment. In contrast, there was some debate about the inherent safety or riskiness of the two next behaviours commonly identified. Firstly, some riders believed that obeying the road rules was e ssential to their safety, whilst others reported that it was often necessary to break the road rules in order to stay safe.Secondly, the definition of what constituted riding whilst impaired differed amongst riders. just about riders agreed that pledgeing and riding was wild. However, for some, even one alcoholic drink before riding was considered dangerous, whilst others would ride after drinking provided they did not consider themselves to be over the legal BAC limit. Some riders stated that riding when ogdoad Psychological and social factors influencing motorcycle rider intentions and behaviour they were tired was dangerous however, fatigue was not considered a serious safety issue for galore(postnominal) participants.Two further behaviours identified by participants were often associated with their accounts of crash involvement, tho not seen as intrinsically unsafe by most riders. The first of these was the concept of pushing your limits. Most riders interviewed appeared t o enjoy pushing the limits of their ability on a motorcycle. Whilst agreeing that pushing the limits too far was dangerous, pushing them to a tailor that tested a riders abilities was often reported to facilitate safety as this process developed a riders skill.The second behaviour that was often mentioned in connection with crashes was extreme riding (e. g. , performing stunts and riding at extreme speeds). The act of perfecting a stunt was often reported to result in the crashing of the motorcycle, although these crashes were usually accepted as a normal part of the learning process. Once perfected, performing stunts did not appear to be considered an intrinsically unsafe behaviour, unless performed in traffic or other unpredictable situations. A sizable minority of two manly and female participants reported riding at extreme speeds.These riders often argued that they could ride extremely fast, safely, on public roads provided certain conditions were met (e. g. good visibility, nominal traffic, weather, road, and motorcycle maintenance). Study 2 involved 229 energetic motorcyclists who completed a questionnaire assessing their riding intentions and self-reported behaviour the psychological and social factors influencing these intentions and behaviour and their self-reported involvement in road crashes and traffic umbrages over the last two years.The questionnaire was structured nigh the six types of rider behaviour identified as important in Study 1. Key results of this study are discussed below. In order to retrieve an insight into the factors underpinning some(prenominal) safe and risky behaviour, the six areas of interest were operationalised as threesome safer behavioural intentions (i. e. handle the motorcycle skilfully, maintain 100% awareness, not ride impaired) and three riskier intentions which represented more volitional risk-taking (i. e. bend the road rules, push the limits, perform stunts or ride at extreme speeds). hierarchic multiple regression analyses were then performed to assess the influence of different psychological and social factors on these intentions. These analyses indicated that a greater proportion of variance could be explained in the case of the riskier riding intentions R2 ranging from 57% 66% than the safer riding intentions R2 ranging from 22% 36%. The TPB construct of perceived behavioural control (PBC) significantly predicted all three safer intentions, plot of land attitude was a significant predictor of the three riskier intentions.In terms of the social influences, the TPB construct of subjective norm (which assesses the influence of others considered important) proved a comparatively lame predictor of behaviour. However, the measure of specialised subjective norm (i. e. the influence of the people that soulfulness rides with) emerged as a significant predictor of three of the six intentions. Over and above this, a passion for sensation seeking was found to be significant predictor of the three risky intentions. Overall, a similar pattern of results emerged when the self-reported behaviours of the participants were examined.Firstly, while the divers(a) psychological and social variables examined in the study significantly predicted all six behaviours, considerably enceinter amounts of variance were explained for the three volitional risk-taking behaviours, i. e. bend road rules to get through traffic R2 = . 67, push my limits R2 = . 59 and perform stunts and/or ride at extreme speeds R2 = . 69. Secondly, the results were largely consistent with the tenets of the TPB, with intentions proving a significant predictor of all six behaviours. Thirdly, sensation seeking, a large with rider aggression, emerged as a strong predictor of all six behaviours.Indeed, together, these two variables accounted for between 7 20% of additional variance in the six behaviours. Not surprisingly, these two variables accounted for relatively large amounts of additional variance in the ride while impaired R2 ch = . 20 and the perform stunts and/or ride at extreme speeds R2 ch = . 15 variables. Unfortunately, no significant correlations were found between the various measures of intention and behaviour operationalised in Study 2 and the self-reported crash involvement of the participants. It Psychological and social factors influencing motorcycle rider intentions and behaviour ixis possible that this indicates that the six behaviours of interest, in reality, do not have a close relationship with crash involvement. However, this cobblers last does not seem consistent with either the findings of Study 1 or the research evidence reviewed in Chapter 2. More similarly, the findings highlight shortcomings in the sizing of the sample and/or the way that crash involvement was measured in the study. In particular, given that crashes are relatively rare events, crashes were measured over a two year period in order to find that (some) participants would have experienc ed a sufficient number of crashes to facilitate the analyses.However, this raises the porta of recall problems that may have reduced the accuracy and reliability of the data, while the two year period may have been too long to accurately reflect the true intentions and behaviour of the participants. In contrast, the majority of the intention and behaviour measures were found to be significantly correlated with self-reported traffic offence involvement. In particular, significant associations were found between self-reported traffic offences and the three riskier intentions examined in the study (i. e.those relating to more volitional risk-taking, namely, bend the road rules, push my limits and perform stunts and/or ride at extreme speeds). In addition, significant associations were found between traffic offence involvement and five of the six self-reported behaviours examined (the only exception being for awareness errors). These results dont necessarily strengthen the inherent r iskiness of the behaviours examined, since engaging in an illegal behaviour may not always result in a crash. However, they do provide prima facia evidence supporting the validity of the intention and behaviour measures developed in this study.Strengths and limitations of the research This program of research featured a number of strengths. Firstly, it was firmly grounded in theory secondly, it utilised both qualitative and quantitative methods to obtain a broad insight into the factors influencing motorcycle rider behaviour thirdly, the design of the research was informed by input from active motorcyclists and finally, it adopted a balanced approach to motorcycle safety by examining both safe and risky riding intentions and behaviour. Nonetheless, the program of research in want manner had a number of limitations.Both Studies 1 and 2 consisted of participants primarily recruited from confederation East Queensland. In addition, the participants were volunteers who were generally older in age. As a result, the samples used in this research may not be object lesson of Australian motorcyclists in general, but instead reflect a subset of older, primarily recreational, riders. This should be borne in mind when interpreting the results. Furthermore, a number of other potential limitations in the Study 2 questionnaire design emerged during the analysis of the results.These include the way that fatigue was grouped with alcohol and drugs to assess intentions and behaviour relating to riding while impaired and, as noted above, the manner in which crash involvement was measured. Implications of the research At a theoretical level, this program of research has confirmed that the predictive utility of the theory of planned behaviour (TPB) can be substantially improved by the addition of other variables. In particular, this research demonstrated that subjective norm (SN) was a relatively weak predictor of intentions and that the specific subjective norm (SSN) (i.e. asse ssing the influence of those people that someone rides with) performed relatively better as a measure of social influence.Moreover, both sensation seeking and the propensity to ride aggressively proved significant predictors of all six behaviours examined, over and above the TPB and other social influence variables. The findings relating to sensation seeking are consistent with previous research in the traffic psychology area. x Psychological and social factors influencing motorcycle rider intentions and behaviour.However, the results relating to aggression warrant more attention, since this variable proved a relatively stronger predictor than sensation seeking of the error-based behaviours (i. e. handling errors and awareness errors), the ride while impaired behaviour, and the perform stunts and/or ride at extreme speeds behaviour. This suggests that the propensity to ride aggressively has a broader influence on rider behaviour, which is not limited to the more volitional risk-taki ng types of behaviours.At a practical level, this program of research has identified a number of ways to enhance menses motorcycle safety countermeasures, particularly in the area of rider training and education. Most particularly, it has identified a range of psychological and social influences on rider intentions and behaviour that appear to be beyond the scope of current skills-based approaches to motorcycle training and education. Consequently, further work is required to develop and run new approaches to rider training and education that more effectively address the attitudinal and motivational influences on riding, both of a personal and social nature.To advert in this process, this research has undertaken the first steps in the development of the Rider Risk Assessment Measure (RRAM). This tool is intended to act as a means of identifying high-risk riders by assessing their intentions and self-reported behaviour (in relation to both safe and risky riding). While further wor k is required to refine and validate the RRAM, it represents a tool that can be used in a variety of ways to enhance motorcycle safety countermeasures, including informing the design and content of training programs and evaluating the impact of differentinitiatives on rider behaviour.Psychological and social factors influencing motorcycle rider intentions and behaviour xi ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The authors would like to acknowledge the funding support provided by the Australian Government, through the Australian Transport Safety Bureaus (ATSB) Road Safety Research Grants Programme. The development and conduct of this study has involved the contribution of a large number of people.While it is difficult to acknowledge all the individuals that have contributed, the authors would like to thank Mr John Collis from the ATSB for his ongoing advice and support those people who assisted us organise the focus groups, from organisations such as Queensland Transport, Motorcycle Riders Association Q ueensland, Ulysses, and Q-Ride providers force from the Queensland Police Service, particularly the Logan and Brisbane West Districts, who assisted in the distribution of the wing and main questionnaires at various motorcycle eventsThe ongoing support for motorcycle research from Morgan and Wacker Pty Ltd and the assistance of Morgan & Wacker Motorcycle Training Centre, particularly Mr Fred Davies, in the finalization and distribution of the Study 2 questionnaire. xii Psychological and social factors influencing motorcycle rider intentions and behaviour GLOSSARY OF TERMS AND ACRONYMS ABS ATSB BAC Australian Bureau of Statistics. Australian Transport Safety Bureau formerly Federal Office of Road Safety (FORS). Blood Alcohol Concentration.In Australia, the legal amount of alcohol that may be present in the prodigal is 0. 05% if the driver or rider is on an unrestricted licence. It is usually measured either by a police breathalyser or a by a blood test (see also Over the limit). A person who identifies with, and belongs to, an organised criminalise motorcycle ball club. Club members ride motorcycles and often wear jackets with patches which identify the club they belong to (Veno, 2002). A motorcycle enthusiast. May or may not belong to a motorcycle club (Krige, 1995a). Centre for Accident Research and Road Safety Queensland. A study design which collects data on the perceptions or behaviours of subjects at one point in time, as irrelevant to a longitudinal.