Relationship Between Motorcyclists’ Attitudes, Behavior, and Other Attributes With Declared Accident Involvement in Europe

Abstract

Objective: The objective of this study is to investigate patterns of road safety attitudes and behaviors of motorcyclists in Europe on the basis of the results of the pan-European questionnaire-based survey SARTRE-4, carried out in late 2010 in 18 European countries and Israel. In addition, we attempt to explore the link between attitudes, behaviors, and other motorcyclist attributes with motorcyclist involvement in accidents in the past 3 years, in which someone, including the rider, was injured and received medical attention as stated in the motorcyclists’ responses.

Methods: The various components of motorcyclist attitudes and behaviors such as reasons for driving a motorcycle, driving while impaired, perceived risk factors, and risk-taking behavior were determined by means of a principal component analysis (PCA) on 38 variables contained in the survey. A binary logistic regression model was then applied in order to link the attitudes and the stated behavior with the declared involvement in past accidents.

Results: The results revealed 8 components. Component 1 (driving while impaired and speeding accident factors), component 2 (motorcycle benefits), component 3 (perceived risk of maneuvers), component 4 (sensation seeking), component 5 (road, vehicle, and environmental risk factors), component 7 (no modal options), and component 8 (attitudes toward drinking and friends’ drinking) are associated with stated preferences and attitudes, whereas component 6 (dangerous and angry behaviors) is associated with stated behavior. Moreover, it was found that motorcyclists who tend to have dangerous attitudes and behaviors as well as younger motorcyclists are more likely to have been involved in an accident. It was also showed that driving exposure is positively associated with increased probability of a past accident.

Conclusions: The findings of the study provide some insight into the association between attitudes, behaviors, and declared past accident involvement. Furthermore, the analysis of such large databases with the inclusion of many different countries constitutes a step for further research in the field of motorcyclists’ behaviors and safety.

Supplemental materials are available for this article. Go to the publisher's online edition of Traffic Injury Prevention to view the supplemental file.

Keywords:

• motorcyclists
• attitudes
• behavior
• past history accidents
• principal component analysis
• logistic regression

Acknowledgments

This research received funding from the European Commission under grant agreement no. TREN/09/SUB/E3/ 229/SI2.544555/SARTRE-4. The opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and not of the European Commission.