Abstract
In recent years, the increasing rate of road crashes involving cyclists with a disproportionate overrepresentation in injury statistics has become a major concern in road safety and public health. However, much remains unknown about factors contributing to cyclists’ high crash rates, especially those related to personal characteristics. This study aims to explore the influence of cyclist personality traits and cycling behaviors on their road safety outcomes using a mediated model combining these constructs. A total of 628 cyclists completed an online questionnaire consisting of questions related to cycling anger, impulsiveness, normlessness, sensation seeking, risky cycling behaviors, and involvement in crash-related conditions in the past year. After the psychometric properties of the employed scales were examined, the relationships among the tested constructs were investigated using structural equation modeling. The results showed that cyclists’ crash risks were directly predicted by risky cycling behaviors and cycling anger, and the effects of cycling anger, impulsiveness, as well as normlessness on crash risks, were mediated by cycling behaviors. The current findings provide insight into the importance of personality traits in impacting cycling safety and could facilitate the development of evidence-based prevention and promotion strategies targeting cyclists in China.
Highlights
The respondents ranged in age from 15 to 59, and 78.0% of them were aged between 25 and 44 years
The results showed that cycling anger, impulsiveness, and the endorsement risky cycling normlessness were significantly positively correlated to riskyalso cycling behaviors, thecycling risk of Besides, cyclists who had aand higher level of impulsiveness reported moreand risky being involved in crash-related conditions cycling behaviors and behaviors
The results indicate that cycling anger increases the occurrence of crash-related circumstances through impelling cyclists to engage in more risk-taking behaviors and adds to crash risk in a direct manner
Summary
Cycling is recognized as an efficient way of improving health and has the potential to tackle obesity, diabetes, and physical inactivity [1,2]. As a mode of transport, cycling is advantaged over motorized transportation in terms of environmental benefits such as zero emissions of greenhouse gas, decreased noise pollution, and reduction of traffic congestion [3]. Given the broad public health benefits, cycling has been promoted extensively worldwide in the last few decades. With the growing prevalence of cycling, risks associated with this mode of transportation, especially road crashes involving cyclists, have emerged as a noticeable concern for global public health agencies and practitioners [4]. Cyclists suffer from a heavy burden of road crashes with a disproportionate overrepresentation in traffic injury statistics [5], especially in low and middle-income countries [6]. According to the statistics of World Health Organization [7], pedestrians and cyclists represented 26% of road fatalities all over the world in 2016, with over 40 thousand cyclists falling victim to fatal road crashes just in one year
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