Abstract
The purpose of the following research paper is to define how various psychological factors influence motorcyclists’ behavior in terms of safety. Among the concepts discussed, the issues of helmet wearing and exceeding speed limits will be outlined. With the help of peer-reviewed studies on the matter, some motorcyclists’ behavioral patterns will be emphasized. Bearing the information received, the future implications of the studies will be defined for the sake of increasing the efficiency of the researches to come.
Keywords: psychology, helmet safety, speed limit, motorcyclists, behavioral patterns.
The issue of motorcycle driving safety has always been quite significant in terms of road safety investigation. While a while ago, scholars tried to estimate road safety with the help of legal limitations, today it is the psychological background of the matter that matters. The most widespread precedents to motorcycle accidents are neglecting helmet wearing and exceeding the speed limits on the road (Chang et al., 2019). Thus, the purpose of this paper is to analyze which psychological aspects influence such kind of behavior.
To begin with, exceeding speed limits is one of the most dangerous road safety violations, leading to thousands of deaths annually. Thus, the scientists decided to find out why motorcyclists tend to do that in the first place. In the course of the research, it was estimated that the intention to exceed the speed limit on a 90 km/h is caused by the vehicle type and its capabilities (Eyssartier et al., 2017). Hence, the more advanced a motor vehicle one has, the higher the probability he or she will violate the speed limits.
Another important issue is the motorcyclists neglecting the helmet policy while driving. In recent research made among students, it was estimated that after the preventative actions and higher rate of social advertisements promoting helmet use, the frequency of its actual use increased by 95% (Kumphong et al., 2019). Thus, it may be concluded that it is important to constantly promote safe driving even though everyone seems to know it already.
Taking everything into consideration, it may be concluded that there exist a lot of precedents to violate safe motorcycle driving policy. With exceeding speed limits and neglecting helmet use being one of the most widespread reasons for the accidents, it is of crucial importance to pay attention to the psychological aspects of such an attitude. To reduce accident frequency in the future, it is necessary to estimate the framework of communication with drivers in terms of safety.
References
Chang, F., Xu, P., Zhou, H., Lee, J., & Huang, H. (2019). Identifying motorcycle high-risk traffic scenarios through interactive analysis of driver behavior and traffic characteristics. Transportation research part F: traffic psychology and behaviour, 62, 844-854.
Eyssartier, C., Meineri, S., & Gueguen, N. (2017). Motorcyclists’ intention to exceed the speed limit on a 90 km/h road: Effect of the type of motorcycles. Transportation research part F: traffic psychology and behaviour, 45, 183-193.
Kumphong, J., Satiennam, T., Satiennam, W., Inthavongsa, P., & Pramualsakdikul, S. (2019). Motorcycle helmet use and the theory of traffic psychology for behavior change in Lao PDR. International Journal, 16(56), 203-208.