The influence of motives on risky behavior in traffic: Comparison between motorcyclists and passenger car drivers

Motorcycle riders represent one of the most endangered groups of traffic participants. It is important to determine which factors influence the increased number of motorcycle deaths in relation to other categories of participants, especially automobile drivers. Motives are often related to risky behaviour in traffic, therefore this paper examines the influence of motives on risky behaviour of motorcyclists and passenger car drivers. The study was based on questionnaire examination that included 144 motorcyclists and 144 passenger car drivers from Serbia. The questionnaires measured their motivation and risky behaviour, while they also collected socio-demographic data. The main objective of the study was to determine the difference between the motivation and risky behaviour of motorcyclists as opposed to passenger car drivers, as well as to determine the motives that are responsible for their risky behaviour. The general research results show that, due to the existence of analyzed motives, riskier driving is more pronounced in motorcyclists than drivers of passenger cars. Based on the analyzed motives, we can explain 35.3% of the variance in risky behaviour of passenger car drivers and 61.6% of the variance in risky behaviour of motorcyclists. The motive Social influence ( beta = -0.35, p