Inclination to speeding and its correlates among two-wheeler riding Indian youth

Concerns about road safety have been increasingly associated with two-wheeler riding and especially with young commuters in India.

The study was designed to explore inclination to speeding and to profile the driving behaviors in two-wheeler riding young men and women who reported a tendency to ride faster than their peers.

A cross-sectional survey design was used.

On the basis of three focus group discussions and review of literature, a survey was prepared to tap domains such as affect states associated with riding/speeding, factors contributing to speeding, inclination for competing, perceived speed and safety, etc. The study sample comprised of 961 two-wheeler riding college-going young men and women in Bangalore.

Descriptive and inferential statistical procedures were used including Chi-square, Spearman's rank correlation, and independent sample t-test.

The sample was divided into two subgroups on the basis of self-report of greater speeding than one's peers. A subgroup of 349 participants endorsed the item regarding inclination to ride faster than one's peers, whereas, the remaining 612 participants did not endorse it. The profiles of these two subgroups were obtained in terms of sociodemographic variables, riding behaviors, and associated domains. Significant differences between the subgroups emerged on domains such as motives for riding fast, tendency for competing, perceived safety and frequency of minor accidents while riding.

Several correlates of the tendency to speeding among young two-wheeler riders emerged that have implications for enhancing safe riding.