To lose or not to lose one’s grip? A comparison of psychosocial predictors of risk-taking and accident involvement among French cyclists

Despite the many benefits of cycling, cyclists are particularly vulnerable road users. Fatal and serious injuries limit the development of cycling and can be attributed to several factors, including voluntary and involuntary risky cycling behaviors. This study aims to investigate and compare the role of some psychosocial variables associated with risk-taking in the literature but still little studied among cyclists: general risk propensity, impulsivity, sensation-seeking, descriptive and injunctive social norms towards violations and risky cycling, and perceived legitimacy of cyclists’ traffic rules. Risk perception was also included as a competing variable. A questionnaire was completed by a large sample of French cyclists (N _{after exclusions} = 1,650). Risky cycling behaviors were considered in terms of self-reported frequency of violations, errors, not wearing a helmet, and involvement in past crashes with injuries. Associations between potential predictors, risky behaviors and crashes were first examined using bivariate analyses and then confirmed using multivariate analyses. Finally, mediation analyses were conducted to test indirect effects of potential predictors on past crashes through risky behaviors. The main findings highlight the role of stable individual dispositions (i.e., general risk propensity, urgency feeling as a facet of impulsivity) and more malleable individual perceptions (i.e., descriptive norms, legitimacy of traffic rules) in risky cycling. Injunctive norms and risk perceptions were weakly or not associated with risky cycling. Limitations, perspectives for future research and for the development of evidence-based road safety interventions (e.g., emotion regulation training, campaign highlighting that risky behaviors does not bring the expected psychosocial benefits) are discussed.