Drivers’ attitudes and behaviors toward bicyclists : intermodal interactions and implications for road safety.

Goddard, Tara Beth · 2017 · ROSA P / Portland State University. National Institute for Transportation and Communities

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Summary

This study addresses the critical gap in understanding the social and psychological dimensions of road safety, specifically focusing on drivers’ attitudes and behaviors toward bicyclists. While bicyclist fatalities and injuries are a major public health concern, existing research has largely ignored the intermodal interactions between drivers and cyclists, particularly in the United States. The research posits that automobile drivers pose the greatest risk to bicyclists and that implicit biases and social attitudes significantly influence these interactions. The study aims to systematically explore these dimensions, including implicit bias, stereotypes, and social attitudes, to determine how they predict driver behavior and impact road safety. The methodology involved an online survey of 676 frequent drivers across the United States, administered over six weeks. The survey instrument combined traditional self-report measures with a cognitive test known as the Implicit Association Test (IAT) to measure implicit preferences between drivers and bicyclists. Data collected included demographics, individual travel behavior, built environment characteristics, explicit attitudes, and self-reported behaviors. The analysis utilized factor analysis, bivariate correlations, and regression models to examine the relationships between implicit and explicit attitudes, as well as the predictors of specific safety-related behaviors, such as checking for bicyclists before turning or expressing anger. Key findings indicate that it is possible to measure implicit bias against bicyclists, which is related to but distinct from explicit attitudes. Implicit bias provided additional explanatory power in predicting intergroup attitudes even after controlling for sociodemographics and travel behavior. The study found that personal experience as a bicyclist, particularly for transportation rather than recreation, predicted more positive attitudes and behaviors. Furthermore, implicit bias against bicyclists helped predict a lack of checking for bicyclists before turning, a critical safety behavior. Drivers widely reported feeling pressure to overtake slow bicyclists, a sentiment not significantly related to personal travel behavior or demographics. Negative social attitudes were linked to negative behaviors, such as expressing anger via honking or gesturing. The significance of this research lies in its contribution to traffic psychology and road safety practice. By demonstrating that subconscious biases influence safety-critical behaviors, the study highlights the limitations of relying solely on explicit self-reports. The findings suggest that interventions aimed at improving bicyclist safety must address underlying social cognitions and implicit biases. Understanding these psychological drivers can inform the development of more effective policies and infrastructure designs that mitigate conflict between modes, ultimately enhancing safety for vulnerable road users.

Key finding

Implicit bias against bicyclists predicted negative safety-related behaviors, such as failing to check for bicyclists before turning, even after controlling for explicit attitudes and demographic variables.

Methodology

survey

Sample size: 676

Provenance

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Summary generated by qwen3.6-27b-prismaquant on 2026-06-10; verification: verified.

Topics

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• driver vru interaction
• cyclist safety
• sex gender
• cultural cross national

Information type

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• Empirical Findings: observational prevalence