Factors affecting the intention to wear helmets for e-bike riders: the case of Chinese college students

Abstract

As the popularity of electric bicycles (e-bikes) continues to surge, the number of accidents involving them has commensurately increased. A significant factor contributing to the high fatality rate in these accidents is the low usage of helmets among e-bike riders. Helmets have been proven to reduce the severity of injuries, yet their usage remains unexpectedly low. This issue is particularly pronounced among college students, the primary buyer group for e-bikes. Regrettably, there is a lack of research exploring their intentions to wear helmets. Understanding determinants of their intentions to wear helmets is crucial in promoting safe e-bike travel. Therefore, the present study aims to develop an integrated theoretical model that combines the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) and the Health Belief Model (HBM) to examine the factors influencing e-bike riders’ helmet-wearing intentions among college students. Additionally, two variables—descriptive norms and law enforcement—are incorporated. The results indicate that the integrated model accounts for 76% of the variance in helmet-wearing intention, surpassing single-theory models. Specifically, the TPB accounts for 65%, while the HBM explains 53%. Notably, law enforcement emerges as the most influential factor, highlighting the crucial role of enforcing regulations and promoting awareness. Other significant factors include subjective and descriptive norms, attitudes, perceived benefits, perceived susceptibility, perceived barriers, and perceived severity. These findings provide valuable insights for policy development and targeted interventions aimed at improving helmet wear rates among e-bike riders, especially among the college student population.

Keywords:

• Helmet wearing intention
• E-bike
• theory of planned behavior
• health belief model
• integrated model
• college student

Disclosure statement

The authors declare they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Notes

1 The source of these data can be found in The Report on Preventive Driving of Electric Bicycles in China and https://news.hubeidaily.net/pc/989521.html (In Chinese).

Additional information

Funding

This study was supported by the Science and Technology Planning Project of Guangzhou (No. 2023A04J1703). Any opinion, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the official views or policies of the sponsoring organization. These contents do not constitute a standard, specification, or regulation.