Factors influencing young drivers’ willingness to engage in risky driving behavior: Continuous lane-changing

Abstract

Young adults have a tendency to drive unsafely and put themselves at a high level of risk. Continuous lane-changing is one such kind of risky behavior. This study aimed to investigate the factors that influence young drivers based on an integrated model of the prototype willingness model (PWM) and the theory of planned behavior (TPB). The validity of the model was evaluated by data collected from 481 young drivers through an online questionnaire. The structural equation model was used to test the proposed model, and the findings indicated that young drivers’ willingness to engage in continuous lane-changing was influenced by attitude, subjective norms, perceived behavioral control, perceived risk, prototype similarity, and prototype favorability. The integrated model of PWM-TPB accounted for 58.3% of the variance in young drivers’ willingness, and the findings possess implications for designing effective interventions.