Aberrant Riding Behavior of Food Delivery Riders – Model

Abstract

The Aberrant Riding Behavior of Food Delivery Riders Model was introduced by Qian, He, and Shi in 2024 to systematically investigate the factors contributing to unsafe driving practices among food delivery personnel. Specifically, the model aims to quantify the influence of Safety Knowledge on the occurrence of Aberrant Riding Behavior. Furthermore, the framework integrates the mediating roles of Safety Attitudes and Risk Perceptions in this relationship. The instrument, consisting of 31 items, was administered electronically to adult riders across China. The researchers provided comprehensive documentation regarding the scale’s factor structure, strong reliability metrics, and robust validity evidence.

Keywords

Aberrant Riding Behavior, Aggressive Riding, Distraction and Mistakes, Electronic Bikes, Food Delivery Bikes, General Violations, Risk Perception, Safety Attitudes, Safety Knowledge, Transportation Safety, Human Factors Measures.

Authors

Qian, Qian, He, Junyi, Shi, Jing.

Purpose

The primary purpose of the Aberrant Riding Behavior of Food Delivery Riders Model is to provide a standardized, quantitative measure for assessing the prevalence and nature of unsafe and non-compliant riding behaviors exhibited by individuals employed as food delivery riders. Given the high rates of traffic incidents associated with this profession, the scale serves as a critical tool for identifying psychological and cognitive predictors of risk-taking.

Beyond simple assessment, the model is designed for use in academic and policy contexts to understand the underlying mechanisms—specifically the interplay between safety education, behavioral attitudes, and perceived risk—that lead to aberrant riding. This allows for the development of targeted intervention strategies aimed at enhancing Transportation Safety within the gig economy sector.

Construct

The instrument measures several interrelated psychological and behavioral constructs relevant to transportation safety within the context of food delivery operations. The total instrument includes 31 items distributed across various scales and subscales.

• Aberrant Riding Behavior: The primary outcome variable, encompassing deviations from safe and legal riding practices.
• Safety Knowledge (SA): The rider’s understanding of traffic laws, safety protocols, and defensive riding techniques.
• Safety Attitude: Divided into two distinct subcomponents:
  • Safety Attitudes toward Responsibility (SA-r)
  • Safety Attitudes toward Laws (SA-l)
• Risk Perception: The rider’s subjective assessment of the likelihood and severity of traffic hazards, further divided into operational dimensions of aberrant behavior:
  • General Violations
  • Distraction and Mistakes
  • Aggressive Riding

Validity

The scale demonstrated strong evidence of both convergent and discriminant validity, essential requirements for robust psychometric instruments. The researchers employed established statistical methods to ensure the constructs were measured accurately and distinctly.

Convergent Validity: This was confirmed by calculating the Average Variance Extracted (AVE) for all latent variables. All calculated AVE values exceeded the recommended threshold of 0.5, indicating that the individual scale items strongly converged on their intended constructs.

Discriminant Validity: The distinction between the measured constructs was established using the Fornell-Larcker method. This analysis confirmed discriminant validity, as the square root of the AVE for each construct exceeded the correlation coefficients between that construct and all other constructs in the model.

Reliability

High levels of internal consistency and stability were reported across the various scales and subscales of the instrument, confirming its reliability for research application.

Internal Consistency: Measures of internal consistency included both Cronbach’s α and Composite Reliability (CR) values. The Cronbach’s α coefficients ranged from 0.706 to 0.944, while the CR values ranged from 0.836 to 0.934. These ranges indicate excellent to acceptable reliability across all measured factors.

Split-Half Reliability: Further stability was assessed using the Spearman-Brown coefficient for split-half reliability. Specific results showed coefficients of 0.804 for Safety Attitudes toward Laws (SA-l) and 0.821 for a subscale of Risk Perception (RP-p), reinforcing the overall consistency of the measure.

Factor Analysis

The structural integrity of the model was rigorously tested through both Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) and Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA).

Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA): The EFA, which analyzed the safety knowledge, safety attitude, and risk perception scales, determined a valid underlying factor structure. The total variance explained by these factors collectively exceeded 60%. Furthermore, the Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO) measures, which assess sampling adequacy, yielded values between 0.821 and 0.912, supporting the suitability of the data for factorization.

Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA): The validated structural equation model demonstrated a good fit to the empirical data. Key fit indices confirmed the model’s quality: the Chi-square/Degrees of Freedom (DF) ratio was 1.929 (below the ideal limit of 3); the Root Mean Square Error of Approximation (RMSEA) was 0.064 (meeting the criterion of < 0.08); and the Comparative Fit Index (CFI), Incremental Fit Index (IFI), and Tucker-Lewis Index (TLI) were 0.916, 0.917, and 0.904, respectively (all exceeding the threshold of 0.9).

Instrument

Test Type: Original

Format: Items rated on a 5-point Likert-type scale. The administration method was electronic.

Language Available: Chinese (implied by location of administration).

Population Group: Food Delivery Riders (Adults).

Age Group: Adulthood (18+ years), spanning Young Adulthood (18-29 years), Thirties (30-39 years), and Middle Age (40-64 years).

Population Details: Respondents were adults located in China.

Test Methodology: Test Validity, Convergent Validity, Discriminant Validity, Test Reliability, Internal Consistency, Split-Half Reliability, Factor Analysis, Confirmatory Factor Analysis, Exploratory Factor Analysis, Measurement Model.

Keywords

Aberrant Riding Behavior, Aggressive Riding, Distraction and Mistakes, Electronic Bikes, Food Delivery Bikes, General Violations, Risk Perception, Safety Attitudes, Safety Knowledge, Transportation Safety, Human Factors Measures.

Authors

Author ORCID Identifier: Not available

Affiliation Email addresses: [email protected] (Tsinghua University, Department of Civil Engineering)

Correspondence Address: Shi, Jing: [email protected]

Permissions & Fee and Test Year

The scale was published in 2024, based on the reference citation. Information regarding specific permissions for use or associated licensing fees is not detailed in the source material; researchers should contact the corresponding author, Shi Jing, for permission requests.

Reference’s

1. Qian, Q., He, J., & Shi, J. (2024). Analysis of factors influencing aberrant riding behavior of food delivery riders: A perspective on safety attitude and risk perception. Transportation Research Part F: Traffic Psychology and Behaviour, 100, 273–288. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.trf.2023.12.007

The development of the items was informed by prior related studies:

• Wang et al., 2018
• Nguyen-Phuoc et al., 2020
• Jamil et al., 2021

Items of the Aberrant Riding Behavior of Food Delivery Riders-Model

IMPORTANT: The following scale items must be preserved in their original language and must not be changed in any way.

The specific item texts for the 31-item questionnaire were not provided in the source material. Researchers should consult the full published article by Qian, He, & Shi (2024) for the complete instrument text.