Social Psychological Determinants of Bicycle Commuting in Russia: An Empirical Examination of the Model of Goal-Directed Behavior

This paper reports on the outcomes of verification of Perugini and Bagozzi’s model of goal-directed behavior, according to which determinants of bicycle commuting include one’s intention to behave this way, perceived behavioral control and frequency of past behavior, and the individual’s intention is, in turn, influenced by attitudes, perceived social approval and emotions associated with this behavior. The model was tested on a sample of 814 subjects living in several regions of Russia (av- erage age 31 years, 70.6% males) using a survey. The scales of social psychological determinants were translated and adapted from the surveys used in previous studies. Confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling confirmed the initial hypotheses only partially. It was proved that positive attitudes, perceived social ap- proval, expected positive emotions and frequency of past behavior result in greater desire to commute by bicycle; and that this desire and frequency of past behavior positively affect the subjects’ intention, whereas perceived behavioral control (i.e. perceived difficulties with behaving this way) affects their intention negatively. In contrast to our expectations negative emotions and perceived behavioral control don’t seem to predict desire to commute by bicycle. The paper puts forward and ex- plores some new hypotheses on possible reasons for the absence of such correlations in the Russian context.