Emotions and Two-Wheeler Riding: Perspectives of College-Going Youth Riders Seema Mehrotra, Paulomi M. Sudhir, Manoj K. Sharma, Neelima Chakraborty, Rajeev Joseph Michael, Rajesh Kumar and Humera Banu NIMHANS, Bangalore Motorized two-wheeler riders are one among the most vulnerable Indian road users. However, there is limited research on psychological factors that are likely to inluence riding behaviours of youth. The present paper focuses on exploring and documenting emotional states associated with two-wheeler riding in urban Indian youth. The study sampled 1,650 youth, aged between 17-30 years, from 30 educational institutes in Bangalore and Delhi. A Riding Survey developed during the pilot phase was used for data collection. Positive emotional states were commonly reported to be associated with riding and a sense of freedom was one of the commonest factors that were linked to the same, from the perspectives of the youth. Other than commuting, riding for fun (54%) and riding for relaxation (30%), relief from boredom (22%) and getting away from distress (17%) were endorsed as some of the reasons for taking out the two-wheeler.. Seeking a sense of power and control, seeking joy, seeking relief from anger or feeling upset were reported by varying proportions of young riders as some of the reasons for speeding. This exploratory survey highlights an urgent need for addressing the role of emotions in preventive intervention programs that target young two-wheeler riders. Keywords: Aggressive riding, Road safety, Two-wheeler riders, Emotions on roads. © Journal of the Indian Academy of Applied Psychology July 2016, Vol.42, No.2, 272 - 280. A major proportion of motor vehicles on the Indian roads, especially in metropolitan cities comprise of motorized two-wheelers (Singh, 2012). Indian statistics reveal that two-wheeler riders are amongst the most vulnerable road users and get into road trafic injuries very often; these mostly involve young drivers (Dandona, & Mishra, 2004; Gururaj, 2005, 2008). More than one third of fatal and nearly half of non-fatal road trafic injuries involve two-wheeler riders in India and the majority of the injured are in the age range of 20–30 years (Gururaj & BRSIPP, 2011). These igures underscore the need to examine various factors implicated in road-safety of two- wheeler riding in Indian youth. While behavioural factors such as speeding have been widely recognized as some of the key factors in inluencing road trafic accidents (Mehrotra, Sharma &Sudhir, 2008; Dandona, Anil Kumar, &Dandona, 2006), there is a paucity of published research on the same in India, especially with reference to young two-wheeler riders. The role of personality as well as socio- cognitive variables in risky two-wheeler riding was examined in a sample of Italian adolescents (Falco, Piccirelli,Girardi, Corso & De Carlo, 2013). Risk perception emerged as an important mediator between personality, social norms and riding behaviours. In a qualitative study of male motorcyclists from Iran (Bazargan- Hejazi, Zamani-Alavijeh, Hindman, Mohamadi & Bazargan, 2013), it was noted that different kinds of rationalizations were used to justify risky riding such as practical needs, perception of competence, and utility in avoiding road crashes as well as positive experiences such as thrill and peer recognition. An analysis of narrative text from Coroners’ records, based on thirty- four road trafic collision fatalities among young people in England uncovered themes such as social driving, driving experience, interest in motor vehicles, perception of driving ability, and emotional distress (Pilkington, Bird, Gray, Towner, Weld & McKibben, 2014). Negative emotions experienced during driving (e.g. frustration, anger, jealousy, and