Driving under the influence of stress: Organizational justice, peer commuting norms and unsafe commuting behavior

Commuting-related risk represents an important challenge for transport safety and sustainable mobility. While previous research has linked work-related strain to unsafe commuting, less is known about the broader social and organizational contexts that shape when such strain translates into risky travel behavior. Drawing on the Effort-Recovery Model, organizational justice, and social influence perspectives, this study conceptualizes commuting behavior as a socially embedded form of mobility and examines how contextual cues jointly shape the association between employees' need for recovery and unsafe commuting behavior. Data were collected from employees in a large manufacturing organization at two time points, 18 months apart. Our findings suggest that need for recovery is positively associated with unsafe commuting behavior only when perceived organizational justice is low. Furthermore, this association emerges specifically when both organizational justice is low and referent peer norms are permissive toward unsafe commuting, but disappears when norms discourage risky behavior. These findings advance traffic psychology research by demonstrating that commuting risk is not merely an individual response to strain but a contextually embedded driving behavior shaped by organizational and social influences. The study highlights the importance of considering workplaces and peer norms as influential actors within mobility systems. Practically, the results suggest that interventions aimed at enhancing organizational fairness and strengthening safe commuting norms may offer promising avenues for improving transport safety beyond individual-focused approaches.