Abstract:
The past few decades have seen exponential increase in motorcycle usage especially in developing countries due to affordability, and lower travel times. There was a 371% increase in motorcycles only in Pakistan from 2005 to 2015. Despite several benefits, motorcyclists are at high risk of crashes and severe injuries due to their higher vulnerability, instability, unsafe rider behavior, and lack of motorcycle-oriented infrastructure. To understand the association of the lightly researched and most prevalent risk factors (i.e., female pillion rider, female pillion veil types, and types of speed breakers) with self-reported injury severity in motorcycle crashes, an extensive survey was designed and conducted for 400 random riders in the major cities of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (Pakistan). Both fixed and random parameter-ordered Probit models were applied where the latter captures potential unobserved heterogeneity. The random parameter model outperformed indicating significant evidence of variation in the effects of black color helmets and the use of turning signals by riders across the respondents. Our findings indicate that the risk of major injury crashes increases by 12.51%, 20.65%, 0.43% and 19.21% if a female pillion rider has a sideway posture that imbalance the rider, or wears a shuttlecock, a rider has a higher overtaking speed or wears a black helmet, respectively. Conversely, the use of full-face or modular helmets, the use of turning signals by riders, and frequently traveled roadways with rubber speed breakers reduce the chances of major injuries in motorcycle crashes. Notably, black color helmets increase the severe
injury risk at night that can be reversed due to the presence of streetlights as per the finding in this study. For practical implications, please refer to the thesis.
