Estimating the Willingness to Pay of people for using safety equipment among ”motorcyclists by contingent valuation method in Saqqez City

Abstract

Introduction: Helmet use has been introduced as one of the most effective ways to prevent injury and death in motorcyclists. On the other hand, the cost of helmet was declared as an obstacle to use. This study aimed at estimating the willingness-to-pay (WTP) of the motorcyclists in Saqqez to use safety helmet through the conditional valuation (CV) method. Methods: This is a cross-sectional study carried out in 2021 in Saqqez County, Kordestan province, Iran. Sampling was done by twostage clustering through probability proportion to the size. The sample size was obtained to be 570. In order to collect the data, the preliminary questionnaire was designed, and it was administered following the confirmation of its validity and reliability. The data analysis was carried out using Logistic and Logit regression methods using STATA 15. Results: Totally, 510 questionnaires were analyzed. The motorcyclists’ mean age was 31.37 years (SD=8.48). Only 251 individuals (49.22%) had an appropriate license, and about 40% declared that they never use safety helmet. Sight limitation (27.18%) and expensiveness of the safety helmet (29.6%) were amongst the most important reasons for not using helmet. The WTP of the motorcyclists was estimated equal to 3900000 Rials (15/6 US$) using the conditional valuation method. Motorcyclists’ age, helmet use by the motorcyclist friends and the socio-economical status were found significantly correlated with their WTP. Conclusions: The effect of the socio-economical status on the motorcyclists WTP on using helmet highlights the significance of adopting supportive policies in this regard, along with stackholders participation such as private sectors and insurance companies. Moreover, the positive effect of the helmet use by friends on the individuals’ WTP shows that enhancing the general culture of traffic safety can be accompanied by promising results, especially for motorcyclists.