Characterizing the effects of contributing factors on crash severity involving e-bicycles: a study based on police-reported data

Abstract

Mitigating e-bicycle crash occurrence has become a great challenge across the world. It is of paramount importance for improving traffic safety to characterize the relationship between e-bicycle crash injury severities and contributing factors. This study positions itself at clarifying the roles of the factors in e-bicycle crashes from time, space, road, environment, rider and object characteristics. The partial proportional odds (PPOs) model as well as its elasticity analysis was employed to identify the influences based on 15,138 police-reported e-bicycle crashes in Shangyu District of Shaoxin City, China. The results evidenced that there were 12 factors having significant effects. Especially, the results emphasized the greater influences of rider gender, age, object hit and road type. Their maximum of the absolutes of elasticities was greater than 24%. Increased crash severity was associated with females, younger riders, and higher speed collisions. However, the remaining significant variables had minor effects (no more than 10%). The findings provide meaningful insights for advancing e-bicycle development, when making related policies and prioritizing safety countermeasures.