Exploring the relationship between socioeconomic and delivery factors, traffic violations, and crashes involving motorcycle couriers

Abstract

Motorcycles generally provide urban deliveries in Brazil because of their flexibility and speed. However, there is limited knowledge about how motorcycle courier activities relate to road safety, which hampers public policy development to improve motorcycle activity. This paper explores the relationship between socioeconomic and delivery factors, traffic violations, and motorcycle courier crashes. Declared data from motorcycle couriers in Belo Horizonte (Brazil) was obtained from a web-based survey. A Tobit model was estimated to identify the relationship proposed by the analysis involving traffic violations and crashes. Findings showed that the motorcycle driving experience has a negative impact on the frequency of traffic violations and crashes. Moreover, the traffic violation incident rate is 1.153 times the crash incident rate. Age, motorcycle driving experience, daily working hours, and informal employment contracts influence the frequency of traffic violations. On the other hand, the motorcycle driving experience, elementary school education, high school education, and the number of traffic violations reported by the respondents influence the frequency of crashes. Effective legislation and intensive enforcement can inhibit the non-conformity behaviour of motorcycle couriers. In addition, training, labour rights, and raising awareness of safety hazards can improve their quality of life.