Explaining Sex Differences in Motorcyclist Riding Behavior: An Application of Multi-Group Structural Equation Modeling

Seasonal variations and temporal instability of motorcyclist injury severity in Cambodia: Analyses based on a random parameter logit model with heterogeneity in means and variances

Motorcycles are a prevalent mode of transportation in countries like Cambodia that experience distinct rainy and dry seasons. However, the safety concerns associated with motorcycling in this region have not been thoroughly investigated. This study addresses this research gap by examining the severity of motorcyclist injuries in Cambodia, considering the potential variations across seasons and the fluctuations in contributing factors over time. Utilizing a random parameter logit model with heterogeneity in means and variances, the research analyzes motorcycle crash data from 2015 to 2017 to identify heterogeneities in the determinants of injury severity. The study confirms seasonal variations and temporal instabilities in influential factors, highlighting the need for distinct modeling for dry and rainy seasons due to varying contributing factors. Key findings include the consistent increase in fatal injury risk associated with head-on collisions and elderly rider involvement across both seasons. During the rainy season, motorcycle-to-motorcycle crashes significantly heighten the likelihood of severe injuries, with weekend crashes more likely to result in fatalities. Furthermore, more than half of speeding incidents during the rainy season consistently led to fatal injuries across all three years. In contrast, during the dry season, riders faced a greater risk of severe injuries compared to pillion riders, with crashes on national roads more likely to lead to fatal outcomes. Temporal stability tests further reveal that the influence of external variables on motorcyclist injury severity varies across years, stressing the need for tailored, season-specific approaches to effectively mitigate and prevent crashes.

Effects of the source of information and knowledge of dengue fever on the mosquito control behavior of residents of border areas of Yunnan, China

BACKGROUND

Strengthening the mosquito control measures undertaken by residents of an area where dengue fever is present can significantly decrease the spread of this disease. The aim of this study was to explore the effects of the source of information and knowledge of dengue fever on the mosquito control behavior of residents of areas at high risk of this disease to determine effective ways of enhancing this behavior.

METHODS

A survey was conducted via face-to-face interviews or questionnaires between March and May 2021 in three regions of the province of Yunnan, China. The survey included basic information about the respondents, the source(s) of their dengue fever information, the level of their dengue fever knowledge, and the measures they had implemented to control mosquitoes. Principal component analysis was used to extract the main components of the sources of information. Correlation analysis and structural equation analysis were used to explore the impact of the sources of information and residents' dengue fever knowledge on their mosquito control behavior.

RESULTS

Publicity achieved through mass media, including official WeChat accounts, magazines/newspapers, poster leaflets, television/radio and the Internet, had a direct effect on dengue fever knowledge and mosquito control behavior, and indirectly affected mosquito control behavior through dengue fever knowledge. Organized publicity campaigns, including information provided by medical staff and through community publicity, had a direct effect on dengue fever knowledge and indirectly affected mosquito control behavior through dengue fever knowledge. The residents' level of dengue fever knowledge had a significant, positive, direct effect on their mosquito control behavior.

CONCLUSIONS

Mosquito control is an important measure for the prevention and control of outbreaks of dengue fever. An effective source of information can improve the level of dengue fever knowledge among residents and thus enhance their mosquito control behavior.

Fractures of the Lower Extremity after E-Bike, Bicycle, and Motorcycle Accidents: A Retrospective Cohort Study of 624 Patients

Electric bicycles (e-bikes) have gained enormous popularity in recent years, and as a result, they have successively become more involved in traffic accidents. The aim of the present study was to assess differences in severity and localization of injuries to the lower extremities after accidents with e-bikes, conventional bicycles, and motorcycles. A retrospective cohort-analysis of patients who sustained traumatic accidents with two-wheeled vehicles transferred to a level 1 trauma center in Switzerland was performed. We assessed patient demographics, injury pattern, and trauma severity (ISS), with a subgroup analysis of outcomes stratified by vehicle. In total, 624 patients (71% male) with injuries to the lower extremities after bicycle (n = 279), electric bike (n = 19), and motorcycle (n = 326) accident were included. The mean age of all assessed patients was 42.4 years (SD 15.8), with a significantly higher age in the e-bike cohort (p = 0.0001). High-velocity injuries were found significantly more often in the motorcycle and e-bike group. The motorcycle group had a significantly higher mean ISS (17.6) than the other groups (p = 0.0001). E-bike accidents produce a different injury profile to the lower extremities compared to motorcycle or bicycle accidents. Higher age, higher velocity, and different protective equipment seem to have an impact on these fracture patterns.

Applying multilevel analysis and the Driver Behavior Questionnaire (DBQ) on unsafe actions under a road safety policy

The aims of this research are: to investigate and develop a multilevel analysis of unsafe actions or risky behaviors; to study the influence of road safety policy factors on risky behaviors; and to analyze personal characteristics that influence risky behaviors. Data were collected using 1,474 samples from locations countrywide at the district level, including 76 clusters, via the Driver Behavior Questionnaire (DBQ) and road safety policy. The results indicate that, for the district-level model, the participation factor directly and negatively influenced risky behaviors, and government support indirectly had a negative impact through participation. Thus, people's participation in the area caused a decrease in unsafe behaviors. Meanwhile, safety policy support in the area partially caused people to participate at a significant level. At the personal level, income, having a driver's license, past violations, and past accidents significantly affected risky behaviors, especially having a driver's license, which had a negative influence. This meant that people who had a driver's license facilitated a positive effect in terms of decreasing risky behaviors, while people with past violations and past accidents influenced this situation positively. The more traffic law violations and accidents the participants had, the more they engaged in unsafe actions. Based on the findings, acknowledging and solving the problem of unsafe driving at a spatial level can address the issue by supporting different measures to help people in the area improve the situation. In addition, we should assist people who have a driver's license by offering them useful training to decrease traffic law violations and inform them about accidents.

Influence of Psychological Perspectives and Demographics on Drivers’ Valuation of Road Accidents: A Combination of Confirmatory Factor Analysis and Preference Heterogeneity Model

Property damage and loss from road traffic accidents are a major concern in developing countries; thus, studies on accident damage in such countries may include more latent factors. This study aims to examine the effect of psychological perspectives and sociodemographic status on drivers’ willingness-to-pay (WTP) for road accident risk reduction, using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and the random parameters multinomial logit model with heterogeneity in means and variances (RPMNLHMV). The CFA results from interviews with 1650 car drivers in Thailand demonstrate that concepts of the theory of planned behavior and health access process approach are key factors for describing drivers’ behavioral intention and WTP. The RPMNLHMV results indicate that drivers’ demographics affected drivers’ WTP to reduce road accidents, and psychological perspectives were also found to have an influence on WTP. The results also reveal unobserved characteristics that could affect drivers’ WTP. The study concludes that ignoring unobserved heterogeneity in studies on WTP to reduce road accidents can lead to biased results and neglect important influential factors. The methodological approaches applied herein offer another layer of insight into unobserved characteristics in road accident valuation. These findings could be used to provide relevant authorities practical insights for policy development on road accident mitigation and road safety education programs in accordance with drivers’ characteristics.

The Causal Pathway of Rural Human Settlement, Livelihood Capital, and Agricultural Land Transfer Decision-Making: Is It Regional Consistency?

Despite the increasing interest in understanding the mechanism of household livelihood decisions to increase household livelihood welfare, the combined role of livelihood capitals and human settlements in livelihood decisions is unclear. Therefore, in this paper we carried out extensive empirical research to explore the causal pathway between human settlements (including infrastructure, public services, and social governance) and livelihood capitals (including human, natural, physical, financial, and social capitals) on agricultural land transfer, taking employment choices as an intermediary factor. On this basis, this study analyzed the regional differences in the decision-making mechanisms of agricultural land transfer behaviors in eastern, central, and western regions of China through a multi-group structural equation model. The results demonstrated that capital accumulation can directly increase the possibility of agricultural land inflow (β = 0.130, p < 0.01), but can indirectly reduce the dependence on agricultural land by stimulating non-agricultural employment (β = −0.613, p < 0.01). The improvement in human settlement promotes the agricultural land inflow (outside the western region) and indirectly enhances the willingness to enter into agriculture. The employment choices play a significant mediating role by strengthening the livelihood capitals and weakening human settlements. To achieve the intense agricultural development and sustainable development of rural areas, the improvement of both rural human settlements and household livelihood capitals should be considered.

A Focus Group Study to Explore Risky Ridership among Young Motorcyclists in Manipal, India

Road crash injuries have emerged as a significant public health issue in many low and middle-income countries in recent years. In India, motorized two-wheelers comprise 70% of the vehicle population and are considered the most vulnerable road users. Road crash injury is common among the young-aged population leading to premature deaths. It is essential to understand risky riding behaviors to develop accurate, evidence-based risk reduction programmes that fit the target population’s characteristics and the intervention setting. The current study aims to improve the understanding of the typical characteristics of motorcycle crashes among young riders in India, primarily focusing on the prevalence and role of risky riding behaviors. Five focus group discussions with eight to ten participants in each group (N = 35) were conducted in Manipal, in the Karnataka state of Southwestern India. A thematic analysis was completed using MAXQDA software to identify, analyze, and report on themes within the data. Speeding, riding under the influence of alcohol, and the poor maintenance of motorcycles were indicated as leading causes of crashes. Furthermore, using mobile phones while riding, violations of the traffic rules, and helmet non-use were identified as other risky behaviors among young riders. Future research can be taken up in other settings for the target population. Generational awareness with the involvement of young riders, government authorities, university officials, and the Regional Transport Office can be initiated. Engaging young riders, government authorities, university officials, and the Regional Transport Office through behavioral interventions such as persuasive communication techniques, an active experimental approach (such as the use of a simulator), and regulating the licensing procedure can reduce the number of road crashes.

A Comprehensive Review on the Behaviour of Motorcyclists: Motivations, Issues, Challenges, Substantial Analysis and Recommendations

With the continuous emergence of new technologies and the adaptation of smart systems in transportation, motorcyclist driving behaviour plays an important role in the transition towards intelligent transportation systems (ITS). Studying motorcyclist driving behaviour requires accurate models with accurate and complete datasets for better road safety and traffic management. As accuracy is needed in modelling, motorcyclist driving behaviour analyses can be performed using sensors that collect driving behaviour characteristics during real-time experiments. This review article systematically investigates the literature on motorcyclist driving behaviour to present many findings related to the issues, problems, challenges, and research gaps that have existed over the last 10 years (2011-2021). A number of digital databases (i.e., IEEE Xplore®, ScienceDirect, Scopus, and Web of Science) were searched and explored to collect reliable peer-reviewed articles. Out of the 2214 collected articles, only 174 articles formed the final set of articles used in the analysis of the motorcyclist research area. The filtration process consisted of two stages that were implemented on the collected articles. Inclusion criteria were the core of the first stage of the filtration process keeping articles only if they were a study or review written in English or were articles that mainly incorporated the driving style of motorcyclists. The second phase of the filtration process is based on more rules for article inclusion. The criteria of inclusion for the second phase of filtration examined the deployment of motorcyclist driver behaviour characterisation procedures using a real-time-based data acquisition system (DAS) or a questionnaire. The final number of articles was divided into three main groups: reviews (7/174), experimental studies (41/174), and social studies-based articles (126/174). This taxonomy of the literature was developed to group the literature into articles with similar types of experimental conditions. Recommendation topics are also presented to enable and enhance the pace of the development in this research area. Research gaps are presented by implementing a substantial analysis of the previously proposed methodologies. The analysis mainly identified the gaps in the development of data acquisition systems, model accuracy, and data types incorporated in the proposed models. Finally, research directions towards ITS are provided by exploring key topics necessary in the advancement of this research area.

Empirical comparison of the effects of urban and rural crashes on motorcyclist injury severities: A correlated random parameters ordered probit approach with heterogeneity in means

In Thailand in 2016, more than 70% of all deaths due to road accidents were motorcyclist deaths. This study uses a correlated random parameters ordered probit model with heterogeneity in means (CRPOPHM) to obtain insight into differences in the significant factors determining the severity of motorcyclist injury between motorcycle crashes in urban and rural roadways, using data on motorcycle crashes in Thailand from 2016 to 2019. Using a rating system for injury severity level from minor injury to severe injury and to fatal injury, a wide range of potential risk factors are considered, including rider characteristics and actions, roadway characteristics, environmental and temporal characteristics, and crash characteristics. The findings indicate that, although some factors are significant in both urban and rural models, factors such as male rider, illegally overtaking, drowsiness, four-lane or wider highway, flush or depressed median, road on slope, weekend, nighttime with light, crash with van or minibus, and rear-ending or sideswiping crash, are significant only in the rural model, whereas the factors barrier median, occurring between 18:00 and 23:59, and striking a passenger car are statistically significant in only the urban model. These findings further suggests that difference in effect of unobserved characteristics could be seen in different crash locations, and splitting the model estimation between both location types could be done to develop effective guidance for policies to mitigate the severity of motorcyclist injuries. In addition, practical policy-related recommendations drawn from the results of the analysis are provided. With respect to methodology, the proposed CRPOPHM method outperforms lower-ordered models in terms of statistical fit and captures unobserved heterogeneity to a greater extent.