Estimating willingness to pay for motorcycle helmet and its determinants through contingent valuation method.

Background: Helmet use has been introduced as one of the most highlighted strategies for preventing death and injury in motorcyclists. On the other hand, the cost of the helmet was introduced as a barrier to use. This study aimed at estimating the willingness to pay (WTP) of motorcyclists in Saqqez to buy and use safety helmets through the contingent valuation method (CVM).

Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted in 2021 in Saqqez County, Kurdistan Province, Iran. Sampling was performed by two-stage clustering through probability proportion to the size. The sample size was 570. A preliminary questionnaire was designed and administered for validity and reliability approval. Data analysis was carried out through linear regression models using STATA 15.

Results: In total, 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 approximately 40% declared that they never used a safety helmet. The mean WTP was estimated to be 3900000 Rials (15/6 US$) through CVM. Motorcyclist age, helmet use by the motorcyclist friends, and socio-economic status were found to be significantly correlated with their WTP.

Conclusions: The effect of socio-economic status on motorcyclist WTP highlights the significance of adopting supportive policies in this regard, along with stakeholder participation from the private sector and insurance companies. Moreover, the positive effect of helmet use by friends on individuals' WTP shows that improving the general culture of traffic safety can be accompanied by promising results, especially for motorcyclists.