Riding Risk: Factors Shaping Helmet Use Among Two-Wheeled Electric Vehicle Riders in Fuzhou, China

With the rapid increase in the number of two-wheeled electric vehicles, the number of accidents related to them has also greatly increased. However, despite facing a huge threat from accidents, the helmet, an efficient and legally required protection for riders, is not popular with Chinese two-wheeled electric vehicles riders. To study the factors affecting helmet use for these riders, this paper conducted an observational study to collect helmet use data for 16,207 two-wheeled electric vehicle riders in Fuzhou, China. With these data, this paper built a multivariate logistic regression model to study the main effects of various factors on helmet use, and analyze the interaction effects of these factors. Results showed that, on the one hand, area, weather, temperature, controller, separated non-motor-vehicle lanes, time, rider’s age, and type of vehicle had significant effects on helmet use and the interaction between these factors is significant, especially the interaction between weather, temperature and other factors. On the other hand, level of service, gender and whether the riders are food delivery workers have no significant impact on helmet use, but show significant interaction effects with other factors.