Accident Analysis and Prevention 62 (2014) 79–86 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Accident Analysis and Prevention journal h om epage: www.elsevier.com/locate/aap Injury severity in delivery-motorcycle to vehicle crashes in the Seoul metropolitan area Younshik Chung a , Tai-Jin Song b , Byoung-Jo Yoon c,∗ a The Korea Transport Institute, Goyang 411-701, Republic of Korea b North Carolina State University, Raleigh NC 27695-8601, USA c Incheon National University, Incheon 406-772, Republic of Korea a r t i c l e i n f o Article history: Received 21 February 2013 Received in revised form 23 August 2013 Accepted 30 August 2013 Keywords: Delivery service Delivery motorcycle Vehicle-to-motorcycle crash Injury severity Ordered probit model a b s t r a c t More than 56% of motorcycles in Korea are used for the purpose of delivering parcels and food. Since such delivery requires quick service, most motorcyclists commit traffic violations while delivering, such as crossing the centerline, speeding, running a red light, and driving in the opposite direction down one-way streets. In addition, the fatality rate for motorcycle crashes is about 12% of the fatality rate for road traffic crashes, which is considered to be high, although motorcycle crashes account for only 5% of road traffic crashes in South Korea. Therefore, the objective of this study is to analyze the injury severity of vehicle-to-motorcycle crashes that have occurred during delivery. To examine the risk of different injury levels sustained under all crash types of vehicle-to-motorcycle, this study applied an ordered probit model. Based on the results, this study proposes policy implications to reduce the injury severity of vehicle-to-motorcycle crashes during delivery. © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction Compared to other countries, the number of restaurant business industries relative to the population is rather large in South Korea (hereafter referred to as ‘Korea’). Especially among livelihood-type restaurant businesses, the competition is quite high: 7 times that of the US, and 2.2 times that of Japan (www.kosis.kr). The livelihood- type businesses consist of simple labor such as food, lodging, and retail with low value-added activities and high competition that is characteristic of business with a low barrier to enter the market. The current status of the livelihood-type restaurant business has led to an increase of competitiveness through fast delivery service as well as enhanced taste (www.kosis.kr). In addition, the so-called ‘quick service’ restaurant industry has affected the delivery industry of goods and documents. The quick service delivery requires high speeds on congested roads and easy accessibility on narrow ones. Accordingly, the use of motorcycles for delivery purpose is perceived by the industry to be the best mode of transportation, particularly because of their relatively easy accessibility and low cost of travel, especially in the Seoul metropolitan area with its highly congested roadways as well as a comparatively high portion of narrow alleys. As a result, the number of Korean motorcycle registrations rose to 1.9 million in ∗ Corresponding author. Tel.: +82 32 835 8778; fax: +82 32 835 4939. E-mail addresses: bjyoon63@incheon.ac.kr, bjyoon63@gmail.com (B.-J. Yoon). 2012 (www.dmc.co.kr). Among these, only about 17% of motorcy- cles are used as a personal transportation mode for commuting or leisure, whereas 40% are for food delivery and 16% are for door- to-door delivery service of goods and documents. To sum up, the total motorcycle registration related to delivery service makes up 56%. 1 As the statistics indicate, motorcycle usage in Korea is differ- ent from that of underdeveloped countries, where the motorcycle is used as a major transportation mode, and from that of developed countries, where it is mostly used for leisure. As mentioned above, its purpose is for fast delivery and high accessibility, so motorcy- clists in the delivery industry often commit traffic violations during delivery such as improperly weaving through traffic, crossing the centerline, driving over the speed limit, violating traffic signals; moreover, they frequently drive without helmets in order to save delivery time (Kim and Ki, 2008). Motorcycle crashes in Korea are about 5% of the total road traffic crashes, whereas the fatality rate is about 12%, which is higher compared to the total road traffic fatalities. Most of these fatalities are related to the quick service industry and the analysis of the delivery service related motorcycle crashes can be the basis to formulate policies in order to reduce the fatalities. With this background, the objective of this study is to analyze differences in injury severity in crashes between delivery-purpose motorcycles 1 Although there are no exact statistics, delivery motorcycles in Korea are gener- ally purchased by the associated business proprietors and used only for their delivery service. 0001-4575/$ – see front matter © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.aap.2013.08.024