Exploring the Associations of Rider Age and Experience on Motorcycle Injury Crash Risk: Evidence from A Case-Control Study

Motorcycle riding offers travel options, freedom, and thrill to road users. However, motorcyclists are more vulnerable to a substantially higher risk of crashes and severe injuries than motorized users. Understanding the factors contributing to motorcycle crash risk, especially rider age, experience, and training, is essential for developing effective safety measures. This study explores the relationships between these variables and motorcycle crash risk to identify potential safety interventions. Rider age, experience, and training can account for a substantial portion of the risk. Using a unique and comprehensive matched case-control database of the Motorcycle Crash Causation Study, this study analyzes the dependencies of injury crash risk on riders’ age, inexperience, and training levels while controlling for other factors, such as alcohol use by the rider. The data consists of 350 cases (injury crash-involved riders) vis-à-vis 700 controls (similarly-at-risk non-crash-involved riders). Based on a conditional logit analysis accounting for the matched case-control structure of the data, “risk curves” are created to understand the relationships between rider age and injury crash risk. Results suggest that younger riders have a heightened injury crash risk, which reduces with increasing age. Each additional year is associated with a 3.31% reduction in the odds of an injury crash - although a non-linear specification is also tested. Each year of rider experience is associated with a 2.69% reduction in the odds of an injury crash, and participation in training programs during recent years is associated with lower crash risks.