Cost of two-wheeler road accidents in India.

Economic loss due to traffic accidents is noticeable in India; however, the country lacks research works to estimate the magnitude. This study is an attempt through a Stated Preference (SP) survey to know how users value safety and how much they are willing to pay (WTP) for a safer road facility to reduce the risk of their involvement in road traffic accidents. The survey was conducted for two-wheeler riders of selected roads in Calicut City. Attributes selected for SP experimental design includes travel time, travel cost and traffic accidents per year and Binary Logit model was used to determine the WTP values. It was observed that travel cost, accident rate of the route selected, age, occupation, personal income and number of household members have significant impact on the decision-making process. WTP value of a road accident for a two-wheeler user was found to be Rs 0.53/person/trip.