Willingness-to-pay for road safety improvement

Few studies have explored, to date, the issue of the monetary valuation of non-fatal injuries caused by road traffic accidents. The present paper seeks to raise interest in this question and to estimate, by contingent valuation, French households’ willingness-to-pay (WTP) to improve their road safety level and reduce their risk of non-fatal injuries following a road accident. More precisely, a Tobit and a type-II Tobit model were estimated to identify factors for WTP. The results highlighted the significant positive influence of injury severity on WTP. Experience of road traffic accidents seemed to play an important role, positively influencing valuation of non-fatal injury.