MOTORIST USE OF SAFETY EQUIPMENT - EXPECTED BENEFITS OR RISK INCOMPETENCE

Seat belts, child safety seats, and motorcycle helmets are not used all the time by all drivers, parents, or riders when they travel. Since the safety advantages of these types of equipment are well established, nonuse could be due to risk incompetence. This article starts instead with risk competence to see to what extent use can be attributed to the net benefits expected by individual motorists. Logit analysis of microdata from the Nationwide Personal Transportation Study shows that use is more likely with larger perceived net benefits for all three types of motorists. They are therefore risk competent enough to respond to changes in net benefits in ways and degrees that are qualitatively and ordinally correct. © 1991 Kluwer Academic Publishers.