The road less travelled: A route choice experiment focusing on the safety of food delivery riders

Abstract

This study investigates the aspect of food delivery riders' safety against crashes, focusing on route choices within urban areas. The rise of online food delivery platforms has highlighted the role of delivery riders, yet their safety concerns remain underexplored. The research utilizes stated preference experiments and tests two nudging strategies: 'information nudging,' providing riders with crash probability data for route safety, and 'monetary incentives,' offering extra compensation for choosing safer routes. The descriptive findings reveal that riders are mostly young, male, and less educated. The Multinomial Logit (MNL) model results reveal the impact of nudging strategies on route choices, with information nudging influencing riders to opt for safer routes, and monetary incentives motivating reconsideration for those choosing shorter and less safe routes. Post-processing calculations yield valuable indicators, including the 'Value of Risk Reduction' and 'Willingness to Accept,' providing insights into the trade-offs riders make between travel time and safety nudging strategies.