Finesse teaches the rules of the road with Game
With the free mobile game «Meet the Street,» the Zurich-based agency Feinheit is helping the Swiss Pedestrian Association promote pedestrian safety in traffic.
Anyone traveling on foot has no protective bodywork around them. Today, every fourth traffic fatality is a pedestrian. In order to increase safety on the road, the Swiss Pedestrian Association is launching a campaign on April 4, 2013, that relies on "gamification" and is aimed specifically at young people. The idea behind this is to use the mechanics of games specifically for awareness campaigns. The free game "Meet the Street" for iPhone and iPad teaches the most important traffic rules in a playful way. With simultaneous control of speeding police cars and shuffling teens with headphones, the game realistically combines the perspectives of pedestrians and vehicle drivers.
According to a statement, Fussverkehr Schweiz is convinced that many of the 2,500 pedestrian accidents that occur each year can be avoided. The trade association, which has been promoting road safety for more than 30 years, is launching a cell phone campaign supported by the Road Safety Fund and aimed in particular at teenagers and young adults. As a high-risk group, they are involved in accidents more often than average and are difficult to reach with conventional road safety campaigns.
In contrast to the popular computer game "Grand Theft Auto," "Meet the Street" does not award points for recklessly running over pedestrians. The game rewards when collisions are avoided and pedestrians reach their destination safely. From a bird's eye view, the player simultaneously slips into the role of pedestrians and vehicle drivers. In real time, it must be decided who has the right of way in the traffic jam. The journey leads from quiet country roads to small towns and ends in the chaos of the metropolis. In the game, braking distances of tractors, trucks or streetcars as well as the behavior of pedestrians have to be assessed realistically.
