Take Care! A single second can take you your life! The use of cell phones on the road is dangerous and people use them. This project focuses on this problems and we created an APP – STOP, to limit the use of these devices by road users.
Tes Idées
Nearly 1.3 million people die every year on roads around the world, and between 20 and 50 million suffer non-fatal injuries. Road accidents are one of the leading causes of death in all age groups, and among people between the ages of 15 and 29, according to a study by the World Health Organization.
Generations known as "digital natives" are developing greater dependence on mobile devices; 20.4% say they couldn't live without a mobile according to an Online Comparison Study. This addiction leads to greater use of such electronic devices in the road context, increasing the risk of being involved in a traffic accident. Also, the high volume damages the structure of the ear and limits the sense of alertness. On the other hand, different ambient noises help users to be more careful and these sounds do not affect hearing.
As stated by Lichenstein "distraction from the use of electronic devices has been coined as 'blindness for inattention', which reduces the resources that the brain devotes to external stimuli". Taking selfies, calling and texting on cell phones when driving increases the likelihood of accidents by four times, according to the World Health Organization (WHO)
We created a questionnaire to understand how people use the cell phone as road user and we got 179 respondents. We started by asking how many hours were spent using the cell phone and 36,3% of the people surveyed use their cell phone five to seven hours per day and this percentage represents the majority of the population. Most of the people (125 answers) take out their phone in the street to answer or make calls and listening to audio content was referred by 64 persons. Reading messages and watching videos are the less frequent activities. The surveyed people use more the cell phone while walking but the results also show a high rate of drivers using the cell phone. Most of the people said that they know the risks of using the headphones a high level and that would be useful an application that help them to change this habit. Our survey showed clearly that people don´t realize the risks they are subjected to when they use the cell phones on the road.
Tes initiatives
We created an app that lblockades the cell phone at a time determined by the user. This application try to raise awareness the people about their role in the street and the danger that can comes with an irresponsible attitude.
This app has specific features, such as: the graduation of sound in the hearing aids and the app allows to make or receive calls or messages, only when the person are using headphones (caller ID), because of some emergency or necesity.
We wanted to share our App with students of our school and others schools in face to face meetings but it wasn’t possible given the pandemic and lockdown. To overcome this obstacle and disseminate our App, we created a video explaining our project and also in this video we mentioned the other APP (Instapik) we developed for cyclists to help them and improve their safety on the road. We recorded a podcast and we made use of our social networks, namely the Instagram widely used by young people. Also we shared STOP with our near contacts, via message and emails.
Finally, we receive some feedbacks from the people around us that helps up to improve our app and our proyect.
