Motivating safe street crossings: SMASHY

Abstract

Pedestrian safety is a pressing issue in urban areas. The disorderly sharing of streets and roads between pedestrians and vehicles leads to potentially serious accidents for pedestrians. This project aims to tackle this issue by enhancing traffic lights near crossroads through gamification. SMASHY by Stempe Safety offers pedestrians an amusing and active way to discourage jaywalking. The multipurpose solution features a smashing game with buttons on one side and a screen displaying useful information on the other side. While the traffic light remains red for pedestrians, the module buttons light up and the players can start smashing the buttons as fast as possible, until the light turns green and consequently, the game ends. Ultimately, the modules are connected to an app where, if desired by the player, scores can be tracked and difficulty can vary based on user performance. Multiple modules can be placed around the city and the app will track player scores by location.