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Traffic Agents

place Oslo, Norway

Want a fun way to get children involved in traffic safety?

A solution that empowers young people and gives them the opportunity to contribute to be involved in community solutions using a student designed app.

HundrED 2018
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Overview

HundrED has selected this innovation to

HundrED 2018

Web presence

2015

Established

-

Children

1

Countries
Target group
All
Updated
September 2017
I received a telephone call from the mother of a little boy who had reported some bushes that meant he couldn’t see when he was crossing the street. And two days later the bushes were cut. She phoned in saying he’s so happy that he could make this happen. I believe that if we as an authority empower the young generation to make change, we build trust and encourage them to become active citizens of the society.

About the innovation

What is The Traffic Agents?

Walking or cycling to school are encouraged to lessen the impact on the environment. However, concerns over road safety meanmany parents can be reluctant to allow their children to do so. Improving road safetyoften requires gathering data, yet few organisations ever thinkto ask children for their views. When children are asked, their parents usually answer for them. The result is that road safety agencies lack important information from students.

The Traffic Agent smartphone app was developed to enable children to capture how they feel when they are travelling to school. The app was designed for children, takingfeedback and suggestions from children, parents and teachers into consideration. Children playthe part of a secret agent on the lookout for challenging and positive locations in their local area, with regard to traffic and pedestriansafety.

If children encounter something unsafe such as heavy traffic or an obstacle on their way to school, they can report it immediately via the app. Children can give an area thumbs up or down and select buttons which explain the problem. They can even send a message with more information.

The data collected by the Agency of Urban Environment is concise and pinpointed and provides the local government with important information for further traffic and mobility planning. Children's data and privacy is protected while the phones are tracked through GPS.

Schools are important partners for the Traffic Agent app and teachers are asked to sign up their classes. Teachers can access the data provided by their own class and can use it in class when teaching traffic security.

The app provides children with a sense of citizenship as they can see the impact they might have on their routes.

Impact & scalability

Impact & Scalability

Innovativeness

This is the first app that gives children a direct say over their own community & road safety.

Impact

Young people are encouraged to become active citizens. They feel empowered to make positive changes and increase community traffic security.

Scalability

The app is currently only available in Norway, where three municipalities have implemented the Traffic Agent into their work but the concept could work anywhere with the right partnerships!

Implementation steps

Spread the Word
The Traffic Agent team actively works to spread the word. They use social media, contact schools, parent groups and media to reach out to the right groups.
Active Discovery
Help spread the word throughout the community.

Active and engaged parent groups that discover the Traffic Agent and want to use the app to map traffic security on their children’s´ school routes. They have parent meetings to inform other parents and they contact the school board to implement it in educational plan.

Planning
Decide how long to use the app and when.

After the parents and the school haveagreed to use the app they decide when to use the app and for how long. This can be a “campaign week or month” where they have extra focus on traffictraining and use the app as an extra tool. It is important emphasize that the app is developed to be used on the way to and back from school so there are no interruptions during the school day.

Agent Codes
Turn students into agents.

Teachers log into a digital learning platform to generate codes for each agent. This is either handed out on paper or sent directly to parents by email.

Campaign Period
Gather information, make walking groups, and help make the community safer!

Parents help their child to log in and by providing them the Agentcode they agree to terms of use. Young studentsnormally use the app on their route to school with an adult.

Teachers have access to their pupils' maps and can decide if they want to use themfor educational purposes or not. The maps can alsohelpestablish groups to walkto school.

The Headquarters checks reports daily and forward informationto the relevant operation departments. The Headquarters also sends a report to the school whereall the important discoveries are discussed so proper measures can be taken.

Spread of the innovation

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