An interactive app for motorcyclists wins a prize, showing them dangerous situations

22/11/2022Press releases

The interactive app for motorcyclists, which introduces the risks of real road traffic, received another award; it was ranked third among all national digitalisation projects of public administration in the Czech Republic. The award is announced annually by the Egovernment Magazine. The Road Safety Team has been working on the app for four years together with the Association of Driving Schools of the Czech Republic and other partners. In the development they also used their own experience from teaching motorcyclists.

An interactive app for motorcyclists wins a prize, showing them dangerous situations

"We are improving the teaching and testing process in driving schools and this is one way to help. The European and global trend is to include such interactive videos in teaching, so we are on the right track. It is advisable that the application be perceived as a methodological and educational tool and that the public have access to it," says transport minister Martin Kupka.

"The aim of the Hazard Perception app is to improve the process of teaching and testing drivers. Very fresh drivers as well as those who simply want to improve. The European and world trend is to include interactive videos in teaching, so the intention was to create an application that will be perceived as a methodological and educational tool and will be freely accessible to the public," says Stanislav Dvořák, Director of the Driver Agendas Department of the Ministry of Transport.

The Ministry of Transport has placed the application on the E-tests portal where driving school students are also educated. There is a lighter version on the resort's website for beginner motorcyclists, too. The Učme se přežít (“Learn to Survive”) website contains a more comprehensive version designed not only for experts. Access is of course free of charge. The trend for virtual learning was started a few years ago in the UK. "The topic of risk perception is the most frequently discussed topic in recent times in the field of improving traffic safety in all developed countries," says Jan Polák, Director of the Road Safety Team.

The application is based on the principle of a game. In this game you ride a virtual motorbike and discover risky places and dangerous behaviour of other road users. The "player" watches the ride and clicks into the picture when he/she thinks the situation is dangerous. The video stops for five seconds and the participant has time to indicate a specific hazard.

After completing the ride, you can run the route again, but this time without interaction. The programme will indicate the risks and add an assessment, including a justification. "The way we explain the risks, give advice on how to prevent them and how to comply with the law makes us a world leader in this field. No other app has this function yet," says Jiří Novotný, one of the app's creators and the chief instructor of the Road Safety Team.

One of the situations in the application looks as follows. The Motorcyclist is driving through a residential area. He's keeping the speed limit. There are a lot of people everywhere and he needs to be very vigilant. He's watching what's going on around him. A young man is walking on the left side of the road, watching something on his phone. After a few metres a car reverses quickly into the road and a teenager on a skateboard approaches in the opposite direction. The motorcyclist is almost at the end of the residential area. Suddenly, a small child rushes out from behind a block of flats into the road, running after the ball without looking around. Even such a situation can be experienced when driving the motorbike.

The Hazard Perception training videos were technically integrated into the eTests application by the state enterprise CENDIS. He modified the app and divided the educational videos into two sections: one on hazards inside municipalities and one outside municipalities.

The Award for the most interesting achievement in the digitalisation of public administration is a competitive collection of the most interesting projects, announced annually for the last 17 years by the Egovernment magazine. Its aim is to collect and show projects that have been (or are being) implemented in state and public administration in a given year and can be an inspiration for others.

Foto: Pixabay