Hyderabad: In an attempt to raise awareness about traffic rules among the youth in the city, the Hyderabad traffic police are considering introducing simulator video games themed around traffic rules, at traffic training institutes, officials have said.The initiative, still in its planning stages, is being taken up as police officials said many youngsters are unaware and ignorant about traffic rules, and they believe the games could be a potential solution to rectify that. “While there are some youngsters in the 13-18 age group, who are unaware of even basic traffic rules such as wearing helmets and seatbelts, the most pressing issue is ignorance. These youngsters, who are more than well aware of traffic rules, choose to ignore and flout them. The games will provide a good opportunity to ingrain these rules into their minds and also potentially educate the youth about lesser-known traffic rules,” said Rahul Hegde, deputy commissioner of traffic police-1 (DCP-1).Here is how the games will work: the simulator games will all be racing games centred around traffic rules. Players will win the game not if they finish first, but if they finish the race without breaking any traffic rule, and they will be awarded bonus points for doing so, along with potential incentives, police said.A similar initiative was tried and tested by the Central Road Research Institute (CRRI) in Delhi, where the institute created 350 racing games to spread the word on road safety. “At the end of the day, whether it’s a good thing or bad, the youth in our country today are addicted to gaming and video games. So, keeping that in mind, we used the opportunity to develop racing games on mobiles and did a pilot study on 5,000 children over three months in Delhi,” said Mukti Advani, senior principal scientist at CRRI.She added: “The children were told that they would lose points and miss out on incentives such as free visits to the National Museum if they broke any traffic rule or got into a road accident. The results of the study were encouraging, as most of the children who played the game were able to name the different kinds of traffic violations.”Traffic police officials said the initiative is still in its preliminary stages, and they plan to reach out to corporate companies to develop the game. “The idea is very promising, and we want to implement it. Soon, we will sit down and have a discussion on how best to implement it,” said Joel Davis, joint commissioner of Hyderabad traffic police.
