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Web apps / This mobile app highlights street crime which might concern the walker

The Road Buddy web app created by Hasan Haque, developer at mobile marketing agency Movement, has won the coveted Yahoo! Grand Prize at Yahoo! Hack Europe: London.

Road Buddy is designed to make traveling by foot safer. The app works on Firefox OS and shows users safe routes to walk through so that they can reach their destination by avoiding crime hotspots.

It queries police crime statistics to display street level crime data on a Google Maps mashup. Using this information, the app suggests alternative routes to walk based on your current location and final destination, so that you can avoid high crime areas and have a safer journey to your intended destination.

It even features an emergency trigger that enables you to alert a trusted friend (and lock your phone) if you get into trouble.

Hasan Haque, technical lead at Movement, comments: “It was an exhausting but terrific weekend. The Movement team and I worked hard to create something that everyone could use.”

The Yahoo! Hack Europe: London attracted 230 attendees from a record 18 countries, who submitted 44 hacks. In addition to the Grand Prize, Road Buddy won second prize in the Firefox OS category.

Kaustav Bhattacharya, head of technical delivery at Movement, also comments: “The best apps are useful as well as creative. Road Buddy has real potential because keeping safe while walking, especially late at night in urban areas, is something we all need.”

Anil Patel, Head of global YDN outreach and community management at Yahoo!, adds: “The Yahoo! Hack Europe event in London was incredibly successful and Road Buddy was a worthy winner.”

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