Avoiding Bike Accidents with Virtual Reality

In Zurich, there are more and more cyclists – and, unfortunately, more and more bike accidents. From 2012 to 2016, the number of accidents rose by 50 percent. In order to raise awareness for the dangers in city traffic, we used an innovative and attractive solution: virtual reality.

Six 360-degree videos let the viewer experience traffic situations through the eyes of a cyclists and thereby learn how to spot danger. The films show typical situations like car doors that open, cars that take sudden turns or trams coming from behind. Experiencing these videos through a virtual reality headsets makes for an almost life-like experience with a high learning effect.

Because children reacted very positive to the virtual reality films, we launched a pilot project in six school classes in Zurich. Traffic psychologists from Zurichs University of Applied Sciences conducted an experiment and found that the VR classes had a positiv effect especially in terms of motivation and spotting of dangers.