L'observatoire Data & Créativité by iligo

Blindmeters

OVK/PEVR, also named Parents of Children Killed in Traffic Accidents, is an association founded in 1994 in Belgium when various parents banded together in their mutual loss.

Texting and driving is dangerous. We still do it, though. Because ‘it’s just a quick text message’, just a ‘little post on Facebook or Snapchat, or Whatsapp…
In order to change that behavior, OVK/PEVR wanted to literally let people experience how many meters they are actually driving blind when they are sending a “quick message”. Because even though most people know, nobody really realizes how many meters they are really missing.”

In partnership with Happiness Brussels, OVK/PEVR has launched Blindmeters.com, a website that turns Google Maps into a text editor and allows people to type on any road.
The user can choose the road they are used to and the speed limitation of the road they are typing on, they type a message.
The site will stretch the message to the exact amount of meters the user will be “driving blind” when typing the message, and show it on Google Map.

The website combines a special algorithm and data from different map sources which allows us to render text along roads on top of satellite imagery. One source is used as the primary visual layer for the map, another source allows the site to use the geometry data of the roads, together with speed limits and other important data to be able to “write” on these roads.
The font in the website is custom made for the purpose of being able to dynamically stretch.