Meet Daniil Prokofev, 17, whose safer walking app is being piloted by 14 schools
High school students in Virginia have developed a navigation app called SafeWalkr that prioritizes pedestrian safety over speed. The app is currently being piloted in 14 schools to help students avoid dangerous routes without sidewalks or proper infrastructure.
Why it matters
It highlights a critical gap in mainstream navigation technology that often ignores pedestrian safety, offering a community-driven solution for student commuters.
For most students, getting home from school is a routine journey. For Daniil Prokofev, an eight-mile run home turned into something far more consequential. A route generated by Google Maps sent the 17-year-old along a stretch of Braddock Road without sidewalks, forcing him close to traffic and through shrubbery as daylight faded. What should have been a straightforward trip quickly became a lesson in how navigation apps can overlook one crucial factor: whether a route is actually safe for the person using it. That experience eventually led Prokofev and two classmates at Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology in Alexandria, Virginia, to create SafeWalkr, a walking navigation platform designed with student safety in mind.
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