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Light Drizzle Fog/Mist The buzz about Beehive
New app rewards drivers for not checking their phone
East Rockaway resident and entrepreneur Vince Roth was troubled by what he saw as an increasing and dangerous problem on Long Island roads — distracted driving.
As the father of two young children, he said that he feared for their safety as cell phones become more and more prevalent. “Their safety is kind of always on my mind,” Roth said. “When you’re driving around, you see it constantly, from young people and older drivers. They’re constantly on the phone, talking on a call, sending a text, changing their music. Whatever they’re doing, they’re not paying the attention they need to be.”
Roth said he wanted to find a way to keep drivers focused on the road rather than on their screens. He thought of a way to do that while talking with his friends John Fiorita and Eric Redline two years ago.
“It really wasn’t anything huge,” he recalled. “We were in my backyard, just sitting around and chatting, and the problem of distracted driving came up. We all have young children, so it’s a safety issue in all our minds. We wanted a way to take what can be so alluring about phones — social networks, things like that — and use it to cut down on distractions.”
That night, the trio began working on Beehive, an app that creates a social network of drivers and rewards them for not using their phones while driving. Every driver who registers is paired with a sponsor — a person they are familiar with, such as a parent, relative, friend or teacher — who pledges to reward the driver if he or she reaches a mile total without using a phone.
“As you drive using Beehive and don’t use your phone, an odometer measures how far you’ve traveled,” Roth explained. “After you finish your trip, simply press ‘End Route’ on the app, and those miles will be logged. If the driver tries to use their phone in any way while driving, all miles for that trip are lost.”
As of now, Roth said, there is no way to offer a reward using the app itself. Instead, drivers must trust their sponsors to follow through on their promises. That may soon change, however.
