SafeLane: A Creative Leap Into App Development
Creativity has always been my compass — from custom paint to music to film. Now, at 42, it’s led me somewhere new: my first app.
This summer, I asked myself a different question: What could I build that actually helps people?
The answer became SafeLane App — a road safety tool that lets drivers anonymously report dangerous behavior on the road and see risk areas on a public map.
I went from concept → design → development → launch in just in 5 weeks. I had zero experience with app development before this, but I dove in, learned as I went, and built something real. The launch promo even has an original jingle I wrote, screen captures of the app, and footage I produced — all my worlds colliding in one 41-second piece.
And yet… what I thought would be the finish line was really just the halfway mark. Submitting an app to the App Store turned into its own saga: multiple rebuilds, design tweaks I couldn’t ignore, version numbers climbing (I’m already on 1.0.4), and the patience-testing wait of Apple’s review process. Each step forced me to push further, polish harder, and keep showing up when it would’ve been easier to quit.
What I didn’t expect was how much the review process would shape the app. Apple’s feedback pushed me to strip away anything that could risk privacy. The Notes field? Gone. Exact timestamps? Gone. Precise GPS? Replaced with approximate, grid-snapped coordinates. Every photo is blurred on-device before upload, all metadata is stripped, and every report is just a behavior tag plus a blurred image anchored to a generalized hot spot. I even had to fight through the gauntlet of configuring in-app purchases properly — something I completely underestimated at first. What started as me just trying to “get approved” turned into building something sturdier, clearer, and more responsible.
It hasn’t been easy. The last month felt like a pressure cooker: 3 a.m. mornings, version after version, rejections that hit hard, and the grind of learning things I never thought I’d touch — from Apple’s Vision framework to RevenueCat entitlements. But every setback became part of the build. SafeLane is no longer just my first app — it’s proof that I can take an idea with no roadmap, fight through every obstacle, and make it real.
I don’t know how SafeLane will be received — and that’s part of the excitement. The hope is that it grows into something sustainable, but even if it doesn’t, getting here already feels like a win. If people use it and it creates even a little more accountability on the road, that’s icing on the cake.
I’ve built cars and trucks, songs, films — and now software. SafeLane is just the next chapter. Whatever comes next, I know I can take an idea, chase it with everything I’ve got, and put it in the world.
Search SafeLane App in the Apple App Store or download here 👇
