This work week began like many others. I boarded an inbound Red Line train for The Boston Globe’s Dorchester newsroom, where I picked up a car and continued my mundane life as a mere newspaper scribe.

Yet by Tuesday, things were different. As you may have heard, I am no longer Astead Herndon, City Hall reporter. My new title is Boston’s Safest Driver. Feel free to address me as such.

My ascension was rapid. On Monday, Mayor Martin J. Walsh announced “Boston’s Safest Driver Competition,’’ to be judged by an app that grades driving patterns in five categories: acceleration, braking, cornering, speeding, and phone distraction.

The app automatically tracks when a person is in transit — whether on a train, bus, car, or bike — and scores overall safety on a scale from 1 to 100.

Drivers can unlock badges for consistently positive performances, including some that come with kind-of-hip-but-not-really nicknames like “Flow Ridah’’ and “Look Ma, Handsfree.’’ One can also earn points for using public transit and avoiding the roads altogether.

If you must know, 24 hours after Walsh announced the competition, I, Astead, sat atop Boston’s leaderboard with a perfect rating of 100. Never mind the boring details — that I’m tied with more than 30 other people, the username “astead’’ appears at the top only because of alphabetical order, or that the app did not catch my mid-trip text message. Also, pay no attention to the fact that, by the time you read this, I may be knocked off my perch.

Here’s what’s important: Walsh, the mayor’s Office of New Urban Mechanics, and their private partners at Cambridge Mobile Telematics and the Arbella Insurance Foundationset out to find Boston’s best behind the wheel.

And in the immortal words of Adele: Hello, it’s me.

“The point of the contest is self-reflection,’’ said Kristopher Carter, cochairman of the Mayor’s Office of New Urban Mechanics. “It’s not about data collection.’’

The point is also to promote Vision Zero Boston, Walsh’s initiative to eliminate fatal and serious traffic crashes by the year 2030. In this city, where drivers were ranked the worst in a national survey by an insurance company, such efforts are welcomed by pedestrians, too.

Still, the creators of “Boston’s Safest Driver’’ stressed the app is not designed as an algorithmic snitch and will not alert authorities or insurance companies if a driver breaches the speed limit, makes a wide turn, or abruptly brakes. According to Carter, it’s about a “feedback loop,’’ so drivers know the places to improve behind the wheel.

When a colleague, transportation reporter Nicole Dungca, was docked points for playing music during her car ride, the app did not alert her of the error mid-trip. After the ride, Dungca received a 73.8 rating for her drive on the grounds of too many phone distractions.

My condolences, Nicole. I can’t relate.

Hari Balakrishnan, founder of the Cambridge software company, said several factors are used to decide whether to penalize a driver for phone use, including speed, whether the screen is turned on, and how much the phone moves.

At the time of my text message, I was sitting in bumper-to-bumper traffic in Dorchester, so the distraction was probably caught but deemed safe, he said.

Carter said the app’s the algorithm and distraction tracking software will get better with time. “From my own experience, using [the app] the past week or so, it makes me think twice while driving,’’ he said.

I know what he means. A turkey, white cheddar, and spinach sandwich that I packed in the morning sat lonesomely in the passenger seat, because I was nervous to even momentarily remove my eyes from a South Boston road. Red lights felt longer without hip-hop music blaring from my phone. Earlier Tuesday afternoon, instead of accelerating to switch lanes on Interstate 93, I decided to be cautious, despite the ire of the angry driver behind me.

These are thoughts the app intends to encourage, Carter said. Another benefit: The aggregate data can help the city decide where public safety ads can be most effective.

If it “looks like in JP there are more instances of people on the phone while driving, maybe we should have targeted ads in JP,’’ said Carter, who has a 97.1 safe driver rating.

However, Carter did acknowledge a lingering problem: Not everyone is like me, so how can the city encourage speed demons and bad drivers to download an app?

In a perfect world, the mayor’s urban mechanics office hopes some marketing, social pressure, competitive juices, and $9,000 in prize money would do the trick.

“Ideally, after you downloaded it and played it for 24 hours, you would share it with co-workers,’’ Carter said. “Go out and challenge them.’’

Speak for yourself, because I’m unsure whether I can agree to that. More friends means more competition, and I’m enjoying the prestige that comes along with being the safest driver in one of America’s biggest cities.

Sure, some of my colleagues have won international accolades like journalism’s Pulitzer Prize. But just ask anyone who’s named Astead: The title of “Boston’s Safest Driver’’ is the real pinnacle of the profession.

Stoplight — not Spotlight — is coming to a theater near you.

Astead W. Herndon can be reached at astead.herndon@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @AsteadWH.