Skip to main content

Bologna rewards ‘green’ travel with free beer

Travellers in the Italian city of Bologna are being incentivised to give up their cars with the offer of beer, ice cream or cinema tickets. An anti-pollution initiative rewards people who cycle, walk or take public transport. A hundred local businesses have signed up to the programme – called Bella Mossa (or ‘Good Job’) - to give away discount vouchers, the BBC reports. Funded by the European Union and Bologna’s local government, Bella Mossa runs for six months of the year. Users download an app, log thei
November 1, 2018 Read time: 2 mins
Travellers in the Italian city of Bologna are being incentivised to give up their cars with the offer of beer, ice cream or cinema tickets.


An anti-pollution initiative rewards people who cycle, walk or take public transport. A hundred local businesses have signed up to the programme – called Bella Mossa (or ‘Good Job’) - to give away discount vouchers, the %$Linker: 2 External <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-16"?><dictionary /> 0 0 0 link-external BBC reports false https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p06pjwck false false%>.

Funded by the European Union and Bologna’s local government, Bella Mossa runs for six months of the year. Users download an app, log their sustainable journeys and exchange the points they receive for goods.

Points are based on distance travelled, with a GPS tracker ensuring people are using the mode of transport which they say they are. You can only log four ‘green’ journeys per day – which means you have to keep using the app over time to build up points.

Urban planner Marco Amadori set up Bella Mossa in 2017 to make sustainable transport attractive: “For the first time we have been able to involve all people,” he said. “Everybody will have the possibility to change a car trip into a bike trip or into a bus trip and be able to get some discount for his good behaviour.”

Last year the app recorded 3.7 million sustainable journeys in Bologna, with 16,000 reward vouchers claimed, says the BBC’s Amelia Hemphill.

Related Content

  • Volvo Group Venture Capital invests in wireless electric charging
    January 17, 2019
    Volvo Group Venture Capital has invested in Momentum Dynamics – a company which provides wireless charging technology for commercial electric, connected and autonomous vehicles (C/AVs). Per Adamsson, vice president at the Volvo subsidiary, says: “High capacity charging up to 300 kW for trucks, buses, construction equipment, industrial and marine applications will support the electrified transition.” Wireless electric charging is expected to allow any vehicle to automatically connect to the electrical
  • Oslo intros green grants for home-to-work travel
    July 2, 2019
    The city of Oslo has unveiled a grant scheme allowing private companies in the Norwegian capital to develop projects that promote climate-friendly travel between home and work. The city says the Climate and Energy Fund can provide grants up to 50% of the total cost of the measure with a maximum amount of NOK 250,000 (£23,000) per company per year. It is available for travel between home and the workplace and business trips to and from the workplace during the working day. The grant will only be availabl
  • Flir and Traficon track cyclists
    May 21, 2012
    Flir has teamed up with Traficon to develop automatic detection for cyclists using thermal imaging. The two companies have jointly developed a thermal video solution that meets all federal and state guidelines for tracking cyclists throughout the approach to an intersection.
  • Webinar - 9th ITS European congress and exhibition
    April 22, 2013
    Take a walk through the conference programme for the 9th ITS European Congress in Dublin, and the new app that will guide you through the programme and around the convention centre. Eric Sampson, senior congress programme adviser, will take you through the programme and highlight sessions and events , as well as tips of where and when you have to be to get the most of the ITS European Congress 2013. The congress team will introduce you to this year's congress app, available for iPhone and Android, which wil