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

  • CurbFlow looks at PUDO in Washington, DC
    July 4, 2019
    The District Department of Transportation (DDoT) in Washington, DC is working with CurbFlow to carry out the next phase of its kerbside pick-up and drop-off (PUDO) programme. DDoT says the programme allocates kerbside space for PUDO activities, allowing passenger and commercial loading to occur at the kerb and out of travel lanes. Jeff Marootian, DDoT director, says: “By exploring new kerbside management options through this partnership with CurbFlow, DDoT is able to keep traffic flowing, maximise effic
  • MaaS Market London takes practical view of MaaS technology
    March 1, 2019
    Practical applications of new and developing technologies in the transport sector will dominate the agenda at the fourth MaaS Market conference taking place in London on March 20-21. City authorities, transport operators and senior tech industry presenters will discuss their direct experience of participating in Mobility as a Service (MaaS) projects while addressing issues such as data exchange, payment systems, interoperability and political accountability. These will include Lauri Suokannas of Taksi
  • Kapsch integrates Smart Cities’ mobility
    September 29, 2017
    Kapsch TrafficCom will use the 2017 ITS World Congress Montréal to showcase its integrated mobility solutions for the smart cities and connected communities of the future. Visitors to the company’s booth will experience how Kapsch uses intelligent traffic technologies to improve the way people live, work, move, commute, and interact with each other.
  • Trump calls on Congress to produce $1.5tn bill for infrastructure
    February 1, 2018
    President Donald Trump has announced a plan in his State of Union to push Congress to approve a $1.5tn (£1.05tn) scheme which he described will “build gleaming new roads, bridges, highways, railways, and waterways across our land.” A report from the American Road & Transportation Builders Association revealed that 54,259 of the nation’s bridges are rated structurally deficient with Americans crossing them 174 million times a day. The president added that every Federal dollar should be leveraged by