We are delighted to announce that our partnership with the Italian city of Bologna has been shortlisted for the Dear Future Social Innovation Award. Our joint Bella Mossa programme uses the BetterPoints app and management system to reward citizens of Bologna for using their cars less.
Bella Mossa is a six-month programme with SRM, Bologna's transport authority, funded by the European Empower project. Like many major cities, Bologna struggles to manage traffic congestion and its side effects. SRM wants to find ways of reducing the number of motorised vehicles used for journeys such as commuting, visiting the city and travelling to festivals.
‘There are almost 60 cars for 100 inhabitants here in Bologna,’ says Giuseppe Liguori, European Project Manager at SRM. ‘We want to decrease this kind of ownership of cars but also we want to decrease the use of private motorised vehicles.’
In the past, the approach has been to penalise people for using cars, which didn’t always go down too well. The Bella Mossa approach is to use positive incentives instead, and it seems to be working.
'A lot of people are talking about this campaign and we are very satisfied with the level of engagement,' says Giuseppe.
Dear Future is a week-long festival of conferences, exhibitions, showcases and networking in Tilburg in The Netherlands in September. It culminates in the Dear Future Awards, in which the five nominated initiatives will pitch to a public audience. There are two prizes: one for the winner choses by a jury panel and one for the winner chosen by the public.
Voting is open, so please do cast a vote for Bella Mossa!