Transportation Bella Mossa (Good job) - Eco rewards in Bologna

[Ian Sutton]

An interesting experiment, making sense for locals rather than tourists, but the effect would hopefully be good for us tourists as well. For a big city, Bologna has certainly made a lot of effort to combat pollution.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/stories-45940844/the-city-that-gives-you-free-beer-for-cycling

 

[joe]

Indeed interesting and I read about this while researching our Bologna trip three months ago.
I'm attaching a link to an additional article that supplies a bit more info on the development of the idea and statistics. Apparently a survey done after an initial pilot experiment in 2017 showed that 80 per cent of the trips made replaced car trips. Still, it would be interesting to get real-life numbers on the amount of people who changed their habits in adopting the system. A new report summing up 2018 by BetterPoints, the company behind the system, is supposed to be published soon.

Another interesting point - and this relates to the psychology of economics or sustainability - is that if indeed relatively many changed their mode of getting from place to place because of an incentive scheme, what does this say about the willingness and motives of people to adopt changes for environmental benefits? And I wonder how exactly the rewards are being subsidized or paid for.
Another question is how do the algorithms know how to identify cheating - riding on a Vespa, say, instead of on a bike?

https://www.betterpoints.ltd/page/case-study---bella-mossa

IAC, Bologna certainly appeared to us as a pedestrian- and bike-friendly city. We loved walking around there. Here are two shots from our trip :

 

[Ian Sutton]

Hi Joe
They did mention GPS tracking in the article, and given how that can pick out Strava (cycling) cheats, I suspect it would be pretty reliable.
Regards
Ian