Bologna's Bella Mossa app provided incentives for citizens to travel more sustainably in the city

SRM, Bologna’s public transport authority, wanted to try a new approach to improve congestion and reduce CO2 emissions in the city. Bologna had tried to reduce CO2 emissions before, by banning the use of polluting vehicles during the day, however that approach had been unpopular. They wanted to see if incentives would be more effective than penalties.

Powered by the BetterPoints platform, Bella Mossa, meaning “good job” in English, was designed to encourage fewer single-occupancy car journeys in the city of Bologna through rewards and gamification for travelling by sustainable modes. The BetterPoints system comprises a user facing smartphone app, a digital management platform and client-facing dashboards.

The key aspects of the Bella Mossa scheme were as follows:

• Walking and cycling was tracked and rewarded through a dedicated smartphone app;
• Points were earned for redeeming at local and high-street shops;
• Points were redeemed in-store by scanning a barcode in the phone;
• Strong client partnership was developed with shops and businesses to promote the programme and accept reward points in-store; and,
• Strong client activity in promoting the programme locally.

In 2018, participants could form teams outside the workplace to compete against friends and family, join new monthly challenges, and take part in a special challenge for the summer holiday. SRM also introduced a Schools Challenge in 2018, which pitted local schools against each other to increase engagement.