Cycling to the University and earning "bikecoin"
Institutional Communication Service
9 September 2021
In the wake of the proposal made to companies by the City of Lugano starting in June 2021, with the start of the new academic year, SUPSI and USI have also decided to join the "Bikecoin" programme, with a pilot phase to encourage their employees to use bicycles for home-work commutes.
The use of public transport has decreased during the pandemic. Heavy road traffic has returned despite the massive use of teleworking, and bicycles have witnessed a rise in popularity (especially the electric version). SUPSI and USI, following their well-established sensitivity in supporting and promoting alternative solutions to the car, have decided to focus on the new model of bicycle incentives proposed by Mobitrends SA. The joint pilot project aims to reward workers who get on the pedals to make their home-work journeys and offers to evaluate the introduction of this new corporate mobility measure in a stable form.
The proposal is also part of the work of the District Plan of Corporate Mobility of Lugano Centro, which has been constantly updated since 2016 by Mobitrends SA on behalf of the City of Lugano, which showed that about a third of workers in the sector live within a radius of 3 km from their place of work. Still, before the pandemic, only 3% of them chose the bicycle to travel to work.
Home-work bike commute rewarded
Through the Mobalt corporate mobility management and promotion app, participants will track their routes with GPS, collecting points (bikecoins) based on the number of trips and kilometres made by bicycle, both electric and traditional, generating rankings at the corporate and inter-company level. Furthermore, as part of the promotion of health and fun, there will be vouchers for activities organised by the internal sports service for those who place at the top of their respective rankings; some vouchers will be raffled off to give all participants a chance to win.
European Sustainable Mobility Week
The initiative launches in the first half of September 2021, emphasising the importance of European Sustainable Mobility Week (September 16-22, 2021). The pilot project ends by mid-December 2021 and will allow for an evaluation of the success of the proposal and its continuation.
Further information
For USI:
+41 58 666 4199
Project Mobalt:
Davide Marconi
Project Chief of MobAlt and partner Mobitrends SA
+41 79 750 92 00