In Florence the more you pedal the more you earn, if you use the bike up to 30 euros a month

Everything credited to the account. The Municipality puts in 1.2 million: 20 cents per kilometer and monthly premiums. Project open to 2,000 members

FLORENCE – The more you pedal, the more good you do for the environment. And the more you earn. The green incentive for the use of bikes in Florence also becomes economical: up to 30 euros per month depending on the kilometers travelled, with the credit arriving directly to your current account. This sort of revolution, which from Monday to Friday will reward home-work, home-school or university trips, but also generic ones, will start on 3 June, World Bike Day, “with the aim to reduce the use of pollution means and promote the health of the air and citizens”, explains the Municipality. Which, for this reason it is one of the pilot projects developed with citizens as part of ‘Florence for the climate’, puts 1.2 million on track for a year, until June 2 2025 strong> . The initiative, aimed at residents and domiciled adults of Florence and its metropolitan belt (Bagno a Ripoli, Calenzano, Campi Bisenzio, Lastra a Signa, Scandicci, Sesto Fiorentino, Signa), in this first phase, however, it will be limited in number: it will be open to 2,000 citizens, the first to register in chronological order starting from 10am on May 13th (even if the Councilor for the Environment,Andrea Giorgio, does not exclude the expansion of the audience in the future).

THE 2,000 WILL BE ABLE TO PARTICIPATE WITH REGISTRATIONS OPEN FROM MAY 13

To participate you need a bicycle, ordinary or with pedal assistance (which is not from the bike sharing fleet) and a current account; you must then download the Pin Bike app, register and enter the question. The first 2,000 will be able to collect the free device that keeps track of the kilometers to be installed on the bike. This is a patented and anti-fraud system for the certification and monitoring of urban routes (the kit consists of Bluetooth hardware which will certify the actual use of the bicycle, as well as a handlebar smartphone holder and signal lights).

Inally, you need to “pedal as much as you can”. And, to give substance to the matter, the criteria by which we can earn something have already been established. Promoting those who make the effort to abandon a polluting means of transport for the bike. In this case, 20 cents will be recognized for each kilometer actually traveled by bike and certified by the Pin Bike system for the home-work and home-school/university journeys; 5 cents for each kilometer traveled on general routes within the Municipality (up to a maximum of 2 euros per day). For those who, however, already use the bike on professional or school trips, the cents per kilometer drop to 15, while they remain unchanged, 5 per kilometre, on every other route (in this case up to 1.20 euros per day). All of this, both in the first and second cases, for a maximum monthly amount that cannot exceed 30 euros.

EVERY MONTH THE RANKING WITH THE MOST ‘ VIRTUOSES WITH 200 MONEY PRIZES

In addition to this, a monthly rewards system has also been designed. Every 30 days, with the points earned thanks to virtuous actions – such as kilometers cycled or participation in events and questionnaires – a competition will be held visible on the Pin Bike app. Complete with a ranking of the top 200: 2 prizes of 100 euros for the winners; then 8 prizes of 50 euros; 40 from 30; 150 from 20. In this case the prizes can be cumulated up to a maximum of 200 euros each.

“It’s a turning point for cycling mobility in the city and a project I’m really proud of because it introduces the idea that those who use the bike not only do themselves a favor, because they save money, time and are good for the health, but it does the whole city in favor and that’s why it will be rewarded”, underlines Giorgio at the presentation of the initiative with representatives of Legambiente, Lama per Firenze per il clima, Firenze ciclabile and Bycs. It is, also adds the councilor for Education and mayoral candidate of the Democratic Party, Sara Funaro, “a very beautiful project. We will send a letter to all the schools because, as a Municipality, we want to install the racks in internal or external spaces, if they need it, to make it even easier for kids to use two wheels. We also want to continue with the work of discussion and awareness on environmental issues that we have been carrying out with schools for years”.