European project shared 4 business: Bergamo Smart City

The council of Bergamo established the organisation "Bergamo Smart City and Community".

With 480 thousands of inhabitants, Bergamo aims to a smart development of its territory, facilitating the process of technological transformation of: technology transfer, energy efficiency, info-mobility and innovative solutions in computing. The goal of the association is to develop actions and initiatives based on collaboration between businesses, institutions, finance and citizens to create a solid network to increase the occupation, sustain the economic activity and improve the territory attractiveness.

The association Bergamo smart city won the first part of the project "two steps" shared for business.

The "shared spaces" are an innovative paradigm for urban mobility, in which specific areas (of limited dimension) in the city are converted in shared spaces for all the people that use the street (pedestrians, drivers, cyclists etc). In these spaces the physic barriers and road signs are removed: in this way pedestrians, cyclists and drivers can share the same space. Then people can "manage" by them-self the interactions with other people.

With this new type of road cars will slow down and the road safety will increase. Similar examples led positive outcomes in other north european cities. 

The project defines guidelines and innovative approaches to establish an alliance between shopkeepers, pedestrians and cyclists to support the diffusion of shared spaces and then increase the usage of pedestrian mobility and cycling. 

In addition the association presented SPAC3 (smart services for the new Public administration for the citizen centricity in cloud): a laboratory for the social inclusion and the urban wellness for the activity of sustainable improvement, governance, technologic and social innovation for the construction of Bergamo Smart City.

There was also a initiative made by Bloomberg Philanthropies, called Mayors Challenges, a competition to inspire cities to generate innovative ideas that solve major challenges and improve city life. Bergamo wanted to transform unused spaces in so-called "hub", places where young and old people can meet and bring back to life old crafts.