A fleet of red and black e-bikes is ready to color the streets of Foggia and connect its strategic points. ‘Let’s Fò’ is the name of the new bike sharing service created and managed by the autistic girls and boys of iFun, in collaboration with the University of Foggia and the supermarket chain “La Prima – Mercati di Città”.
‘Let’s Fò’ was designed for the 14,000 people including students, teachers and technical and administrative staff of the University who live, study and work in Foggia. Every day, these people frequent the classrooms and other spaces of the 7 Departments located in different areas of the city, in addition to the residential, sports and administrative services distributed throughout the urban fabric according to the multipolar system that characterizes the University. And it is precisely this multipolar system that makes ‘Let’s Fò’, with its widespread network of e-bikes, an essential service for improving sustainable mobility in the city.
‘Let’s Fò’ – which was born thanks to the project “A tutto no gas!”, one of the three Apulian projects supported by Fondazione Con il Sud, as part of the call for sustainable mobility in the South designed to promote a new culture of mobility with alternative choices to the use of private cars – has the support of the Puglia Region and the Municipality of Foggia and aims to promote sustainable and inclusive mobility in the city. ‘Let’s Fò’ will be officially presented in Foggia next Wednesday 3 July at 10.30 in Piazza Cavour, at the entrance to the pedestrian area of Via Lanza.
In addition to Maurizio Alloggio, founder and president of iFun, the presentation will be attended by the mayor of Foggia, Maria Aida Episcopo, the vice president of the Puglia Region, Raffaele Piemontese, the Rector of the University of Foggia, Lorenzo Lo Muzio, and the administrator of the “La Prima – Mercati di Città” supermarkets, Luigi Giannatempo. From that day, registrations for the bike sharing service will begin, open until all authorizations are available. The service will be free until Sunday 22 September. Subscribers will be able to preview the service and provide valuable feedback for its improvement.
“The name chosen to characterize the bike sharing service and pedal-assisted bicycles ‘Let’s Fò’ – explains Alloggio – it is a play on words that pushes for the zero-emission movement and, echoing the popular football incitement «’za Fo’», aims to represent a piece of the civic rebirth sought by the Foggia community.”
On the eve of the start of this experimental phase, the project was illustrated to the new regional councilor for Transport, Debora Ciliento, and to the vice-president of the Puglia, Piedmontese Region.
At the end of the meeting which took place in the offices of the regional departments of the headquarters in Via Gentile, in Bari, the regional transport councilor underlined how the project represents a model to be replicated throughout Puglia: “It’s important to point out – said Ciliento – how this project carries forward the concept of sustainability in its broadest sense: that of sustainable mobility, because it promotes the use of bicycles in the city, but also that of social sustainability, since it was conceived by the iFun association and will be managed by young people and autistic girls, giving them the opportunity to enter a working context. I am very happy to underline how the transport sector, which with Local Public Transport is at the service of citizens and aims to improve not only the connectivity of places but also the liveability of cities, is able to encourage social cohesion”.
The entity responsible for the «Let’s Fo’» project is Ghenos, a type A social cooperative with experience in the management of social-health, training and lifelong learning services. It was created by iFun, an association for the social promotion of families with autistic people, founded in Foggia in 2013. For the operational management of the service, Chara was established, a type B social cooperative created specifically to introduce people into the world of work. fragile, with physical, mental or social disadvantages. Among these, iFun’s autistic children will have the opportunity to acquire skills and work autonomy.
The spin-off of the University of Foggia “Io fare futuro” – born from the “iDO – Io Faccio Futuro” project, also supported by Fondazione con il Sud – will deal with research and monitoring of processes linked to the service “Let’s Fo'”, collecting data and information useful for optimizing the service and measuring its impact on mobility and the quality of life in the city.
With ‘Let’s Fò’, Foggia takes an important step towards a more sustainable and inclusive future. A project that demonstrates how collaboration between public and private bodies and third sector associations can give rise to innovative and concrete solutions to improve the quality of life of citizens.
