Public transport in Naples sucks, let’s improve it!

I grew up entirely in Naples, with only one desire: a scooter!

This is because it would have allowed me to stay with friends, go somewhere outside my neighbourhood, meet new people, do cooler stuff. This was not possible using public transport because it was all but reliable, comfortable, safe and well-connected.

I believe this is a vicious circle: the worse the public transport service is, the fewer number of people use it, the lower the funds for the service to improve. How can we get out from this?

It was 2015 and I answered: data!

Imagine having structured info about people flows: where they are headed, when the traffic is higher/ lower, how they interact with multiple means of transportation (tube, tram, bus, circumvesuviana…). This would allow to predict the best routes, and flex them day by day according to needs: it rains? maybe less people go to the shopping district and more need a way to get to work dry (avoiding walking, biking, scootering).

The idea behind NapoliCares was a reward program for people providing info about their journeys and needs: the more minutes you wait (e.g. at the bus stop) the more points you earn. The message was Napoli cares, apologizes for the delay with reward points and promises you to use your data to improve its services.

I entered a startup competition with that and went all the way toward the final pitch. 5 minutes speaking with all my enthusiasm, faster than light. Judges were overwhelmed and the core message didn’t pass.

Lessons learned

• You need a team to make things real
• Judges might be biased, you gotta deal with it
• Pitches look easy but are hard as shit