Bergamo (Italy):
bringing smarter logistics to a historic city
Bergamo is a historic mid-sized city where urban logistics must adapt to a unique combination of heritage preservation, commercial activity and limited public space. Every day, deliveries compete with residents, visitors and local businesses for access to streets that were never designed for modern freight operations.
Within NEXTLOGIC, Bergamo explores how Smart Loading Zones and Digital Twin technologies can make curbside space more flexible, efficient and responsive to real demand. The pilot also investigates how charging infrastructure for electric freight vehicles can be integrated into urban logistics, supporting the city’s broader transition towards climate neutrality.
A historic city facing modern logistics challenges
Bergamo’s urban structure is defined by the contrast between the UNESCO-listed Upper Town and the vibrant commercial Lower Town. While this historic character gives the city its identity, it also creates significant challenges for freight transport.
The medieval street network, steep topography and limited loading infrastructure in the Upper Town make deliveries difficult to manage, particularly during busy commercial periods. In the Lower Town, freight activity is instead linked to commercial streets, shopping areas and more dispersed curbside demand, where loading/unloading operations interact and compete with parking, retail accessibility and everyday urban mobility flows. At the same time, the city already benefits from important foundations for sustainable mobility, including restricted traffic zones (ZTLs), policies encouraging electric mobility and incentives supporting greener urban logistics.
Understanding demand, reducing misuse and balancing the different needs of freight operators, businesses and citizens are therefore central objectives of the pilot.
The NEXTLOGIC pilot
The Bergamo pilot focuses on the Lower Town, where commercial activities and parking demand generate constant pressure on curbside space. NEXTLOGIC investigates how existing loading and unloading zones can become more flexible and better adapted to changing urban needs. The pilot analyses how these spaces are currently used, identifies operational bottlenecks, and tests a dynamic management approach supported by real-time monitoring.
Digital Twin technologies help simulating different operational scenarios before implementation, allowing the city to assess how different curbside management strategies affect logistics efficiency, traffic conditions and public space allocation.
Alongside Smart Loading and Unloading Zones, the pilot evaluates how electric vehicle charging infrastructure can be integrated into loading areas, supporting the gradual transition towards lower-emission urban freight, while making better use of existing public space. Throughout the pilot, local authorities, businesses, logistics operators and residents contribute to the evaluation of the proposed solutions, ensuring that technical innovation remains aligned with the city’s operational and environmental priorities.
Digital tools and logistics solutions
The Bergamo pilot combines digital technologies with practical urban logistics solutions designed for historic city centres.
Digital Twin
The Digital Twin supports the analysis of mobility, freight movements and curbside operations by integrating available data into a virtual environment. It allows planners to simulate different scenarios and evaluate the effects of future interventions before implementation.
Smart loading and unloading Zones (SLZ)
The pilot develops a dynamic approach to loading and unloading zones based on real operational demand. Real-time monitoring helps improve the allocation and use of curbside space while reducing misuse and unnecessary circulation.
Electrification of Urban Logistics
Bergamo investigates the integration of electric vehicle charging infrastructure within loading and unloading zones, supporting cleaner freight operations and encouraging the wider adoption of zero-emission delivery vehicles.
Expected impact
Through the Bergamo pilot, NEXTLOGIC demonstrates how historic cities can improve urban logistics without compromising accessibility or the quality of public space. How?
- Validating dynamic Smart Loading and Unloading Zones in a historic urban environment
- Improving the efficiency and utilisation of loading and unloading zones
- Supporting the integration of electric vehicle charging infrastructure for urban freight
- Reducing congestion and emissions through better management of existing curbside space
- Providing practical experience that can support the replication of dynamic curbside management in other European cities
NEXTLOGIC also contributes to a better understanding of how digital planning tools can help historic cities balance freight operations with commercial activity, tourism and urban liveability.
Contacts
Interested in the Bergamo pilot? For more information about the local activities, demonstration site, or opportunities to collaborate, please get in touch with the NEXTLOGIC partners coordinating the pilot.
Alexandra Lagorio
Università degli Studi di Bergamo
Pilot lead
Mario Paris
Università degli Studi di Bergamo
Pilot lead
Discover the other pilot cities
Bergamo is just one of eight European Mission Cities demonstrating the NEXTLOGIC approach. Discover how the other pilot cities are developing and testing complementary solutions for smarter, greener and more efficient urban mobility and logistics.