Geoff Wardle is director of advanced mobility research at Arts Center College of Design in Pasadena. Before participating in a panel on the future of the bicycle in L.A., he talked Indian food and onion rings, planes and Formula One in the Zócalo green room.
What’s your least favorite thing about the Internet?
I think it’s the bad habits that it engenders in us as a species. Where we pay more attention to the virtual world than to the phenomenal things happening in the real world. It also makes everyone an instant expert, which is really irritating.
Who was your childhood hero?
Jim Clark, the Formula One racing driver. And my dad.
Where do you go to be alone?
Usually up a mountain.
Will most people ever fly to work? And if yes, when?
I don’t believe anytime soon. And if everybody flew to work in Los Angeles, the climate would change because we would never see the blue sky anymore, just a swarm of stuff.
What is the last habit you tried to kick?
Dairy.
What’s your least favorite freeway?
Most of them. But the 405. That takes the crown, or thorns.
French fries or onion rings?
Because of an earlier habit I kicked, neither.
What’s your favorite American city?
Probably San Francisco. I like the fact that it’s very undulating. I like the social and political aspects of it. It reminds me a little bit of being back in Europe.
What are you reading right now?
I’m reading a book by Ed Whitacre, the man that President Obama’s administration asked to run General Motors when it went through bankruptcy court.
If you were in London for an evening and could eat anyplace you wanted, where would you go?
I would go to an Indian restaurant, and I don’t know if it’s still there: Veeraswamy. It’s very famous as an upmarket Indian restaurant in London, which I think is my parents’ favorite.