Wednesday, January 13, 2010

Josh Hart

Hello. My name is Richard. I ride a bike.

I also ride a bus. This morning on the bus I met Josh Hart of Bolinas, California.

Josh Hart


Josh recently completed his MSc in Transport Planning at the University of West England in Bristol, UK. He's Holier Than You® because
  • He's traveling from a visit to friends in Santa Cruz to Bolinas completely by bike and public transpotation (I didn't even realize there was transit service to Bolinas!); and

  • When he traveled from San Francisco to university in the UK, he did it completely by bus, train and cargo ship and blogged about it.

In Bristol, he studied the impact of traffic on social networks -- not the Web 2.0 virtual social networks created through Twitter, Facebook and other online tools, but meatworld social networks of face to face contact with your neighbors. He discovered that higher vehicular traffic degrades people's lives by discouraging interaction with the neighbors. He received quite a bit of press in the UK media over his "Driven to Excess" study. If you're interested in livable streets, Josh's study provides some good background and information.

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