Professor Ian Walker (UK) on Motonormativity (or Car Brain) and what to do about it
2pm - 5pm, 13 October 2026 Monash University (CBD)
October 13 @ 2:00 pm - 5:00 pm
$30.00 – $60.00Motonormativity and the Future of Australian Cities
What if the biggest barrier to better transport isn’t infrastructure, funding, or policy — but the way we think?
Professor Ian Walker (UK) is one of the world’s leading voices on motonormativity: the deeply ingrained cultural bias that stops us from judging car use rationally. Sometimes called car brain, it helps explain why — despite decades of effort — governments at every level continue to struggle to reduce car dependency.
Joining Ian is Associate Professor Alexa Delbosc (Monash University), whose research delivers a striking finding: more than half of car drivers do not see cyclists as fully human. It’s an uncomfortable truth — and a revealing lens on the tensions that play out daily on our streets.
Together, they’ll explore not just the psychology behind these attitudes, but the structural forces that reinforce them. Generous Q&A sessions will give attendees the chance to dig into the practical implications — and what planners, engineers, and policymakers can actually do about it.
If you work in transport or planning and want to understand why change is so hard, this is the room to be in.
Keynotes
Professor Ian Walker
Professor of Psychology and Head of the School of Psychology at Swansea University.
Professor Ian Walker is an Environmental Psychologist whose work spans a broad range of applied research areas, drawing on psychological concepts including behaviour change, habits, identity, and the influence of the built environment on human behaviour.
You might be familiar with Ian’s slightly infamous work that found drivers give greater passing distance when overtaking cyclists who appeared female (it was Ian dressed to look female) and the influence of bicycle helmets.
His research highlights include:
- Motonormativity — Professor Walker’s work on the shared cultural bias that prevents rational judgement of motorised transport, including its causes and effects on public perception. This research has also prompted him to question whether electric vehicles represent a motonormative non-solution that sidesteps the fundamental challenges facing modern transport systems.
- Cyclist safety — Widely cited studies on driver behaviour when overtaking cyclists, and subsequent research on the effects of bicycle helmets on road user interactions.
- The built environment — Investigations into how building occupants are affected by the spaces they inhabit, and the behaviours and decisions of the professionals who design and create them.
Associate Professor Alexa Delbosc
Monash University
Alexa Delbosc is an Associate Professor at the Institute of Transport Studies, Monash University, where she applies social science research to some of the most pressing questions in transport policy and planning.
After completing a Master of Arts in Social Psychology at Harvard University, Alexa turned her research skills toward real-world problems, exploring how the transport system shapes the lives of the people who use it. Her work spans the psychological wellbeing of transport users, the behavioural drivers of fare evasion, and the shifting mobility patterns of younger generations. The latter earned her a prestigious Discovery Early Career Research Award from the Australian Research Council.
More recently, Alexa’s research has examined the social dimensions of road user behaviour, including the striking finding that more than half of car drivers do not perceive cyclists as fully human, work that sits at the intersection of transport engineering and social psychology, and carries direct implications for how we design streets and shape transport culture.
Alexa maintains strong links with industry and government, ensuring her research translates into tangible policy outcomes.
Venue
Monash University (CBD)
750 Collins Street, Melbourne
Tuesday 13th October 2026
2pm – 5pm
Room 903