Professor Ian Walker (UK) on Motonormativity (or Car Brain) and what to do about it
1:30pm - 5pm, 13 October 2026 Monash University (CBD)
October 13 @ 1:30 pm - 5:00 pm
A$30.00 – A$70.00Motonormativity 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. Associate Professor Jennifer Kent (University of Sydney) examines motonormativity in the Australian context, drawing on a nationally representative survey of 1,500 participants across age, income and geographic distribution.
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.
Venue
Monash University (CBD)
750 Collins Street, Melbourne
Tuesday 13th October 2026
1:30pm – 5pm
Room 903
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 Jennifer Kent
University of Sydney
Associate Professor Jennifer Kent is one of Australia’s most original thinkers on why our cities stay locked into car dependence — and what it would take to break free. Based in the Discipline of Urbanism at the Sydney School of Architecture, Design and Planning, she digs beneath the policy surface to expose the cultural assumptions that shape everything from school-run habits to community resistance on safer speed limits. Funded by bodies including the Australian Research Council and the National Heart Foundation, her work has directly shaped state and federal planning agendas.
Using Walker’s original and extended motonormativity measures, Jennifer’s research assesses the extent to which pro-car biases shape attitudes toward transport risk, behaviour and policy. Findings are compared with self-reported travel behaviour, risk perception and broader mobility attitudes, revealing how motonormativity influences everyday travel choices and the social acceptance of road danger. The results provide new empirical insight into the cultural dominance of automobility in Australia and its implications for equitable, safe and sustainable transport policy.
This is a rare chance to hear Jennifer unpack the hidden norms steering Australian transport, using original research conducted in the local context.
Using Walker’s original and extended motonormativity measures, Jennifer’s research assesses the extent to which pro-car biases shape attitudes toward transport risk, behaviour and policy. Findings are compared with self-reported travel behaviour, risk perception and broader mobility attitudes, revealing how motonormativity influences everyday travel choices and the social acceptance of road danger. The results provide new empirical insight into the cultural dominance of automobility in Australia and its implications for equitable, safe and sustainable transport policy.
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.