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EPISODE 99: Car Brain with Dr. Ian Walker (Patreon)

Published:
2023-01-31 11:01:01
Imported:
2026-06
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Content

Hello Patreon supporters!

Our latest episode is here and, I have to admit, it's already one of my favorites. Aaron, Sarah and I spoke with Dr. Ian Walker — a professor of environmental psychology at Swansea University in Wales — about a new study, "Motonormativity: How Social Norms Hide a Major Public Health Hazard." It's all about the subtle biases that are shaped by living in a car-dominated world, how they affect people's ethics and, perhaps most importantly, prevent policymakers from pursuing changes that would make our streets safer and improve a host of public health and environmental problems. Trust me, I think you're really going to like this one.

FYI, we had a bonus episode scheduled for today, but found this conversation with Dr. Walker so fascinating that we rearranged our release schedule to get this out first. The bonus will come next week.

Thanks as always for your support!

- Doug

Patreon supporters who want to listen to an ad-free version of this episode on Apple Podcasts or another podcast app should check out these instructions on how to find and use your private RSS audio link from Patreon. You can also use the Patreon app or listen in your browser.

EPISODE 99: CAR BRAIN WITH DR. IAN WALKER

Is it acceptable to harm another person? To steal someone’s private property? To bend health and safety rules just to save a few minutes or make more money? According to a new study, it might depend on whether or not a car is involved. Dr. Ian Walker, a professor of environmental psychology at Swansea University in Wales, joins us for a fascinating discussion about the unconscious biases we all share in favor of cars, how those assumptions shape our streets, and how they prevent the kind of change needed to make them safer. It’s a phenomenon he and his co-authors call “motonormativity.”

LINKS:

Read the full study: Motonormativity: How Social Norms Hide a Major Public Health Hazard.

Learn more about Dr. Ian Walker.

How closely do drivers pass cyclists? According to Dr. Walker’s research, it depends.

What if people behaved in grocery stores the way they do behind the wheel of a car? (PSA via Norway’s State Road Administration)

Files

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Comments

John Gear

My big example of car brain is that we ignore the major fuel for carburban auto domination: the restriction of gas tax revenue to highway purposes. We're fighting and losing a war on cars because we've failed to attack the bounteous subsidy that cars get by demanding gobs and gobs of revenue from all sources, while enjoying a tax source that can only be spent on itself. This is insane -- if we are going to put cars back into some semblance of proportion in society, we have to end the restriction on gas tax revenue so that it can be used for all the ways that we need to make our places livable and accessible without autos. At the very least, we need to insist that, if gas tax revenue can only be spent on highways, then ONLY gas tax revenue can be spent on highways -- NO other revenue from any other source can go to support roads for autos if the restriction is maintained. This one change would do more to make the War on Cars winnable than any other single change possible.

Robin Layfield

This is such an eye-opening episode. I've learned so much from this and in answer to the question: are there any other "Normativities"? I'd say that plastic packaging is probably one too.