Research

I'm an environmental psychologist working across transport, energy, water and the built environment, making use of psychological ideas like behaviour change, habits, identities and how our surroundings shape our behaviour.

Current focus

Right now I'm heavily involved in the £1.2m UKRI LOCAST project, designing the next generation of human-focused tall buildings — understanding how occupants are affected by the buildings they inhabit, and what is going on with the people who create buildings.

Highlights of my work to date

• Motonormativity — the shared bias that prevents us from judging motorised transport rationally; its causes and its effects on public perceptions. This has also led me to ask whether electric cars are really a motonormative non-solution that don't address most of today's transport problems.
• Smart meter displays — how much energy householders could save if only in-home energy displays were designed properly.
• Drivers overtaking cyclists — my slightly infamous work on close overtaking, and subsequent work on bicycle helmets.
• The built environment — how occupants are affected by the buildings they inhabit, and what is going on with the people who create buildings.

Who I've worked with

UK Central Government (e.g., DfT, DESNZ); Welsh Government and Public Health Wales; industry (Western Power Distribution, RWE npower, several water companies); research centres (Transportøkonomisk institutt, Norway; many UK and overseas universities); bodies like Cycling England, NatCen and Sustrans; and a lot of local authorities.

Bicycle overtaking studies

In 2006, the EPSRC funded a project to investigate how drivers overtake bicyclists. We modified a bicycle subtly to carry a video system and an accurate ultrasonic distance sensor that could record the proximities of each passing vehicle. I then used this to collect naturalistic behavioural data from over 2,200 motorists in real traffic environments in the UK. This was followed by another study which collected an even larger dataset.

There are three key papers arising from this work:

• Walker, I. (2007). Drivers overtaking bicyclists: Objective data on the effects of riding position, helmet use, vehicle type and apparent gender. Accident Analysis & Prevention, 39, 417–425. This study examined the effects of road positioning, helmet-wearing and apparent gender on drivers' behaviour.
• Walker, I., Garrard, I., & Jowitt, F. (2014). The influence of a bicycle commuter's appearance on drivers' overtaking proximities: An on-road test of bicyclist stereotypes, high-visibility clothing and safety aids in the United Kingdom. Accident Analysis & Prevention, 64, 69–77.
• Walker, I., & Robinson, D.L. (2019). Bicycle helmet wearing is associated with closer overtaking by drivers: A response to Olivier and Walter, 2013. Accident Analysis & Prevention, 123, 107–113. Please read the final paragraph to see why I think debates about helmet efficacy are rather unproductive.