Dr Lois Player
Theme
Transport, Behaviour and SocietyProject
Who, Why, for How Long? Understanding Public Support for Low Emission Zones in the UKSupervisor(s)
Prof Lorraine Whitmarsh, Dr Christina DemskiLois's Journey in AAPS: An Alumni Profile
Lois’s passion for behavioural science and climate policy began during her undergraduate studies in Psychology at the University of Bath. While working on Bath Council’s Clean Air Zone implementation project, she developed a deep interest in understanding public perceptions of environmental policies. Since then, she has collaborated with several councils, including Bath and Bristol City Council, conducting research to facilitate the implementation of new transport policies. Motivated by a desire to help governments design fairer, successful climate policies, Lois pursued a PhD at AAPS to explore the barriers and drivers of support for climate transport policies.
Alongside her PhD, Lois was awarded a UKRI-funded placement with the UK Government’s climate advisors, the Climate Change Committee (CCC), where she joined a new team seeking to understand the role of people in Net Zero. Her work informed the Government’s Seventh Carbon Budget. She has also consulted for the CCC, reviewing the role of behavioural science in effective climate policymaking, for Thames and Anglian Water to reduce domestic water use, and Cornwall Council to reduce car dependency.
PhD Focus
Lois’s PhD investigated public support of Low Emission Zones, focusing on who supports them, why, and how this support evolves over time. Her research aimed to identify the barriers to support, and help governments design fairer, more effective, and thus more widely supported policies. Beyond this, Lois’ work with local and national policymakers drew her attention to the need for better, more accessible tools to analyse free-text consultation data. Using cutting edge Natural Language Processing and Machine Learning methods, Lois and another AAPS member, Ryan Hughes, designed the first open-source tool to automatically analyse free-text policy data – resulting in advisory roles for six UK government departments. In recognition of this, she was a finalist for Bath University’s ‘Best Postgraduate Research’ award. This project sparked Lois’ interest in the ethics of AI, and the team are currently developing a user-friendly version of the tool.
Lois is a keen science communicator, and has presented her work at conferences across the UK and Europe. She also conducted a six-week research visit at Otto-von-Guericke University Magdeburg, in Germany. Beyond academia, she has been an invited panellist and speaker for a Transport for West Midlands event, and spoken about her work on several radio stations.
Looking Forward
Lois recently began consulting for the European Climate Foundation, where she is co-leading ECF’s new strategy for public opinion research, including implementing a new approach to data collection, analysis, and visualisation. Alongside this consulting, she is travelling the world with her partner, before hopefully returning to a research role in 2026.
Reflection on AAPS
For Lois, AAPS represents an interdisciplinary approach to transport systems, offering the opportunity to collaborate across disciplines. The highlight of her time at AAPS has been the community – a network of supportive, inspiring researchers who have shaped her academic and personal growth. Her time in AAPS has significantly strengthened her science communication skills, teaching her how to engage with experts from diverse fields.
