bikewashing

• bike-washing

Blend of bike +‎ whitewashing (or bike +‎ -wash +‎ -ing), patterned after greenwashing.

bikewashing (uncountable)

1. The practice by people, organizations and states of presenting themselves as bike-friendly without making meaningful changes to promote the use of active means of transport.

   Hypernym: greenwashing

   • 2017 August 22, “Bikewashing: The Two-Wheeled Equivalent to Greenwashing”, in Ground Control Systems‎^[1]:

     […] today the phrase bikewashing has also taken on another meaning. The phenomenon is the two-wheeled equivalent to greenwashing. It’s when companies attempt to make their products seem “bike-friendly” even if what they are advertising has absolutely nothing to do with bikes or bettering the bike community.

   • 2019 June 28, Gideon Weissman, “Boondoggle: Portland Takes a Step Backward”, in Streets Blog USA‎^[2]:

     Local groups like Bike Portland have challenged the street-level alterations included in the I-5 project, which make up just a small fraction of total costs, as being used by the Oregon DOT for “greenwashing, bikewashing, and safety-washing yet another massive investment in automobile-oriented infrastructure.”

   • 2019 August 13, Matt L, “Safety-washing?”, in Greater Auckland‎^[3]:

     First there was greenwashing, where organisations will spin initiatives or market products as being more environmentally friendly than they are. In the transport space that morphed into PT-washing, where even the tiniest amount of improvement to public transport as part of a mega roading project became promoted as one of the main benefits of the project. Then there was bikewashing, the same thing but for bikes.

• bike-friendly