2024-11-21T13:24:26-05:00 https://archinect.com/news/article/113031751/archinect-s-lexicon-bike-wash Amelia Taylor-Hochberg 2014-11-06T14:05:00-05:00 >2018-01-30T06:16:04-05:00 <img src="https://archinect.gumlet.io/uploads/26/26sboyeyi32mhplf.jpg?fit=crop&auto=compress%2Cformat&enlarge=true&w=1200" border="0" /><p><em>Welcome to Archinect's Lexicon. Architecture notoriously appropriates and invents new language &ndash; sometimes to make appeals, sometimes to fill conceptual gaps, sometimes nonsensically. But once a word is used, it's alive, and part of the conversation. We're here to take notes.</em></p><p><strong>bike-wash</strong>&nbsp;[ba&#618;k -&nbsp;&#712;w&#594;&#643;], noun: a pejorative term for the PR spin-tactic of making a design appear more bike-friendly than it actually is.</p><p>This definition was derived from what may likely be the term's first appearance,&nbsp;on Archinect's <a href="http://archinect.com/features/article/84683423/working-out-of-the-box-steven-fleming" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Working out of the Box interview with architect and cycling advocate, Steven Fleming</a>:</p><p><em>Then there are people who really surprise you, like the developers I met in America a few months ago. I thought talking to them about space for bikes inside apartments, to really incentivize riding, would be going too far&mdash;that they would only want to <strong>bike-wash</strong> their project with something like a shower down in the basement. They surprised me as well. But then they're like the government in Singapore:...</em></p>