Why Bike Lovers Should Be Happy About 'Bikelash'

“Bikelash” is a snappy little word that names a condition quite familiar to anyone who’s been following the politics of city streets in the United States over the past few years. It describes the resistance and hostility that the increasing presence of bikes on city streets sometimes produces in people who don’t ride bikes. That hostility can take many forms: drivers who honk and throw trash at people on two wheels, talk radio hosts inveighing against “the tyranny of the bike cult,” politicians (looking at you, Rob Ford) who remove bike infrastructure to theoretically ease the way for cars.

An early (hyphenated) use of the word shows up in The New Republic atop a 2010 discussion of the push for more active transportation infrastructure by then-secretary of the U.S. Department of Transportation Ray LaHood. But the term really gained traction in 2011, when New York magazine used it on a cover for a story about anti-bike sentiment in the city.