Brad Aaron
Brad Aaron began writing for Streetsblog in 2007, after years as a reporter, editor, and publisher in the alternative weekly business. Brad adopted New York's dysfunctional traffic justice system as his primary beat for Streetsblog. He lives in Manhattan.
Recent Posts
Ariel Russo, 4, Killed by Unlicensed Teen and NYPD Pursuit Protocol
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The driver who allegedly struck and killed 4-year-old Ariel Russo and injured her grandmother during a police chase on the Upper West Side Tuesday morning has been charged with manslaughter. But if authorities and the media place 100 percent of the blame on a kid who tried taking the family car to school, a conviction […]
Amidst Tabloid Attack on Bicycling, Another Child Killed By Reckless Motorist
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Update: The Post and DNAinfo have identified the victims as Ariel Russo, 4, and her grandmother, Katia Gutierrez. The driver has been named as Franklin Reyes, 17. Correcting information released earlier today, NYPD now says Reyes has a record of one arrest, and it was not for robbery, according to the Post. A young child and […]
Another Cyclist Killed at East Harlem Intersection, NYPD Again Blames Victim
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For the second time in less than a year, a cyclist has been killed by a motorist at the intersection of E. 108th Street and Park Avenue, in East Harlem. On Sunday evening at around 7:40 p.m., 18-year-old Marvin Ramirez was riding east on E. 108th when he was hit by the driver of a […]
Now That Citi Bike Is Live, Will All Cyclist Injuries Be Newsworthy?
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Now that Citi Bike is live, the media are apparently paying close attention to traffic crashes that injure cyclists. So long as the cyclist is on a Citi Bike. Both the Post and the Associated Press picked up the story of a cyclist who was hurt in a collision at Houston and MacDougal yesterday afternoon. […]
Cycling Kids: The True Indicator of a Bike-Friendly City
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There’s been a lot of talk this week about who’s riding bikes. A new report finds that the growth in cycling in the U.S. is reflected most dramatically in populations that tend to be marginalized or ignored, while New York City’s transportation commissioner says she’d like to see more women on Citi Bikes. Wrapping up […]
In Washington State, Speeding Projects to Slow Motorists
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Here’s what happening around the Network today: Washington State Passes Neighborhood Safe Streets Bill: The state of Washington has passed legislation that will make it easier for towns and cities to calm traffic on neighborhood streets. According to the Alliance for Biking and Walking, the law allows localities to lower speed limits without conducting engineering […]
Daily News Tries Race-Baiting to Gin Up Controversy Over Safer Streets
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It’s truly amazing how much work the tabloids put into opposing measures that save lives. Take today’s Daily News, which resorted to race-baiting to gin up controversy over hard-won bike lanes in Upper Manhattan. Residents of Inwood and Washington Heights have been working for safer neighborhood streets for a long while. My first story on […]
Report Finds Emerging Cycling Population That Looks Like America
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A promising new report says cycling is booming across the United States, with the biggest gains coming from young people, women, and people of color getting on bikes. A project of the League of American Bicyclists and the Sierra Club, “The New Majority: Pedaling Towards Equity” [PDF] finds that the number of bike trips in […]
NYPD: 1,192 Pedestrians and Cyclists Injured, 11 Killed in Traffic in April
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Fifteen people were killed in New York City traffic in April, and 4,409 were injured, according to the latest NYPD crash data report [PDF]. As of the end of April, 56 pedestrians and cyclists have been killed by city motorists this year, and 4,793 injured, compared to 42 deaths and 4,769 injuries for the same […]
Shameless: Daily News Tries Linking Death of Senior Cyclist to Bike-Share
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A senior riding a bike in Bath Beach was killed by a motorist Monday, and the Daily News used the crash to criticize the city’s new bike-share system. Mai Zhang, 74, was struck by the driver of an SUV at Benson Avenue and Bay 26th Street at around noon, according to NYPD and published accounts. […]
Citi Bike Draws the Curious, From NYC and Beyond
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It wasn’t yet 11:00 when I got to the mammoth bike-share station on Eighth Avenue at 31st Street, which sits along the protected bike lane in front of the Post Office across from Penn Station and Madison Square Garden, but I hadn’t unpacked my camera before a Citi Bike user pedaled by. For the next hour […]
Kids Take Citi Bike for a Stationary Spin
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Kids love bikes and shiny new things, so it’s not a huge surprise that this group of middle-schoolers would flock to the bike-share station at East 11th Street near First Avenue. You have to be 16 to join Citi Bike, but what we see in the video, posted by EV Grieve, are a lot of […]