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
City Council Signs Off on Residential Parking Permits, Next Stop Albany
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The City Council today passed a home rule message backing Albany legislation that would allow the city to implement a residential parking permit program. The vote was 40-8. Charles Barron, Lew Fidler, Peter Vallone, and Al Vann joined four out of the five Republicans on the council in voting against the measure. (Eric Ulrich was the […]
Ad Nauseam Double Feature: Why Is the Auto Industry Now Advertising Bikes?
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A couple of car-related ads in heavy NFL rotation caught my attention mostly for their emphasis, intended or not, on car-free transportation. Exhibit A is from Geico, which as usual doesn’t use cars in its ads for car insurance. Instead, in this spot the company’s ubiquitous cartoon spokeslizard is depicted walking the center line of […]
DOT Launches Walk-to-School Program, Koch Calls Bike Lanes “Glorious”
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DOT today launched a new initiative to help students stay physically active by walking to school. Schools that register for the Walk Ways program will be offered lesson plans on educating students about the benefits of walking and assistance from DOT in developing walk-to-school routes. Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan was joined by Ed Koch at P.S. […]
What Should James Vacca’s Pet Peeve Committee Tackle Next?
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James Vacca is redefining the role of the City Council Transportation Committee. If you’re concerned about issues such as the gradual collapse of the transit system, the scandalous waste of taxpayer money used to subsidize parking for billion-dollar businesses, or the shocking injustices suffered by victims of traffic violence, there isn’t much on the agenda […]
Leaving the Scene of a Fatal Crash Now Legal in New York City
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Time was, all a driver had to do to get away with killing someone with a car in New York City was prove sobriety and stay at the scene. But given the outcome of two recent cases it seems that, at least when the victim is a cyclist, police and prosecutors are flexible on the […]
Victim’s Family to NYPD: Tell Us What Happened to Our Son
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The family of Mathieu Lefevre, the 30-year-old artist killed by a hit-and-run driver while riding his bike in East Williamsburg last week, was joined by dozens of supporters outside 1 Police Plaza today to demand that NYPD rein in deadly driving and end its policy of silence when it comes to fatal traffic crashes. Paul […]
City Says Decrepit Inwood Step-Street on Track for Rehab
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It was supposed to happen circa 2005. Then in 2009. Now the city says the restoration of a crumbling block-long staircase that serves as a pedestrian-only street in Inwood will be finished by summer 2013. The 215th Step-Street connects Broadway to residential blocks at Inwood’s northern end. For years its cracked stairs and broken lamps […]
PlaNYC Program Will Bring 1,000 Sleek New Benches to City Sidewalks
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Joined by East Harlem seniors, advocates and City Council members, transportation commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan today kicked off a program to provide new and improved sidewalk seating. CityBench, a product of PlaNYC 2.0, will bring 1,000 shiny steel benches to locations across the five boroughs. The first two were installed outside the Leonard Covello Senior Center […]
Cuomo Names Patrick Foye to Head Port Authority
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As expected, Governor Cuomo has tapped Patrick Foye to replace Chris Ward as executive director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. Foye, Cuomo’s deputy secretary for economic development and an MTA board member, had been considered a contender since shortly after Ward announced plans to step down. An appointee of David […]
Open Thread: How Would You Use City Traffic Crash Data?
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On Monday Transportation Alternatives released a report tallying pedestrian-involved crashes in each of the city’s community board districts, based on numbers from the state Department of Motor Vehicles, between 1995 and 2009. Not surprisingly, the data reveal that the most collisions occurred in Midtown Manhattan, where high-density auto and foot traffic led to 8,604 crashes […]
BlackBerry Outage Linked to Massive Drop in Traffic Crashes
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According to data released last week by NYPD, distracted drivers were the leading cause of city traffic crashes in August. Of 16,784 incidents, 1,877 were attributed to “driver inattention/distraction,” while an additional 10 were linked specifically to phones or other electronic devices. While NYPD reports make it impossible to decipher exactly how many city drivers […]
NYPD Goes Out of Its Way to Obscure Street Safety Data
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It took several months and some needling from the Daily News, but NYPD this week finally complied with a new city law requiring the department to release data on traffic crashes. Unless you have the time and resources to comb through and analyze hundreds of pages of rows and columns, however, good luck getting much […]