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Ben Fried

@benfried

Ben Fried started as a Streetsblog reporter in 2008 and led the site as editor-in-chief from 2010 to 2018. He lives in Ditmas Park, Brooklyn, with his wife.

Recent Posts

MTA Chair Joe Lhota. Photo:  MTA/Marc Hermann via Wikimedia Commons

Joe Lhota Is Cuomo’s MTA Chief, Again, Sort Of

By Ben Fried | Jun 22, 2017 | 2 Comments
Late yesterday, Andrew Cuomo nominated former MTA chief Joe Lhota to resume the role at a time when the agency is grappling with a decline in reliability that has reached crisis proportions. Lhota was hastily confirmed by the State Senate as the 2017 legislative session came to an end last night.
He's the boss. Photo: Flickr/NYS Governor's Office

Cuomo Doesn’t Need a New Law to Fix the Subways — He’s Already in Charge of the MTA

By Ben Fried | Jun 21, 2017 | 2 Comments
With subway service failing spectacularly on an almost daily basis, the MTA is in desperate need of firm, straightforward leadership. Instead, Governor Cuomo is giving riders an outlandish song-and-dance about why all the transit system's problems up until this point are not his fault.
Photo: Kurt Cavanaugh

What Happened to the Pedestrian Islands on Ninth Avenue in Hell’s Kitchen?

By Ben Fried | Jun 2, 2017 | 11 Comments
A few readers have written in asking about the disappearing pedestrian islands on Ninth Avenue in Hell's Kitchen. The concrete islands next to the bike lane shorten crossing distances and slow drivers turning onto Ninth Avenue. A few weeks ago, the city started tearing them out.
Not his natural habitat. Photo: Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office

Looking for a Bold Vision for NYC Streets? De Blasio’s Not Your Guy.

By Ben Fried | Jun 1, 2017 | 19 Comments
The mayor cares about preventing traffic deaths but has no broader appreciation for how diminishing the primacy of the car on city streets can make life better for New Yorkers. If he did, we'd be putting bus lanes on every avenue and bike corrals at every street corner, instead of sinking hundreds of millions of dollars into ferries.
Photo: NY Governor's Office/Flickr

6 Things Cuomo and de Blasio Can Do to Live Up to Their Climate Change Bluster

By Ben Fried and Brad Aaron | May 31, 2017 | 1 Comment
Between them, Cuomo and de Blasio have the power to dramatically accelerate New York City's progress on climate goals. But doing so will require making policy choices that the governor and mayor have shirked or avoided so far.
Photos: Ben Fried

There’s a Great New Entryway to NYC’s Most Uncomfortable Bike-Ped Path

By Ben Fried | May 22, 2017 | 8 Comments
The new and improved entry path to the Brooklyn Bridge Promenade from Downtown Brooklyn is finally rideable. If the rest of the bridge path ever gets a widening and makeover to match this one, it will become one of the great walking and biking connections in New York.
He's the boss. Photo: Flickr/NYS Governor's Office

When the Going Gets Tough at the MTA, Andrew Cuomo Disappears

By Ben Fried | May 19, 2017 | 9 Comments
Remember when Andrew Cuomo announced that he'd sealed the deal on a new contract with the TWU? Or when he empaneled an "MTA Reinvention Commission" to shape the agency's five-year capital program? Or when he ordered the MTA to quit dragging its heels on cashless tolling, and the agency promptly delivered? The governor would like you to forget all that.
Photo: NYC Mayor's Office

Yesterday’s Times Square Toll Was Terrible — But So Is a Typical Day of NYC Traffic Violence

By Brad Aaron and Ben Fried | May 19, 2017 | 11 Comments
Given the high-profile location, the number of victims, and recent instances of people using vehicles to kill for ideology, it's understandable that yesterday's crash drew so much attention. But it's important to recognize that as terrible as the Times Square carnage was for a single incident, the same human toll occurs on a daily basis on NYC streets -- it's just dispersed across the city.
Ryan Russo walks through the redesign of Queens Boulevard for Streetfilms.

Ryan Russo on NYC’s Bike Network Progress, Community Boards, and the Evolution of DOT

By Ben Fried | May 9, 2017 | 7 Comments
Russo discusses the state of bike network development, the potential introduction of different types of safety improvements to NYC streets, and how the public process for street redesign projects might be improved.
The governor celebrates his transportation infrastructure achievement by driving FDR's old car over the new Kosciuzsko Bridge. Imagery: @NYGovCuomo

After Yet Another Subway Meltdown, Where’s Cuomo?

By Ben Fried and Brad Aaron | May 9, 2017 | 28 Comments
Cuomo has been governor going on seven years. He's had more than enough time to assess the problems afflicting the transit system and work on solutions. But as the core transit system declines, Cuomo continues to fixate on shiny mega-projects.
Russo remembers seeing a mother and daughter cycling on the Ninth Avenue protected bike lane soon after it debuted in 2007: "The idea that someone who's seven or eight years old would ride their own bicycle on an avenue in Manhattan -- it was an outlandish concept. The fact that someone had done that made me realize people were going to respond to this." Photo: NACTO

Q&A With Ryan Russo on the Early Days of the Plaza Program and Protected Bike Lanes in NYC

By Ben Fried | May 8, 2017 | 1 Comment
Few people have been so closely involved in the transformation of the city's streets over such a long period of time as Ryan Russo. So between his last day at NYC DOT and his move to the West Coast, I caught up with him to get an insider's perspective on more than a dozen years of change to NYC streets.
To keep making progress on traffic safety, redesigns as substantial as this protected bike lane planned for Fourth Avenue in Brooklyn will have to be implemented citywide. Image: NYC DOT

DOT Shows Its Plan to Get the Reconstruction of 4th Avenue Right

By Ben Fried | May 3, 2017 | 35 Comments
Fourth Avenue is far and away the most viable potential bike route linking Bay Ridge, Sunset Park, and Park Slope, but it's still scary to ride on, with no designated space for cycling. At 4.5 miles long, a protected bike lane would make the reconstructed Fourth Avenue one of the most important two-way streets for bicycle travel in the city, connecting dense residential neighborhoods to jobs and schools.
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