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.
Ben Fried
Recent Posts
Bike to Work Day Finale: Why the Bronx Commutes By Bike
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Streetfilms’ Robin Urban Smith was up on the Grand Concourse this morning for one of New York’s Bike to Work Day traditions — the Bronx Borough President’s ride from Poe Park down to Lou Gehrig Plaza. Watch and see all the different answers you get when you ask people, "Why do you bike to work?" […]
Pair of DOT Projects Promise Safer Walking and Biking in South Bronx Nabes
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The Crames Square safety project adds new pedestrian refuges and simplifies vehicle movements. Image: NYCDOT [PDF] Safer streets and new bike lanes are slated for the neighborhoods of Hunts Point and Longwood in the South Bronx. The improvements will make it safer to walk to stores on Southern Boulevard and add new bike connections leading […]
Bike to Work Day Open Thread
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How was your ride to work today? Bike traffic on the Manhattan Bridge seemed heavier than usual. After I took a few pictures of the Sands Street bike path, I got onto the bridge approach with a platoon of about a dozen people on bikes. At the end of the bridge, an apple from the […]
Bike to Work Day Preview: Council Member Jimmy Van Bramer Rides Again
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I think Al Roker’s Brompton ride to victory last week pretty much sealed the deal: Bike to Work Day has never been bigger. In San Francisco, where they observed the occasion last week, bikes accounted for 75 percent of morning rush hour traffic on Market Street, and most of the legislative and executive branches of […]
First Look: Detour No More on the Hudson River Greenway
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Photo: John Trotter If you biked down the Hudson River Greenway from the upper parts of Manhattan this morning, we’ve got some good news for your ride home. Here you see the freshly opened stretch between 83rd and 91st Street, which debuted today, giving cyclists a straight route without having to detour up through the […]
Brooklyn CB 2 Committee Approves New Plan for Flushing Avenue Bikeway
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Phase two of the Flushing Avenue project maintains the city’s commitment to a two-way bike path, but Brooklynites will have to wait a few years to get it. Image: NYCDOT Last night, NYCDOT’s Ted Wright presented a revised design for the Flushing Avenue bikeway to the transportation committee of Brooklyn Community Board 2. The new […]
Tonight: Turn Out to Support Safer Biking and Walking on Flushing Ave
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What it’s like to bike on Flushing Avenue now. Photo: NYCDOT We’ve got a late and important addition to the Streetsblog calendar: At tonight’s meeting of the Brooklyn Community Board 2 transportation committee, DOT will present a revised proposal to improve safety for pedestrians and cyclists on Flushing Avenue near the Brooklyn Navy Yard. This […]
Brooklyn CB 15 Asks Whether Safer Streets Are Worth 100,000 Sneezes
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If you ever need a laugh but don’t feel like shelling out for the two-drink minimum, you could do worse than head over to a Brooklyn CB 15 meeting. At an info session last night about plans for Brooklyn’s inaugural rapid bus line, the first question out of the audience was, "How many parking spots […]
It’s Car Free Streets Season in NYC
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Photo: NYCDOT Looks like we’re headed for a sunny weekend as NYC’s slate of summer car-free street events gets going. NYCDOT hasn’t updated their "Weekend Walks" site yet to show when and where all the neighborhood-scale street parties will be happening. But one of the first of 2010 is coming to Amsterdam Avenue from 106th […]
Al Roker Bikes to Victory in 2010 Commuter Race
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This morning, the hosts of the Today Show played this segment for their 5.4 million viewers. It’s this year’s edition of Transportation Alternatives’ annual Great Commuter Race, where cyclist, transit rider, and motorist vie to see who gets to work first. TA’s Wiley Norvell emailed us to explain how the race made the transition to […]
Eyes on the Street: Livery Car Jumps Sidewalk, Injuring Elderly Woman
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A reader sends these pictures of a crash scene at Broadway and 98th Street yesterday evening. The photographer tells us that "a black car traveling northbound swerved onto the sidewalk to avoid a southbound taxi turning left." According to FDNY, the driver struck an elderly woman, and the impact threw her against a wall. She […]
Columbus Avenue BID Leader: Protected Bike Lane Great for Business
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Barbara Adler Earlier this week, the transportation committee of Manhattan Community Board 7 issued a split decision on the protected bike lane proposed for a 20-block stretch of Columbus Avenue. One of the committee chairs who voted against it, Andrew Albert, told the room full of bike lane supporters that he couldn’t endorse the project […]