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
Reality Check: A Small Fraction of NYC Streets Have Bike Lanes
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Kramer on the "already-congested" Prospect Park West. Cross motorhead journo Marcia Kramer with sidewalk-hogging Brooklyn Beep Marty Markowitz and this is the unholy offspring that you get: A skewed news segment on the proposed Prospect Park West bike lane, where facts don’t matter and wild assumptions go unchallenged. Kramer followed up last week’s hack-job on […]
Shocking Video: See What People Are Saying About PPW Bike Path
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Last night, Streetfilms’ Robin Urban Smith and I got to catch the second half of NYCDOT’s info session about the Prospect Park West traffic calming/two-way bike path project. The first half of the evening is when the fuss happened — apparently a few people made it known in no uncertain terms that they think it’s […]
Memo to Marty: Let’s Go Ahead and “Balance Out” Prospect Park West
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Today’s Andrea Bernstein interview with Marty Markowitz (transcript here) is a must-read if you want to get inside the head of the Brooklyn Beep and see the borough through the tint of his windshield. Markowitz says he doesn’t want to "stigmatize" motorists. How about just slowing them down? The specific issue at hand is the […]
Weekend Geek Out: Pay-By-Phone Parking Comes to D.C.
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Via Matt Yglesias, DCist reports that next week Washington area motorists will be able to pay for on-street parking by calling a phone number: The pay by phone option is being offered at 700 parking spaces in three areas of the city: around Dupont Circle, Union Station, and downtown on K Street, I Street, and […]
Sunset Park Greenway: Big Challenges, Bigger Potential
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A map of potential greenway routes and east-west connections in Sunset Park. Image: UPROSE A full crowd of about 60 people turned out for NYCDOT’s Brooklyn Waterfront Greenway workshop in Sunset Park last night. The meeting was the second of four sessions the city is putting on with the Brooklyn Greenway Initiative and the Regional […]
Monday: See What’s Up With the Prospect Park West Re-Design
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The proposed protected bike lane would calm traffic, provide a safe and convenient new link in the bike network, and make walking to Prospect Park less dangerous. Image: NYCDOT. The last time we checked in on plans for a two-way protected bike path on Prospect Park West, Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz had registered his […]
NYC, Livable Streets Initiative Win TreeHugger “Best of Green” Awards
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Times Square in its controversial lawn chair phase. Photo: Wikimedia/CC After placing eighth in Bicycling Magazine’s bike-friendly cities list earlier this week, New York got some bragging rights today, taking home top honors in TreeHugger’s "Best of Green" awards. New York got the nod for best pedestrian city, with the pedestrian projects in Midtown putting […]
Bronx Rep Promises to “Make Every Effort to Avoid Blocking the Bike Lane”
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The rules don’t apply to you if you’ve got one of these on the dash. Photos: Boogiedowner Via Gothamist, here’s a story that nicely encapsulates why parking placards should be completely abolished. On Monday, a Boogiedowner reader caught Bronx Assembly member Vanessa Gibson parking in the bike lane on the Grand Concourse, NYPD-issued placard on […]
Do You Walk in NYC? Then You Don’t Matter to CBS2’s Marcia Kramer
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Kramer explains the horror of giving pedestrians more space. No one warps a two-minute segment about New York City pedestrian improvements quite like CBS2 reporter Marcia Kramer. The venerable TV newser, who’s perfected the art of windshield perspective journalism, fired a salvo against the city’s public plaza program on the 6 o’clock broadcast yesterday. This […]
April Madness: Minneapolis Tops Portland in Bicycling Mag’s Rankings
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Butler may have come up short against Duke last night, but there’s a Cinderella story sending ripples through the livable streets blogosphere today. Goldy Gopher is psyched about Minneapolis’s first-place finish in Bicycling’s city rankings. In a decision that upsets the entrenched order of America’s urban bicycling universe, Bicycling Magazine just awarded Minneapolis the title […]
Finally, You Can Follow Streetsblog NYC on Twitter
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This post is about a year or two overdue but I’m pleased to announce that Streetsblog New York City is now tweeting. For breaking local livable streets news, short-form commentary, and bits and pieces that might not appear on the blog, follow @StreetsblogNYC. We’ll give followers the jump on lots of stories before they make […]
CB 6 Committee Votes on East Side Bus+Bike Improvements Tonight
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Sorry for the late notice folks, but there’s one more public meeting on this week’s busy schedule with big implications for street safety, and it’s happening tonight. The transportation committee of Manhattan Community Board 6 is expected to draft and vote on a resolution regarding plans for Select Bus Service and protected bike lanes on […]