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
Better Bus Service in Jeopardy Thanks to Shelly Silver and Assembly Dems
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Chances to improve service on New York City’s dedicated bus lanes appeared to narrow yesterday, when Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and his Democratic conference rejected bus lane enforcement cameras in the chamber’s draft budget. Camera enforcement is one of the linchpins in the city’s strategy to put the "rapid" in Bus Rapid Transit. Without it, […]
Silver, Assembly Dems Reject Better NYC Bus Service
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Sheldon Silver’s office just announced the outlines of the Assembly’s budget resolution. On a day when transit riders saw subway and bus cuts start to loom a whole lot closer, the speaker and his conference have piled on. Here’s the final line item under "Metropolitan Transportation Authority" in the summary of the Assembly’s budget [PDF]: […]
MTA Service Cuts — The Tough Choice Albany Never Has to Vote On
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Faced with a budget gap of nearly $800 million, the MTA Board voted to approve a slate of service cuts this afternoon that will affect millions of New Yorkers. The cuts are slated to start taking effect in June. Unless elected officials intervene to close the MTA’s deficit, subway and bus riders will have to […]
State Senate Undermines Better Enforcement for New Bus Lanes
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The New York State Senate has proposed diluting the bus lane enforcement provisions in the governor’s draft budget, a maneuver that threatens the effectiveness of new corridors in the city’s fledgling rapid bus network. Bus lanes planned for the B44 corridor in Brooklyn would miss out on camera enforcement under the Senate’s budget resolution. Image: […]
Pedro Espada’s Student Fare Fix: Toll the East River Bridges
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No, it’s not April First. The Daily News and the Times-Union report that the Bronx pol who played a critical role in derailing bridge tolls last spring has proposed, yes, tolling the East River bridges. Espada’s office says that more than $500 million could be raised annually from two-way $2 tolls on the East River […]
A Transcontinental Transpo Message: Don’t Be Afraid to Experiment
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NYCDOT commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan is in Los Angeles this weekend for the StreetSummit, a gathering of Southern California bike and pedestrian advocates. In a lead-in to the conference, Sadik-Khan spoke at her alma mater, Occidental College, and Clarence Eckerson and Streetsblog LA’s Damien Newton were there. Speaking to a packed house of advocates, planners, and […]
After Meeting Walder, Student Transit Advos Set Sights on City and State
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New York City high school students met with MTA Chair Jay Walder yesterday afternoon for a much-anticipated discussion of how to continue the MTA’s student fare program. The meeting itself was closed to the media, but at a press conference that followed, both parties described their face-to-face as more of a strategy session than a […]
DOT Proposes Flushing Ave Bikeway in Prelude to Major Greenway Push
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Image: NYCDOT [PDF] Here’s a look at the Flushing Avenue bike path concept that NYCDOT presented to the Brooklyn Community Board 2 transportation committee last night. This project would add another preliminary link to the path of the Brooklyn Waterfront Greenway, following in the footsteps of the Kent Avenue bike lane. After a round of […]
City Bus Hits and Kills Cyclist on Crotona Avenue in the Bronx
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Google Street View of Crotona Avenue near the reported crash location. The Daily News and NY1 are reporting that a 57-year-old cyclist was killed by a city bus this morning after riding to avoid an open car door. The NY1 report describes the collision by saying that the cyclist "struck" the bus: According to the […]
Eyes on the Street: Yankees Grab Lead in “Subway Series of Bike Parking”
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You’ve gotta hand it to the Yankees. When they decide to do something, they don’t go halfway. The Yankees have installed dozens of bicycle racks across the street from their stadium. Photos: Starts and Fits. In the inaugural season of their new ballpark (built with a monstrous amount of new parking and financed with a […]
Details on East Side SBS Come Into Focus at CB 8 Meeting
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We’ve got a few dispatches from last week’s Manhattan Community Board 8 meeting on East Side bus and bike improvements, which we couldn’t attend ourselves. First, Michael Auerbach, who’s doing some fantastic livable streets advocacy at Upper Green Side, filed a report for Second Ave Sagas about how Select Bus Service will function alongside the […]
Fare Hike 2010: Your Chance to Prop Up Albany
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Straphangers, are you ready to subsidize the runaway state budget? By popular demand, here’s an updated graphic depiction of how the state of New York stole dedicated transit tax revenue from the MTA in last year’s deficit reduction package. The $190 million pot of money is known as the state’s 18-B obligation to the MTA. […]