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
City Hall and TWU Reach Settlement in Suit Over Right-of-Way Law
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The de Blasio administration has reached a settlement with TWU Local 100 over the union’s lawsuit against the Right-of-Way Law, ostensibly bringing an end to a rancorous political fight that sapped energy from the city’s street safety efforts for the better part of a year. On its face, the settlement maintains the integrity of the law, which was intended […]
What Planet Is DOT Living On?
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Last week, Henry Melcher at the Architect’s Newspaper ran a thoughtful piece about the state of NYC DOT’s bike program that got buried almost immediately by comments from Bill Bratton and Mayor de Blasio about the Times Square plazas. Melcher asked why DOT so often passes up the chance to add bike lanes in its […]
Gale Brewer Is Having None of This Cars-Back-in-Times-Square Business
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We’re gonna devote a post to reprinting this newly-released statement from Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer in its entirety, because it’s that good: “I was proud to help fund the new TKTS booth and grandstand in Duffy Square and to stand with Mayor Bloomberg and his Transportation Commissioner Jeanette Sadik-Khan at the opening of the plaza. Since then, […]
When DOT Refuses to Acknowledge That Its Streets Have a Design Problem
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Today on the Streetsblog Network, Mary Newsom at the Naked City has a classic story about a dangerous street in desperate need of a design overhaul, and a DOT that’s only willing to try out tiny, cosmetic changes. Charlotte is out with its annual list of high-crash intersections, and not for the first time, the […]
De Blasio Has Yet to Say Traffic Is More Dangerous Than Painted Breasts
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Mayor de Blasio had a chance today to quell the uproar over his suggestion that the city may rip out the Times Square pedestrian plazas. Instead he equivocated and didn’t take the idea off the table: Here’s what Bill de Blasio told NY1 today about the Times Square pedestrian plazas pic.twitter.com/kKQpF4OJlC — Mike Grynbaum (@grynbaum) August […]
The Politics of Road Pricing: Andrew Cuomo vs. Actual Polls
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Andrew Cuomo styles himself as a guy who gets stuff done. That’s what muscling through the Tappan Zee Bridge double-span boondoggle and the multi-billion dollar LaGuardia renovation is all about. But when reporters ask Cuomo about funding transit by putting a price on NYC’s free bridges, he likes to portray himself as a helpless bystander, stymied by politics. […]
An Experiment in Driver-Cyclist Interaction, Powered By Christmas Lights
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When you’re on a bike getting passed by motorists going 20 or 30 mph faster than you, it can feel like one act of deliberate aggression after another. And in many cases there is real, seething hostility and complete disregard for other people’s safety at work. But a lot of the time, people drive fast because that’s […]
How Parking Permits Can Improve the Politics of Walkable Development
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Residential parking permits are often referred to as “hunting licenses” because while they grant permit holders the privilege of parking on the street, there’s usually no limit to how many permits can be issued. If there are more permits in a neighborhood than available on-street parking spaces, there’s still going to be a parking crunch […]
Attn DOT: Amsterdam Avenue Is Begging for a Protected Bike Lane
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DOT is in the process of repaving Amsterdam Avenue from 79th Street to 93rd Street. Here’s the scene at 84th Street yesterday afternoon, courtesy of Community Board 7 member Ken Coughlin. Think there’s enough space for a protected bike lane? Nine feet is all you need. Amsterdam is one of the big voids in the […]
Tish James Calls on DOT to Make Bike Lanes Standard on Vision Zero Projects
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Have you noticed that DOT street safety projects are leaving out bike lanes even when there’s plenty of room for them? So has Public Advocate Tish James. In a letter to Transportation Commissioner Polly Trottenberg last week, James called on DOT to make bike lanes a default feature of street redesigns, especially on wide arterial streets where […]
If Crowded Old Airports Are “Un-New York,” What Are Crowded Old Trains?
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Andrew Cuomo’s big infrastructure announcement with VP Joe Biden today was, if nothing else, a tidy encapsulation of how little the governor cares about the big problems facing New York’s transportation systems. For days the governor’s office had been hyping his appearance with Biden. Was Cuomo finally about to tell New Yorkers how he’s going to modernize the trains and buses […]
The Trouble With Citi Bike Above 59th Is Station Density, Not the Timeline
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For some reason, the timeline for phasing in the Citi Bike expansion in Manhattan is getting covered as a minor scandal, even though officials are sticking to the schedule they revealed months ago. The real problem with the bike-share expansion plan is the thinned-out station network, which is, unfortunately, getting buried by the faux story about a delayed […]