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
Eyes on the Street: Protection for Cyclists on Bruckner Boulevard
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DOT crews were out on Bruckner Boulevard yesterday putting in Jersey barriers to protect a new two-way bike lane. The bikeway will run for half a mile between Hunts Point Avenue and Longwood Avenue, the first phase in what should eventually be a link between the Bronx River Greenway and Randall’s Island. For the time being, it will terminate […]
The Fight to Preserve NYC’s Right of Way Law Moves to Assembly
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We’re in Albany urging Assembly to reject a bill that would gut NYC’s #RightOfWay Law. Help #SaveTheCrosswalk NOW http://t.co/4ZKRQTUGbk — Families For Safe St (@NYC_SafeStreets) June 24, 2015 The promise of the Right of Way Law enacted by New York City last year is that it will lead to detailed investigations of crashes that injure pedestrians and […]
Andrew Cuomo Is Failing at One of His Most Basic Tasks
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In 1981, then-MTA Chair Richard Ravitch wrote to Governor Hugh Carey, pleading for action “to meet the increasingly desperate situation of public transit in New York.” Carey responded by moving a suite of measures through Albany that led to the MTA’s first five-year capital program. Investments made through the capital program brought the transit system […]
Eyes on the Street: A Better Bikeway Linking the High Bridge to Highbridge
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Ten days ago, DOT broke ground on a nice set of new bike lanes linking Upper Manhattan to the reopened High Bridge. Meanwhile, bike access improvements on the Bronx side are already pretty far along. This is the new contraflow bike lane on 170th Street, leading east from the High Bridge. It’s part of a package […]
The Case for 24/7 Access to the High Bridge
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Video of opening day on the High Bridge: Clarence Eckerson. New York City’s bike network would be a shell of its current self without the segments that run through parks. The most heavily traveled bike route in the city — the Hudson River Greenway — is in a park. Paths in Central Park, Prospect Park, and other public […]
De Blasio Gets More Cars Out of Central Park and Prospect Park
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Starting in a few weeks, people will be able to enjoy the Central Park loop north of 72nd Street and the west side of Prospect Park year-round without having to worry about motor vehicle traffic, Mayor de Blasio and Transportation Commissioner Polly Trottenberg announced this morning. The changes will significantly reduce motor vehicle traffic in both parks while stopping short of […]
The NYC Traffic Rule That’s Completely at Odds With How People Walk
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In some cases, New York City drivers may be getting away with harming people because city traffic rules say pedestrians shouldn’t step off the curb as soon as the walk signal turns into a flashing hand. The Daily News reports that in these cases, city prosecutors say a New York City traffic statute undercuts their ability […]
Eyes on the Street: Green Bike Lanes on the Greenpoint Avenue Bridge
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Biking between Greenpoint and Woodside is getting less hairy. DOT crews have painted buffered bike lanes on the Greenpoint Avenue Bridge, a project that was first proposed five years ago. Under the old design, speeding on the four-lane bridge was a big problem. The 2010 version of the redesign would have trimmed it to two motor […]
DOT and Ydanis Rodriguez Break Ground on Uptown Bike Lanes
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Don’t underestimate the importance of this development: Today, Council Member Ydanis Rodriguez announced the groundbreaking for new bike routes linking the Hudson River Greenway to the restored High Bridge, which connects Upper Manhattan to the Bronx. The shovels-in-the-ground moment and its sibling, the ribbon-cutting-with-oversized-scissors, are irresistible to elected officials everywhere. Usually, this feeds into the political incentive […]
The High Bridge Is Open and People Are Walking On It! Here’s Proof…
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Following a much-anticipated restoration that got a huge boost from the Bloomberg administration in 2007, the High Bridge is open to the public today for the first time in 45 years, providing a walking and biking connection between Washington Heights and the Highbridge neighborhood in the Bronx. Of course, Clarence Eckerson would never miss such a momentous occasion. […]
Students Plead With Manhattan Community Board 7 to Act on Street Safety
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Community Board 7 on the Upper West Side is where street redesigns get delayed indefinitely, where the urgency to prevent people from getting killed in traffic dissipates into the ether, and where the same people get reappointed for years on end to posts where they can block safety improvements. Last night, kids who go to school in the […]
It Doesn’t Have to Be This Way
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Quick thought experiment… Imagine for a moment that New York City has a toll system where there are no free rides. No reason for drivers to toll shop, clogging up the routes to free bridges. There is, effectively, a uniform fare for every car trip into the incredibly crowded center of town, revenue from which […]