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
Keep the Momentum Going — Give to Streetsblog Today
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Thank you to everyone who gave to Streetsblog and Streetfilms in the first week of our spring pledge drive. We need about 320 more donations to hit our target of 400 before June 1. Help us keep the momentum going and make a tax-deductible gift to support media that makes a difference for our streets. […]
Judge Rejects Plaza Hotel’s Citi Bike Lawsuit
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It was fun while it lasted, but the era of NIMBY lawsuits against NYC bike-share stations has now run its course. Today a Manhattan judge rejected the Plaza Hotel’s suit seeking to remove the Citi Bike station across the street from its entrance. This marks the final court decision regarding the four lawsuits challenging bike-share […]
Be a Streetsblog Superhero and Give to Our Spring Pledge Drive
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We’ve all seen the graphs: Driving and car ownership have passed their peak in America, while transit ridership and biking are on the rise. On the ground, however, city buses still move at a crawl, bogged down in traffic. Most streets remain too dangerous for most people to feel comfortable biking on them. And the […]
Letter Grades for Taxi and Livery Companies: TLC Commish Receptive to It
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What if taxi and livery drivers in NYC received letter grades to reflect their safety records, the same way restaurants get grades from the health department? Eric McClure of Park Slope Neighbors raised the possibility at last night’s Vision Zero town hall in Park Slope, and found a receptive audience in new TLC Commissioner Meera […]
Eyes on the Street: An Early Look at the Lafayette Protected Bike Lane
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Crews have been making good progress on the Lafayette Street redesign [PDF], the first protected bike lane project installed by the de Blasio administration. As of yesterday, the striping work had progressed from Spring Street up past 4th Street, where Philip Winn of Project for Public Spaces snapped these photos. The Lafayette Street project will […]
Can Vision Zero Survive NYC’s Tabloid Editorial Boards?
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New mayor. New DOT commissioner. Same old myopic Daily News editorial board. The opinion writers who spent four years undermining the implementation of safer street designs want “clear and transparent data” from Mayor de Blasio’s Vision Zero initiative. Good idea, right? But when the data is right under their noses, they’re still not satisfied. In […]
Instead of Reforming NYC Tolls, Ruben Diaz, Jr. Proposes Soaking the Bronx
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Like the Tea Party adherents who are always going to equate walkability and sustainable transportation with a global UN conspiracy, some New York City electeds are always going to call road pricing “regressive” no matter how much the evidence suggests otherwise. But Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz, Jr. really ought to know better. Diaz has […]
Traffic Deaths Down 26 Percent, Injuries Down 8 Percent So Far in 2014
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The Daily News reports that traffic deaths and injuries are down over the first three months of 2014 compared to the same period last year. The improvement is encouraging, and increased traffic enforcement is probably playing a role, but the harsh winter is almost certainly a factor too. Transit reporter Pete Donohue relays the numbers: […]
HUD Expected to Loosen Restrictions on Mixed-Use Financing Soon
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As Smart Growth America showed us earlier today, the costs of sprawl are high. So it’s a bitter irony that federal rules have made it more expensive to build compact, mixed-use development by tightly limiting the share of commercial space in projects that receive financing from the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Fortunately, those […]
Cuomo Gets His Way, and Transit Riders Get the Shaft
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Governor Andrew Cuomo won’t be denied. Overriding proposals from the Assembly and State Senate, the governor continues to pick the pocket of New York City’s transit system, diverting $30 million from the MTA in the state budget. Cuomo had originally proposed a $40 million raid, so it could have been worse. But because this diversion […]
Cumbo Calls for Safer Atlantic Ave, and Trottenberg Promises Action
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Minutes after Council Member Laurie Cumbo and street safety advocates called for immediate action to reduce traffic violence on Atlantic Avenue, Transportation Commissioner Polly Trottenberg told the audience at a Vision Zero forum in Crown Heights last night that DOT intends to make Atlantic one of its early priorities for safety fixes. Atlantic Avenue is […]
Eyes on the Street: What’s Up With the 8th Ave Bike Lane at Penn Station?
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Yesterday the Tri-State Transportation Campaign tweeted this photo of the new Eighth Avenue bike lane alignment between 31st Street and 33rd Street. On this stretch, there’s no longer physical protection for cyclists, and motorists can double-park in the bike lane. What gives? It turns out this is not about clearing room for NYPD’s rush-hour parking […]