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
NYPD Shoot Fish in a Barrel
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Doug Gordon of Brooklyn Spoke fame reports that NYPD sent a battalion of bike enforcers out to the intersection of Chrystie Street and Rivington Street on the Lower East Side this morning. This is a T-intersection where no motorized traffic conflicts with the path of northbound cyclists. If you’re biking north on Chrystie, it makes […]
It’s Up to Albany to Give Select Bus Service Its Flashing Lights Back
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The elimination of flashing blue lights on the MTA’s Select Bus Service vehicles is probably the most absurd transit setback of the past year. Since New York state law limits the use of flashing blues to volunteer firefighters, the MTA caved in to pressure from Staten Island pols and took them off SBS buses this […]
The Greenfield/Vacca/Quinn Parking Panderfest Can’t Fix This
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The viral video of the day, courtesy of Dan Amira at New York Mag, is this bout over a free parking space on the Upper East Side. It’s got all the hallmarks of NYC street dysfunction — traffic backups, aggressive use of motor vehicles, honking, road rage, left jabs. In related news, David Greenfield, James Vacca, and […]
Colbert Gets in on This Whole Rabinowitz Thing
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It’s not quite as brilliant as Al Madrigal’s segment on the Daily Show last week, but Stephen Colbert’s riff on Dorothy Rabinowitz at the end of this clip is totally worth your time this morning.
Eyes on the Street: Reason Number 6,734,090,855 NYC Needs Speed Cams
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Turn up the volume and listen for the sociopathic pacesetter about halfway through this clip. This is southbound Vanderbilt Avenue in Prospect Heights, recorded with my bike-mounted camera at the intersection with Dean Street at about 9:40 p.m. last night. Vanderbilt has become much more walkable and bikeable since DOT implemented a road diet about five […]
NYC Bike-Share Clearly Isn’t Ready to Blanket the City Yet
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Over the weekend, Ted Mann and Josh Barbanel at the Wall Street Journal wrote a great piece about what it will take to expand NYC’s bike-share system to the city’s less affluent neighborhoods, and how the Bloomberg administration’s decision to forgo public funding affected the system map. Then came a silly Ginia Bellafante piece in […]
Eyes on the Street: SUV Driver Crashes Into Ambulance at 71st and Broadway
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Reader Liz Patek sends in these photos of a crash at 71st and Broadway last night. According to witnesses she spoke to, the driver of the car with the smashed-up front T-boned the ambulance. It seems that, miraculously, no one was seriously hurt. NYPD’s public information office had no information on the crash, but it […]
A Refresher on How PPW Bike Lane Opponents Cherrypick Their Numbers
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While parents and kids were out celebrating three years of safe, all-ages cycling at the Prospect Park West Family Bike Ride last week, the remnants of NBBL were apparently scouring their Rolodex for media contacts who still take them seriously. A short item from Post columnist David Seifman notes that unidentified “critics” of the PPW […]
This Is Your Last Chance to Support Streetsblog
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Streetsblog’s spring pledge drive will end tonight at midnight and we need to go out with a bang. Please contribute today to support journalism and commentary that makes New York City streets safer and more sustainable. Just 60 more donations today and we’ll hit our target. So much has changed on NYC streets in the […]
Help Streetsblog Keep the Lights on — Donate Today
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We’re extending our spring pledge drive til the end of the week to reach our target of $40,000 in reader donations. If you haven’t given already, please make a tax-free gift today and help keep Streetsblog and Streetfilms going strong this year. Streetsblog and Streetfilms rely on individual donations, foundation support, and sponsorships and ads […]
Viral Anti-Bike Content — The Daily News Is Doing It Wrong
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The Wall Street Journal schooled the world on how to generate pageviews with this instant classic of anti-bike insanity starring editorial board member Dorothy Rabinowitz. Approximately 3.4 million websites embedded this video before Streetsblog got around to it, and “Dorothy Rabinowitz” is still rocketing up the Twitter trend chart. Meanwhile, the Daily News posted an […]
New York’s Hometown Paper Doesn’t Get How New York City Streets Work
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I think I’ve figured out why, when it comes to allocating space on New York streets, the Daily News opinion team tends to take a position that’s completely at odds with making the city a better place. The problem is that the Daily News opinion team doesn’t understand how city streets function. In a piece […]