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
Chicago to Pursue Center-Running Bus Rapid Transit on Ashland Avenue
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After a year of study and outreach, today Mayor Rahm Emanuel, the Chicago Transit Authority, and the Chicago Department of Transportation announced plans for center-running Bus Rapid Transit on Ashland Avenue. Once implemented, the project could set a national precedent for high-quality BRT, improving transit speeds as much as 80 percent during rush hour, according […]
Poll: When Will Jacques Capsouto Come Around on Bike-Share?
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Jacques Capsouto is the Tribeca restaurateur who got some nice free publicity by throwing a one-man tantrum yesterday about the bike-share station going up next to his restaurant, Capsouto Freres. Of course, it’s probably just a matter of time before Capsouto realizes that having 23 public bike docks by his front door is a customer […]
What It Looks Like When a Newspaper Actually Cares About Safe Streets
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So yesterday the Daily News published an opinion piece on bike-share that framed it not as a new option for New Yorkers to get around, but as another tense, dangerous showdown in the eternal confrontation between bikes and cars. Yawn. Of course, the fact that bike-share systems from London to DC have excellent safety records is […]
More Than 4,000 People Subscribed to NYC Bike-Share in First 24 Hours
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It looks like demand for bike-share in New York is going to be intense. In the first 24 hours of membership sales, more than 4,000 people signed up for annual Citi Bike subscriptions, according to NYC DOT. Comparing the first wave of subscriptions in NYC to other bike-share cities is tough, since the Citi Bike service […]
You Can Now Subscribe to Citi Bike
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A big announcement is coming later this morning, but the news is all over Twitter: You can now buy a Citi Bike annual membership. Citi Bike membership registration is OPEN! Just signed up for my @citibikenyc key. Here’s the link > ow.ly/k4lZK #bikenyc — susi wunsch (@velojoy) April 15, 2013 An annual subscription is $95 […]
NYPD Supervisor: Speeding Enforcement “Usually Done on the Highways”
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The Post revealed earlier this week that NYPD trains only one officer per precinct to use a radar gun, which partially explains why speeding enforcement is close to non-existent in most neighborhoods. But while NYPD thinly spreads local precincts’ speeding enforcement resources over thousands of miles of surface streets where pedestrians and cyclists are at […]
John Liu Releases a Bridge Toll Plan That Panders to Motorists
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So John Liu has managed to take an excellent idea — tolling the East River bridges — and turn it into a policy disaster. The key component of Liu’s plan, which he says would raise $410 million annually, isn’t the tolls — it’s the exemption for city residents. Here’s what Liu said at an Association […]
Citi Bike Stations Spotted in Fort Greene [Updated]
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After the first Citi Bike stations were installed in Bed Stuy and Clinton Hill over the weekend, NYC DOT Policy Director Jon Orcutt told Transportation Nation that bike-share implementation will “be moving through the Brooklyn area and then into Manhattan over the next few weeks.” And it looks like stations have now been installed at […]
Taking Citi Bike for a Test Ride
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With Citi Bike set to launch later this spring, the long wait for bike-share in New York City is almost over. But I couldn’t bring myself to wait an instant longer, so recently I headed over to the Brooklyn Navy Yard to try out some Citi Bikes. A small network of bike-share stations has been […]
Marty Golden Intros Bill to Enforce NYC Speed Limit With Police Clones
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After blocking the authorization of NYC’s first speed enforcement cameras, State Senator Marty Golden (R – Bay Ridge) has introduced a bill that he says will lead to safer streets while placating the Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association, the police union that opposes speed cams. The bill, S 5639, enables cities with a million or more residents […]
Kansas City Residents to Missouri DOT: Enough With the Highways Already
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Usually when we hear news from a Streetsblog Network member about the Missouri Department of Transportation, it’s because the agency is blocking ideas like a complete streets bill or a highway-to-boulevard conversion in downtown St. Louis. The advocates at BikeWalkKC report that now the agency is feeling some grassroots resistance to its cars-first approach: The […]
Let’s Hear More About Transit Policy That NYC’s Next Mayor Can Control
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Four of the Democratic mayoral candidates appeared on MSNBC with Chris Hayes Sunday morning, and for a short while the subject turned to transit. About two minutes into this segment, Hayes prompted former City Council member Sal Albanese to discuss his proposal to band together with other mayors to lobby Washington for more transit funding. […]