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 Council Progressive Caucus Calls for BRT, Road Pricing, Livable Streets
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Via Dana Rubinstein at Capital New York, the City Council Progressive Caucus has come out with a 13-point platform heading into the 2013 election season [PDF], and it includes some good planks on transit and street safety policy. All 51 council seats are up for a vote this year, with most of the important action […]
Eyes on the Street: Mixing Zone, D.C.-Style
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Reader Mike Epstein sends in this photo of a “mixing zone” on L Street in downtown Washington, D.C., that looks a lot different than the ones here in NYC. Mixing zones are the areas where bike traffic merges with turning car traffic at the approach to intersections along protected bike lanes. New York’s mixing zones […]
City Council Lets Albany and NYPD Off the Hook for Traffic Violence
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City Council Speaker Chris Quinn and Transportation Committee Chair James Vacca finally responded to the deaths of Amar Diarrassouba and Raizel and Nachman Glauber today, after devoting their energy earlier in the week to keeping municipal parking underpriced. So are they calling on Albany to pass speed camera legislation? Nope. Pressuring NYPD to get serious […]
James Vacca’s Pet Peeve Committee Was in Full Effect Yesterday
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When is a budget hearing not really a budget hearing? When the committee chair uses it to air personal grievances instead of exploring major budget issues. Yesterday, City Council Member James Vacca chaired a transportation committee meeting that was billed as three budget hearings — one for the MTA, one for the Taxi and Limousine […]
East Harlem Doctor: “Trucks This Size Shouldn’t Be on Residential Streets”
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Melanie Canon, a doctor based in East Harlem, was the first person to aid 6-year-old Amar Diarrassouba after he has fatally struck by a tractor-trailer driver Thursday morning. The New York Times’ City Room blog published her wrenching account today. Canon raises the question that the city’s tabloid press has been too fixated on an absent crossing guard […]
Tonight: Get the Low-down on NYC Bike Law From Vaccaro and White
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Streetsblog readers can start the weekend off with tonight’s talk at REI SoHo by attorneys Adam White and Steve Vaccaro, who’ve provided legal perspective for many a Streetsblog story over the years: What every cyclist needs to know about being in a crash, with the two leading practitioners of bike law in New York. Adam […]
This Weekend, NYC’s Traffic Dysfunction Gets Worse
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In case you missed it, Crain’s ran a good piece today wherein “Gridlock” Sam Schwartz explained one of the less-publicized effects of the MTA fare and toll hikes slated to take effect this weekend. NYC’s already-dysfunctional road pricing system is about to make even less sense. With tolls on the MTA’s East River crossings going […]
CB 6 Committee Votes for PARK Smart Zone, Brooklyn Greenway Extension
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Last night, the transportation committee of Brooklyn Community Board 6 voted unanimously in favor of a new PARK Smart zone for Atlantic Avenue, Smith Street, and Court Street, and for a Brooklyn Waterfront Greenway segment connecting Van Brunt Street to Valentino Pier in Red Hook. The new PARK Smart zone, which Stephen covered earlier this […]
St. Louis Mayoral Contender Lewis Reed Hopes to Bike to City Hall
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Via the Kansas Cyclist, here’s a campaign ad from St. Louis mayoral hopeful Lewis Reed that would seem strangely inconceivable in NYC’s current political climate. Reed, currently president of the St. Louis Board of Aldermen (the equivalent of being City Council speaker in NYC), is challenging three-term incumbent Francis Slay in a primary election coming […]
Graphed: Support for Congestion Pricing Depends on How You Frame It
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Toward the end of last week, City Council speaker and current 2013 mayoral frontrunner Christine Quinn set off a burst of transportation policy buzz when she said she still supports congestion pricing but doesn’t expect it to get revived in Albany. Remember, though, that while risk-averse Albany electeds may try to preemptively dismiss road pricing […]
The Origins of Holland’s “Stop Murdering Children” Street Safety Movement
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Since the 1970s, the Netherlands and the United States have taken different paths when it comes to engineering streets. While the Dutch tackled traffic deaths and injuries by designing local streets where walking and biking are safe, convenient ways to get around, the prevalent approach in America was to apply highway design principles to local […]
Quinn Says She Still Supports Congestion Pricing
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After some pressing from Capital political reporter Azi Paybarah, Christine Quinn followed up her evasive and pessimistic statements about congestion pricing this morning with a firmer but still pessimistic statement about her position: “I supported congestion pricing. I support congestion pricing. I do not see it coming back in Albany but my support for congestion […]