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
Give By Midnight: Last Chance to Win a Schwinn City Bike From Ride Brooklyn
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Okay, here we are with less than 12 hours to go in the Streetsblog+Streetfilms spring pledge drive. We need about $2,000 in reader support to hit our target of $30,000. Thrilling! I’m going to keep this post short and to the point. Since we started doing these pledge drives two years ago, hundreds of readers […]
The Real Menace on Our Sidewalks
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So it looks like the City Council is pondering legislation that would raise the fine for biking on the sidewalk (currently $100) and possibly establish a new squad of enforcement agents dedicated entirely to ticketing commercial cyclists. At a hearing earlier this week, transportation committee chair James Vacca framed the riding habits of commercial cyclists […]
Bike Ticket Blitz Reportedly Underway in Central Park
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Heads up if your p.m. bike commute takes you through Central Park, or if you’re planning on an after-work ride. This just in from reliable source (and Streetfilms star) Marcus Woollen: If you have an encounter in the park this evening, tell us about it in the comments or email tips@streetsblog.org.
Help Put Our Spring Pledge Drive Over the Top (and Win Free Comics)
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We’re rounding the final turn in our spring fundraising campaign, and thanks to hundreds of generous donations to Streetsblog and Streetfilms the finish line is within sight. Just $3,500 in donations this week and we’ll reach our goal of raising $30,000 by June 1. Your support enables us to produce high-impact content making the case […]
London’s Bike-share How-To
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For your viewing pleasure this weekend, here’s the animation produced by Transport for London explaining how to use Barclays Cycle Hire — the 570-station bike-share system that launched about two years ago. There’s a lot to cover in a little more than four minutes: when bike-share is useful, how to get a membership, what not […]
We’re Hiring: Cover the Livable Streets Beat for Streetsblog NYC
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We’re looking for a talented journalist to help Streetsblog NYC cover sustainable transportation and livable streets in the five boroughs and beyond. We welcome applications from engaging writers, reporters, and advocates who share our vision of Streetsblog as a respected, influential source of information and commentary on transportation and urban planning issues. Responsibilities Streetsblog combines […]
Happy Bike to Work Day, NYC
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Well, you really couldn’t ask for a better day to commute by bike. Here’s a shot from the Brooklyn side of the Manhattan Bridge at 8:30 this morning. Word is that the Hudson River Greenway was a torrent of bike traffic. If you’ve got pictures from today’s commute, share them with us: add the “Streetsblog” […]
CB 7 Approves 50-Block Ped Safety Project for Sunset Park’s Fourth Ave
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In an overwhelming 31-2 vote (with three abstentions), Brooklyn Community Board 7 passed a motion last night in favor of re-engineering Fourth Avenue in Sunset Park for greater safety. The NYC DOT project [PDF] will add a substantial amount of pedestrian space at intersections from 65th Street to 15th Street, widening medians and narrowing crossing distances on […]
15 Days Left in Our Spring Pledge Drive — This Week: Win a Vaya Bag
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We interrupt our regularly scheduled blogging for a quick pep talk. Thanks to our generous and supportive readers, Streetsblog and Streetfilms are almost halfway to our goal of raising $30,000 by June 1. We’ve got two weeks left to raise $17,000 — help us reach that target so we can keep making the case for designing […]
NYPD Bike Patrol: It’s Officially a Trend
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After two readers sent us pictures of bike cops in March, we promised to give a Streetfilms T-shirt to the person who sent us a third pic. It took two months, but today we received the photo that puts the bicycling police officer story over the hump — now it’s a trend! Congratulations to Hilda, […]
The Spatial Payoff of NYC Bike-Share
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Last night’s Brooklyn Community Board 2 hearing on bike-share was hardly the “battle” anticipated by the Brooklyn Eagle. About 20 people testified after DOT presented the draft station maps for the district [PDF, pages 10-15], and almost all of them supported the bike-share program in general, with several residents expressing delight at the prospect of […]
Can the Times Name a Transpo Project Planned More Openly Than Bike-share?
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In an otherwise fair piece about the debut of the draft NYC bike-share map, the New York Times opted for this sensationalized lede: “After months spent shrouded in secrecy and speculation, the locations of bike-share stations in Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens have arrived.” I know we were all anxious to get a look at the […]