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
Draft Bike-Share Station Map Now Online
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This is cool. After receiving thousands of suggestions online and hosting dozens of public workshops about where to site bike-share stations, Alta Bikeshare and NYC DOT have finished a draft map of the initial service area and posted it online this morning. The boundaries for the first phase, which will launch this July, are (roughly): […]
This Week: Win a Basket from Adeline Adeline; Today: Party with Streetsblog
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Before I get to this week’s excellent pledge drive giveaway, a note about tonight: We hope to see you at Red Lantern Bicycles in Fort Greene (Brooklyn’s only bike shop café) for an evening of conversation and livable streets videos. I’ll be there along with Clarence, Elizabeth, and Robin from Streetfilms. Please RSVP if you’ll be […]
Bike-Share Is for Short Trips, Not Four-Hour Jaunts
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One of the stranger threads to come out of yesterday’s announcement that Citigroup will sponsor NYC bike-share is the complaint that it will cost a lot to take long rides on the system. The usually bike-savvy Gothamist ran the headline “CitiBike, NYC’s Bike Share, Will Cost $77 For A Four-Hour Ride,” and bike-commuting Reuters blogger Felix Salmon […]
Citigroup to Sponsor NYC Bike-Share at $41 Million Over Five Years
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The largest bike-share system in North America will be sponsored by one of the world’s largest financial institutions. At City Hall today, Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced a $41 million, five-year sponsorship arrangement with Citigroup that will fund most of the cost of implementing NYC’s bike-share network. The system will go by the name “Citi Bike,” […]
Bike-Share Sponsor Announcement Coming Up Later This Morning
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From the mayor’s press schedule: *11:00 AM Announces Sponsor of Bike Share Program with Transportation Commissioner Sadik-Khan City Hall Plaza MANHATTAN *Q & A to follow. A Bike Share station with the sponsor’s decals will be temporarily located in City Hall plaza for the announcement. So the biggest piece of the funding puzzle for launching New […]
Deadly Fourth Avenue in Sunset Park Poised to Get Life-Saving Road Diet
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It’s hard to imagine a street in more dire need of a safety upgrade than Fourth Avenue in Sunset Park, Brooklyn. Lined with schools, senior centers, subway stations, churches and stores — and situated in one of the city’s top walk-to-work neighborhoods — the street is a magnet for pedestrians of all ages. It’s also […]
Give to Streetsblog and You Could Win a Planet Bike Commuter Pack
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Thanks to everyone who’s stepped up and chipped in for our spring pledge drive. Your donations are helping us keep the lights on at Streetsblog and Streetfilms so we can deliver high-quality reporting, commentary, and videos covering the movement for safe streets, effective transit, and livable cities. So now May is upon us, it’s Bike […]
Eyes on the Street: DOT Lays Foundations for Safer First Avenue
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Looks like the concrete has been poured for new pedestrian refuges on First Avenue in the 60s. Courtesy of Flickr user TNoble2008, who reports that the construction work extends up to 70th Street, here are some more shots of the progress on the Upper East Side’s first protected bike lane. Apparently the markings and refuges […]
State GOP: Cuomo’s Transit-Less Tappan Zee Would Be Obsolete on Day One
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This item slipped under the radar late Friday afternoon: The New York State Republican Party is calling out Governor Andrew Cuomo for abandoning transit on the Tappan Zee Bridge. After the feds declined to invite New York to apply for a low-interest loan to finance construction of a transit-less TZB, the state GOP sent out […]
Eyes on the Street: Prospect Park Road Diet in Action
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As first documented by @noahbudnick, the section of the Prospect Park loop south of the lake has had new markings (and a smooth, fresh surface) for a few weeks. On this section you can experience the more spacious 24/7 accommodations for walkers, joggers, and cyclists that will soon expand to the rest of the loop. […]
Free Parking: The Agony and the Lunacy
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A reader passes on this notice, one of many distributed on Park Slope windshields. We present it without further comment.
Quick Hits From the 2012 RPA Regional Assembly
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The tri-state area’s transportation and infrastructure leaders are gathered at the Waldorf Astoria today for the Regional Plan Association’s annual gala. For a few years now, the proceedings at the Regional Assembly have been haunted by the death of congestion pricing and bridge tolls in Albany, and lately the complete gridlock in Washington over a […]