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
Eyes on the Street: Foot Traffic Pours Into Jax Heights Plaza
| | 18 Comments
Reader Marcus Woollen submits this picture of the Jackson Heights pedestrian plaza on 37th Road taken yesterday afternoon. This is the same plaza that some local merchants have described as “a graveyard” and “a ghost town.” What they don’t realize, apparently, is that they’re sitting on a gold mine of foot traffic. Someone just has […]
Gridlock Sam on Traffic, Tolls, and Big Ideas for NYC Transpo Policy
| | 57 Comments
New York City is coming up on the four year anniversary of a moment that will live in infamy for transit riders and sustainable transportation advocates: the demise of congestion pricing, which was put down in the state Assembly without a vote on April 7, 2008. The city lost a great opportunity that day to […]
CBS 2 Reporter Files Dispatch on Pedestrian Deaths While Driving Distracted
| | 5 Comments
The distracted drivers over at CBS 2 News have outdone themselves. Even when the topic turns to pedestrian fatalities and the script does a decent job of describing the problem, the genius producers who brought you “Mobile 2” make their reporters file from a roving deathtrap with a satellite link. Watch reporter Kathryn Brown struggle […]
Details of Sam Schwartz’s “Fair Plan” and Other Orcutt+Komanoff Highlights
| | 15 Comments
NYU students got a sweeping overview of NYC transpo and traffic issues from two of the city’s top thinkers this afternoon, as DOT Policy Director Jon Orcutt and independent analyst/congestion pricing advocate Charles Komanoff took turns on the mic at a forum moderated by NYU Law School professor Roderick Hills. I got so caught up […]
Monday: No More Detour on the Manhattan Bridge
| | 2 Comments
After a seven and a half month detour, the time is finally upon us: Starting Monday, cyclists can return to the north side of the Manhattan Bridge, and pedestrians can go back to the south side. The days of biking on the harrowing Bowery detour are just about over, and knock on wood, there were […]
The Street of the Future: No Humans Necessary
| | 31 Comments
This 45-second simulation of cute miniature jelly beans multi-ton driverless vehicles navigating the intersection of twin 12-lane monstrosities was featured on Atlantic Cities yesterday, and it’s been making the rounds via Twitter. With Google engineers tooling around in vehicles that drive themselves, it looks like the 1950’s-era dream of cars on autopilot zooming about on […]
How NYPD Botched a Bike Fatality Investigation and Blamed the Victim
| | 19 Comments
One of the appalling revelations at the City Council hearing on NYPD traffic safety policies was the rarity of full-scale investigations into crashes that injure or kill people. Unless the victim dies at the scene or is deemed likely to die, the police who are trained to look into traffic crashes won’t take the case. […]
The Prospect Park Road Diet: A Big Improvement That Only Goes Halfway
| | 39 Comments
At a public meeting tonight, the Prospect Park Road Sharing Task Force will present a plan to double the amount of space for pedestrians on the Prospect Park loop and reduce confusion between pedestrians and cyclists during the vast majority of time that the park is car-free. The Prospect Park Alliance established the task force last July […]
The Biggest Bike-Share Beneficiaries Won’t Be Cyclists
| | 9 Comments
This column on the “super-users” of Boston’s Hubway bike-share system was a breath of fresh air after reading some of our local NYC coverage depicting bike-share planning as a raging conflict between car owners, pedestrians, and bike advocates. Writer Jonathan Simmons does a quick profile of the Hubway customers who use the system more than anyone […]
Americans Can’t Afford a Highway-Centric Transportation Bill
| | No Comments
Gas prices, you may have heard, are on the rise again. And so is pandering about pain at the pump. Four years after $4 a gallon gas spawned “Drill, Baby, Drill” and insane political gimmickry on the presidential campaign trail (remember the “gas tax holiday” favored by John McCain and Hillary Clinton?), gas price populism […]
Truffula Buffs Rebuff Mazda: The Lorax Selling Cars? Enough Is Enough!
| | 12 Comments
If you read Dr. Seuss’s The Lorax growing up or you read it to your kids today, then the sight of Mazda trotting out the protector of Truffula trees to hawk cars may have stirred deep feelings of revulsion. Our friend the Zozo has a petition on Change.org for you: In these advertisements Mazda and Universal claim […]
Ad Nauseam: Universal’s “The Lorax” Sells Mazda’s “SkyActiv” Cars
| | 6 Comments
It’s an ad that could only be made long after Dr. Seuss went to his grave. A cobalt blue Mazda CX-5 crossover SUV (26 mpg city/35 highway) coasts along a remarkably roadkill-free asphalt strip through a bucolic landscape of fluffy Truffula trees. Against an audio backdrop of chirping birds, lightly strummed strings, wistful whistling, and […]