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
Komanoff: 2,000 New Cabs Will Add as Much Traffic as 80,000 Private Cars
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Transportation analyst and Streetsblog contributor Charles Komanoff is out with a piece in Reuters today that examines the traffic impacts of adding 2,000 new yellow taxis to Manhattan streets, and it’s not pretty. As part of the grand bargain struck between Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Governor Andrew Cuomo that will create a new class of […]
Quinn’s Parking Agenda Gives Nothing to the 54 Percent Who Don’t Own Cars
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On Monday we published the revised schedule for this week’s City Council hearing in James Vacca’s transportation committee. Out with oversight of the MTA budget and its consequences for straphangers, in with bills to make parking more convenient. Maybe we were being a little unfair with that post, because the person who ultimately sets the […]
CB 2 Committee Asks DOT to Study Lafayette Avenue Bike Lane
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It only took Hilda Cohen and Ali Loxton ten weeks to collect 1,600 signatures supporting a traffic-calming redesign, including a bike lane, for Brooklyn’s Lafayette Avenue. Yesterday evening they took their petition to the transportation committee of Community Board 2 and made their case. The result: a 9-1 committee vote asking DOT to study Cohen […]
How Many Cops Does It Take to Ticket a Cyclist?
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A few readers have written to Streetsblog with anecdotal evidence that NYPD is ramping up its crack bicycle ticketing operation this January. (It seems to be triggered by the calendar; last year’s NYPD bike crackdown also got going in January.) Police are certainly reviving their tough-on-cyclists PR campaign, bragging to the Post earlier this week […]
From the Calendar of City Council Transportation Chair James Vacca…
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This piece of City Council scheduling hit the Streetsblog inbox on Friday and was too groan-inducing not to share: The Pet Peeve Committee strikes again.
Safety Fix for Prospect Park Entrance on the Agenda at CB 14 Tonight
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We have a late breaking addition to the Streetsblog calendar. Tonight the transportation committee of Brooklyn Community Board 14 will be discussing DOT’s plan to add more pedestrian space and realign the intersection of Parkside Avenue and Ocean Avenue at the southeast entrance to Prospect Park [PDF]. The redesign will be made possible by relocating […]
Two Drivers Struck and Killed Man in Williamsburg This Morning
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The Post is reporting that a Williamsburg man was killed this morning as he crossed Borinquen Place near Keap Street. The victim, 57-year-old Lepoldo Hernandez, was walking to meet a friend to carpool to work when he was struck by two drivers in succession. The first driver was traveling eastbound, and the second driver struck […]
Turning a Parking Ticket Into a Bike Purchase
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Via NYC livable streets all-star Dani Simons, whose new Tumblr you really ought to be following, comes this marketing innovation from Swedish ad agency Goss and sports good company Sportspec. The flyer next to the parking ticket can be traded in for a discount on a Sportspec bike purchase. Writes Simons: A clever and opportunistic campaign. It […]
The Upside of Cuomo’s Convention Center Plan: Urbanism on the West Side
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After Andrew Cuomo’s State of the State address last week, Streetsblog looked a little closer at the governor’s plan to build the nation’s largest convention center at the Aqueduct racino in Ozone Park, Queens. Counting on a huge convention center near JFK airport to deliver economic development seemed like a dubious proposition, but the other […]
How to Make Your Own Free Parking Near the Atlantic Yards Site
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Via Norman Oder at Atlantic Yards Report, here’s a variety of parking scofflaw that we’ve never come across before on Streetsblog. In the video, an early morning car commuter, presumably someone working on the nearby Barclays Center arena project, apparently decides that the last parking space on this block of Pacific Street (between Sixth Avenue […]
Dear Giant Bicycles, Please Bring This Ad Campaign to America
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Reader Paul Murphy sends along this ad from the Australian division of Giant Bicycles. The spot, by the Melbourne-based firm Leo Burnett, started airing last summer as part of Giant’s “Real Riders” campaign. Imagine if images of grocery bags slung over handlebars could somehow saturate the airwaves as much as sleek new luxury sedans gliding […]
Red Flags for Transit in Cuomo’s State of the State Address
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Governor Andrew Cuomo focused heavily on jobs and the economy in his 2012 State of the State address this afternoon. He also devoted a few minutes to his infrastructure initiatives. Yet, despite serving as chief executive of the state where residents depend the most on transit service and transit infrastructure for access to jobs, Cuomo […]