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
Sooner or Later, the Cuomo Fare Hike Is Coming
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Earlier this week, Streetsblog contributor Charles Komanoff crunched the numbers to see what could happen if Governor Andrew Cuomo doesn’t follow through on his pledge to restore the $320 million in MTA funding cuts he signed into law on Monday. The cost to commuters, the economy, and public health, he found, could substantially outweigh the […]
NYC’s Most Frequent Voters Depend on Transit, Want Safer Streets
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Despite the millions of New Yorkers who ride subways and buses and the thousands of life-altering traffic injuries suffered by residents of the five boroughs every year, transit and safe streets are typically second- or third-tier issues in the city’s big-time political campaigns. The 2013 mayoral election could be different: NYC DOT’s program to re-orient […]
Give to Streetsblog and Streetfilms and Enter to Win a Rickshaw Bag
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The year-end pledge drive for Streetsblog and Streetfilms is in full effect. Thanks to everyone who’s contributed so far to support high-impact news, commentary, and videos that make the case for safer streets and sustainable transportation. If you haven’t contributed yet, here’s a little extra incentive. Give between now and the end of the week, […]
A Day in the Life of a Pop-Up Café
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Take a break this weekend from the unrelentingly bleak news about Governor Cuomo’s stealth attack on the transit system, and enjoy this time-lapse of the new pop-up café at Local on Sullivan Street. Up until this July, a camera at this location would only have recorded the occasional act of parallel parking and feeding the […]
Streetfilms Shorties: NYPD Traffic Agents Wave Drivers Into People
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Last month we noted that Ray Kelly’s NYPD made a highly visible show of bike enforcement in Prospect Park in response to a pair of crashes where cyclists injured pedestrians. Normally, police don’t react so decisively to locations with high crash rates, but in Prospect Park, the 78th quickly handed out more tickets to cyclists […]
With 8 Percent Bump in 2011, NYC Bike Count Has Doubled Since 2007
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The New York City Department of Transportation recorded an eight percent increase in the number of people biking into Manhattan below 50th street this year. The bike count has now doubled since 2007, when the city’s first on-street protected bike lane was installed on Ninth Avenue. This year’s increase is less than the double-digit increases […]
Support Your Online Voice for Livable Streets: Give to Streetsblog
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Hardly a day goes by without news of another American city getting serious about a new bike-share system, transit boulevard, or highway teardown. Cities are grappling with how to move beyond the 1950s-era cars-first mentality, and the opportunities for change are palpable. It’s also unusual to go a day without seeing some news report claiming […]
Brian Williams Doesn’t Get How Streets Work. Will His Four Million Viewers?
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Here’s the profile of New York City Transportation Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan that aired on “Rock Center with Brian Williams” last night. The show reaches more than four million people, which isn’t enough to win its time slot but adds up to a lot more eyeballs than the print circulation of any NYC daily paper. In […]
After the Service Cuts: Riders Cram on to Overburdened, Unreliable B61
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Toward the end of a press conference at the corner of Fourth Avenue and 9th Street this morning, Council Member Brad Lander remarked that not a single B61 bus came by during the 15-minute event. This was only fitting, since Lander was unveiling a new report from his office that found most rush hour B61 […]
Tuesday: Manhattan CB 11 Hosts Hearing on East Harlem Bike Lanes
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Next Tuesday, Manhattan Community Board 11 will take up the extension of protected bike lanes on First and Second Avenue up to 125th Street in East Harlem. This is the critical safety project that the owners of Patsy’s Pizzeria and Milk Burger tried to derail at a recent CB 11 meeting by claiming that it […]
Suggested Locations for Additional NYPD Traffic Enforcement
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The Park Slope Patch and the Brooklyn Paper both reported this week that the 78th Precinct will soon be ticketing cyclists in Prospect Park, in response to two crashes in the past six months where cyclists injured pedestrians on a downhill slope of the park loop. Now that NYPD has shown a willingness to respond […]
Awaiting NYPD Checkpoints for NYC’s Most Dangerous Streets
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This was the scene on the Prospect Park loop Saturday afternoon. With two pedestrians having sustained serious injuries in collisions with cyclists on the southwest side of the park over the last six months, NYPD and the Parks Enforcement Patrol set up at the base of the hill where the crashes happened. (The Daily News, […]