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
Who Would You Like to See Sponsor NYC Bike-Share?
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In London, the bike-share system runs thanks to a $40 million sponsorship deal over five years, including naming rights, with financial giant Barclays. In Boston, the Hubway bike-share system tapped into hometown pride with the selection of Brighton-based shoe company New Balance as the sponsor. In New York, the recently-announced operator, Alta Bikeshare, is looking […]
Jim Walden Gets In Sync With the Tea Party Transportation Platform
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Gotta hand it to Gibson Dunn attorney Jim Walden. Somehow he’s managed to parlay his neighborhood-level “pro-bono” gig suing the city of New York over a popular protected bike lane into national status as a go-to source for anti-bike quotes. Somewhere along the way, Walden dropped the pretense that he’s fighting for “better bike lanes.” […]
In Progress: Better Bike-Ped Access on the South Side of Grand Army Plaza
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Earlier this week we showed some before-and-after shots of the pedestrian improvements on the north end of Grand Army Plaza in Brooklyn. Here we’ve got a batch of pictures from the south end, by the entrance to Prospect Park. These pictures are already a little out of date — DOT has put down an epoxy-and-gravel […]
Hunter Profs: Study of Bike-on-Ped Injuries By Other Hunter Profs “Skimpy”
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The report on pedestrians injured in collisions with cyclists put out by Hunter College professors Peter Tuckel and William Milczarski earlier this week is drawing some criticism from their colleagues. Christine Haughney reports: Thomas Angotti, another professor in the urban planning department, whose office is located three doors down from Mr. Milczarski’s, dismissed the study […]
Fact: Places With High Numbers of Cyclists Are Safer for Pedestrians
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I’ve got a question for the purported defenders of pedestrian safety who sit on the editorial boards at the Daily News and the Post. I know they haven’t shown much interest in preventing the 10,000+ injuries and 150+ fatalities that motorists inflict on pedestrians in New York City each year, but the new Hunter College […]
What’s Causing the Drop in Bike-on-Ped Injuries?
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Well, it didn’t take long for our local media to mangle the Hunter College study measuring bike-on-ped injuries in New York state. Statewide hospital data compiled by professors Peter Tuckel and William Milczarik plainly show a drop in pedestrian injuries caused by cyclists between 2007 and 2010 — the same period when NYC doubled the […]
In Progress: The Reclamation of Grand Army Plaza for Walking
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Construction work is nearing completion at one of the summer’s biggest livable streets projects: DOT’s improvements for pedestrians and cyclists at Brooklyn’s Grand Army Plaza. Spurred by the advocacy groundwork laid by the Grand Army Plaza Coalition, the city has added huge new pedestrian islands on the north side of the plaza and created safer […]
Eyes on the Street: Witness the Birth of Putnam Plaza
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Meet the city’s newest public space: Putnam Plaza. The epoxy and gravel surface just went down on the block of Putnam Avenue between Fulton Street and Grand Avenue in Clinton Hill. Seating and tables should arrive before the week is out. NYC DOT is implementing this pedestrian plaza in partnership with the Fulton Area Business […]
Tonight at Harvard: Aaron Naparstek Presents the Films of Clarence Eckerson
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We’ve got a late addition to the calendar for our Boston-area readers. Streetsblog founding editor Aaron Naparstek, currently a Loeb Fellow at Harvard’s Graduate School of Design, will re-unite with Clarence Eckerson tonight for an evening of Streetfilms screenings and discussion. An hour of Streetfilms will be followed by a Q&A with Clarence and Aaron […]
Tomorrow, You Can Take Bike-Share for a Test Ride
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For the next few weeks DOT and Alta Bike Share will be setting up bike-share demonstration kiosks where New Yorkers can see how it all works and try out the sturdy, three-speed bikes that will be available at 600 stations once the system is up and running. The next demo is coming up tomorrow in […]
Send Us Your Park(ing) Day Pics!
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A quick Flickr search for “Park(ing) Day 2011” this afternoon turned up this excellent rug-based parking spot reclamation all the way down under in Adelaide, Australia. So far, nothing from NYC, arguably the birthplace of the Park(ing) Day concept (though the San Francisco partisans will have something to say about that). C’mon, New York, show […]
James Vacca, NIMBY Accomplice
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So we’ve gone through the initial round of coverage and reactions to Wednesday’s bike-share announcement. Mixed in with a healthy amount of fairly straightforward reporting, there were the predictable slants. The Brooklyn Paper went in search of controversy. The Post and the Daily News editorial boards fantasized about dismemberment and death. Perpetual Soho crank Sean […]