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
Relive Yesterday’s Big Bike-Share Announcement
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If you couldn’t be at Madison Square yesterday, not to worry — Robin Urban Smith brings us the video highlights from the big bike-share press conference with Transportation Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan, NYC business leaders, and progressive politicos.
Sadik-Khan Announces a Bike-Share Program That’s Big Enough to Succeed
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Addressing a plaza full of reporters at Madison Square this afternoon, Transportation Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan announced that the city is entering the next phase of its initiative to launch a public bike system stretching from the Upper West Side to Bedford Stuyvesant. The system will be run by Alta Bike Share and consist of about […]
NYC Chooses Alta to Operate Bike-Share System With 10,000 Bikes
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New York City has selected Alta Bike Share to run its public bike-share system, under an arrangement that promises to make bicycling an integral new transit option for hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers. The Public Bike System Company, which supplies systems in London, Washington, Boston, and Montreal, will produce the bikes and kiosks. The […]
NYC to Announce Bike-Share Operator This Afternoon
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The wait is over — the city has selected an operator to run what is expected to be the nation’s most robust bike-share system. This just in from NYC DOT: NYC DOT COMMISSIONER SADIK-KHAN AND DEPUTY MAYOR WOLFSON JOIN ELECTED OFFICIALS AND CIVIC LEADERS TO ANNOUNCE SELECTION OF BIKE SHARE OPERATOR Event: NYC Department of […]
Eyes on the Street: Biking the Beat
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Last week we shared a pic from reader Moocow, who spotted a traffic enforcement agent on two wheels in the South Slope. Today Dave “Paco” Abraham sent in this shot of a New York City police officer making the rounds on a bike. Paco says that this officer left behind a trail of enhanced public […]
Will NBBL Bury the Hatchet or Continue to Wage War on Safer Streets?
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The decision issued by Brooklyn Supreme Court Judge Bert Bunyan Tuesday dismissing the Prospect Park West lawsuit should reverberate in a few ways. Among them: The storyline probably doesn’t have as much allure to the press as it used to. And without the PR value, the opponents’ legal challenges lose a lot of their fundamental […]
That Was Quick
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…and NYC’s first bike corral fills up with a dozen bicycles faster than you can parallel park an Escalade.
Eyes on the Street: NYC’s First Bike Corral Underway on Smith Street
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Reader Jeremy Charette sends this shot from the corner of Smith Street and Sackett Street in Brooklyn, where a crew was installing what I believe to be a genuine first for NYC: on-street bike parking. Eight bike racks are getting bolted into the blacktop in what’s currently a no-standing zone. In addition to the added […]
Shocking Video From the Brooklyn Bridge “War Path”
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Earlier this week we showed Doug Gordon’s incredibly dull video from our ride over the Manhattan Bridge with a member of the Daily News editorial board, a mind-numbingly mundane scene that the paper nevertheless characterized as a “battleground.” The same day, the Post ran a story about the Brooklyn Bridge promenade under the headline “Look […]
Rewind: The Taming and Reclaiming of Prospect Park West
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It’s been nearly a year since we first ran Robin Urban Smith’s Streetfilm on the Prospect Park West redesign. A lot has happened since then, but the lane is working as well as ever and I can’t think of a better way to wrap up this important day for NYC street safety policy than to […]
Must-Read: 94th Pct Detectives Blew Off Near-Fatal Hit-and-Run Investigation
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Camille Dodero at the Village Voice brings us the most in-depth piece of NYC traffic justice reporting in recent memory. It’s the story of Michelle Matson, who was struck from behind and left for dead by a hit-and-run driver while she was riding her bike in Greenpoint last October. While Matson and her boyfriend, James […]
Victory for Safe Streets: Judge Rejects Prospect Park West Bike Lane Lawsuit
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Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Bert Bunyan dismissed the lawsuit seeking to reverse the redesign of Prospect Park West yesterday, putting an end to a protracted, ugly chapter in the annals of NYC street safety improvements. The lawsuit, brought this March by a group of politically-connected opponents who failed to participate in the years of public […]