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
Motorists Critically Injure Two NYC Pedestrians in Past 48 Hours
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Separate crashes in the past 48 hours have critically injured two New York City pedestrians. On Saturday afternoon around 2 p.m., an unidentified 81-year-old woman was crossing Woodhaven Boulevard in Queens when she was struck by a tow-truck driver turning left from westbound Atlantic Avenue. The woman sustained severe trauma to the head and was […]
After Bloody Week in Brooklyn, Markowitz Blasts Pedestrian Safety Measures
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We’re one week into the new year, and 2011 is off to a vicious start on Brooklyn streets. In the last few days, a speeding livery cab driver plowed into a Sunset Park sidewalk, injuring a mother and her two nine-month-old twins; a hit-and-run driver knocked a boy out of his stroller and ran over […]
Vacca, City Council Agree to Deeper Budget Cuts to Keep Parking Cheap
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Speaker Christine Quinn’s office just announced that the City Council has reached a budget deal with the Bloomberg administration, restoring some services slated for cuts and targeting others instead. There’s also one case where the council successfully fought to prevent the city from raising revenue to fund more services. A proposal to increase parking meter […]
Will NYPD Enforce Cycling the Effective Way or the Useless Way?
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The Brooklyn Paper reported today that police precincts across the borough, following orders from the top of the department, will soon embark on an enforcement campaign targeting cyclist infractions. A Streetsblog source who’s spoken to the 78th Precinct verified that a coordinated effort to step up cycling enforcement is in the works. We’ve written here […]
Eyes on the Street: Parking Anarchy and Icy Biking
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We’ve got a few post-blizzard shots from the Streetsblog Flickr pool to share this afternoon. Reader BicyclesOnly took this pic of the Sands Street approach to the Manhattan Bridge, crammed full of parked cars this Sunday. Apparently, in the anything goes period after the blizzard, the bike path became a de facto parking lane and […]
Blizzard of Discontent
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We haven’t had the full reckoning promised by the City Council yet, but it seems safe to say that a few things contributed to the uproar over unplowed NYC streets over the holidays: 1) There was a lot of snow; 2) the Bloomberg administration didn’t declare a snow emergency, and 3) apparently many motorists could […]
The 2010 NYC Streetsies, Part 3
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This is our last post for 2010, and today is also the last day you can vote in the Capitol Hill Streetsies (vent your frustration with Chris Christie over there). Have a great New Year, Streetsblog readers — we’ll see you back here on Monday. Activists of the Year: Every December it gets tougher to […]
The 2010 NYC Streetsies, Part 2
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Nadir of the Year – Transit Division: This vote wasn’t even close. Low points don’t get much lower than the worst service cuts in a generation. In June, more than a dozen New York City Transit bus lines were eliminated, service was reduced on dozens more, trains started to run less frequently, and platforms got […]
The 2010 NYC Streetsies, Part 1
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We’re kicking off this year’s NYC Streetsies with the good stuff — the best street redesigns, transit enhancements, policy innovations, and advocacy moments of 2010. Tomorrow we’ll round up the bad stuff. And on Thursday we’ll recognize the people and personalities who shaped the past year. Streetsblog will be back on our regular publishing schedule […]
Cast Your Vote For the 2010 Streetsies
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Even after 51 weeks of reporting on NYC’s sustainable transportation and street safety scene, it’s still somewhat stunning to sit back and pore over the sheer volume of news that happened in the past year. 2010 was an epically bad year for transit riders, leavened by some important flashes of innovation. New York also saw […]
Pre-Holiday Crowdsourcing Project: Map NYC’s Busted Crosswalk Displays
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View Larger Map We’ve got a nice piece of interactive reporting you might want to contribute to on your trip home tonight or while you’re making some holiday shopping rounds. Alex Goldmark at Transportation Nation is collecting photos and locations of NYC’s crosswalk signals gone haywire — the ones that show both the “Walk” and […]
Send a Thank You to the People Who Are Changing NYC Streets
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2010 is almost over, and it’s about time to step back and assess all the progress that’s been made in just the past 12 months. This year alone, New York City has seen the transformation of Broadway near Union Square, the taming of traffic on Prospect Park West, the launch of Select Bus Service on […]