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
Bike-on-Ped Update: NYC DOT Confirms Error; NYPD Data a Big Unknown
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We have a confirmation from the NYC DOT press office that the stats on bike-on-ped injuries Streetsblog published last week were based on faulty interpretation of data from the state DOT’s traffic injury database. From NYC DOT spokesperson Seth Solomonow: We did a search last week that was wrong. We did have information that we […]
DMI to Gov Candidates: New Yorkers Need to Know Your Transit Platforms
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John Petro and Dan Morris at the Drum Major Institute have a great op-ed in the Albany Times-Union today, asking the candidates for governor how they plan to deal with New York’s transit funding crisis. With the largest MTA service cut in a generation barely behind us, the third fare hike in three years looming […]
Correction: State DOT Keeps No Records of NYC Bike-on-Ped Injuries
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Last week we ran a post in response to CBS2’s “Bike Bedlam” series in which we published a table showing a downward trend in NYC bike-on-ped injuries. In response, we received a few inquiries about how the data was collected and what it represents. After following up with agencies and organizations involved in crunching crash […]
Port Authority Decides Church and Vesey Doesn’t Need Safety Specialists
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Church and Vesey is one of the most crowded and busy intersections in the city. With about 15,000 people walking across Church during peak weekday hours, the foot traffic is heavier there than anywhere in Times Square. A recent decision by the Port Authority could jeopardize those pedestrians starting this Friday. It ain’t pretty, but […]
Mischaracterizations From Marty Seep Into Vacca Op-Ed on PPW Bike Lane
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City Council Member Jimmy Vacca has made several public shows of support for street safety initiatives since taking over as chair of the transportation committee at the beginning of the year. To draw attention to the statewide complete streets bill, he stood with Speaker Christine Quinn at 23rd Street, using the Ninth Avenue bike lane […]
Eyes on the Street: Protected Bike Lane Discovered on Columbus Ave
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Felix Morales tries out the freshly painted lane on his scooter. Photo: Ken Coughlin After a lot of great advocacy from the Upper West Side Streets Renaissance and a down-to-the-wire vote at Community Board 7 this spring, DOT crews are laying down the first on-street protected bikeway above 34th 59th Street, on Columbus Avenue between […]
What They’re Saying About Protected Bike Lanes in East Harlem
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Writing letters to the mayor in support of protected bike lanes for uptown. Photo: BicyclesOnly/Flickr Last Saturday, a group of volunteers with Transportation Alternatives set up a table on East 117th Street, gathering handwritten letters urging Mayor Bloomberg to extend protected bike lanes up to 125th Street, as originally planned. I’ve been meaning to write […]
“Bike Bedlam” Fact Check: NYC Bike-Ped Injuries Drop From Low to Lower
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Editor’s note: Streetsblog has retracted this post. The information on bike-on-ped crashes is not accurate. Read the full correction for an explanation of how we acquired the erroneous data and how we determined it was incorrect. Pedestrian injuries sustained citywide in collisions with bicyclists pale beside the more than 10,000 pedestrian injuries and deaths sustained […]
What Sane, Responsible Bike Coverage Looks Like
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Regrettably, the embed code for the opening volleys in CBS2’s "bike bedlam" series is busted, so you’ll have to actually visit the CBS2 site to watch the three-minute segments that ran in between Volkswagen and Hyundai spots the last two nights. Instead I’m posting the above video courtesy of the Beeb. It shows something I […]
Paterson Signs Two Traffic Justice Bills Into Law
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On Friday evening, New York Governor David Paterson signed two bills intended to make streets safer by giving law enforcement greater leeway to bring charges against reckless drivers. Diego Martinez and Hayley Ng were killed when a van left idling and unattended careened backwards into a group of pre-schoolers on a Chinatown sidewalk. The driver […]
NYCDOT Releases Landmark Ped Safety Study, Will Pilot 20 MPH Zones
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To make walking safer, New York City will re-engineer 60 miles of streets per year and pilot the use of neighborhood-scale 20 mph zones, the city’s top electeds and transportation officials announced this morning. The commitments are among several street safety measures unveiled today, accompanying NYCDOT’s release of a landmark report analyzing the causes of […]
Safer Streets Are Out of Control! A CBS2 Special Investigation
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Before you get to the outrageous part of this post, first an announcement from reader Steve Vaccaro: If you get your fill of Summer Streets tomorrow by noon or earlier, please come by the Target Community Garden on East 117th Street between First and Pleasant Avenues, for a brunch hosted by Transportation Alternatives East Side […]