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
What Went Unsaid at Last Night’s Debate
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At last night’s presidential debate in Nassau County, the best opening for Barack Obama and Mitt Romney to talk about transportation policy came when undecided voter Phillip Tricolla asked the following question of the President: QUESTION: Your energy secretary, Steven Chu, has now been on record three times stating it’s not policy of his department […]
How Much Bang Are Cities Getting From Federal BRT Bucks?
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How substantial are the benefits delivered by federal investment in bus rapid transit projects, and how can the feds help local governments build better bus improvements? A new report from the non-partisan Government Accountability Office [PDF] looks at the results of BRT projects that have been completed in 20 cities since 2005, when SAFETEA-LU expanded federal […]
Help Put Our Spring Pledge Drive Over the Top (and Win Free Comics)
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We’re rounding the final turn in our spring fundraising campaign, and thanks to hundreds of generous donations to Streetsblog and Streetfilms the finish line is within sight. Just $3,500 in donations this week and we’ll reach our goal of raising $30,000 by June 1. Your support enables us to produce high-impact content making the case […]
London’s Bike-share How-To
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[Editor’s note: This post comes to us from Streetsblog NYC, but San Franciscans may also find the video useful (and exciting) in anticipation of the launch of the Bay Area’s bike-share system in August.] For your viewing pleasure this weekend, here’s the animation produced by Transport for London explaining how to use Barclays Cycle Hire — the 570-station […]
Flashback: The Mother of All Streetfilms
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Hey SF, Aaron is out with a nasty bug today, so to keep your content craving sated I thought I’d share this proto-Streetfilm from 2004, which Clarence Eckerson recently unearthed for a museum exhibit about the history of NYC activism. It’s about the campaign to get cars out of Manhattan’s Central Park. Anyone who lives […]
Give to Streetsblog and You Could Win a Planet Bike Commuter Pack
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Thanks to everyone who’s stepped up and chipped in for our spring pledge drive. Your donations are helping us keep the lights on at Streetsblog and Streetfilms so we can deliver high-quality reporting, commentary, and videos covering the movement for safe streets, effective transit, and livable cities. So now May is upon us, it’s Bike […]
London Mayoral Candidates Vie to Be the Most Bike-Friendly
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Remember the Times of London’s “Cities Fit for Cycling” campaign? Earlier this year one of the most prominent dailies in the UK launched an all-out blitz to make bicycling safer in British cities, complete with a comprehensive policy platform. The campaign is for real: The Times is now getting London mayoral candidates on the record […]
From Minnesota to Mississippi, Telling Congress to Save Bike-Ped Programs
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For more than 20 years, federal funding for bike and pedestrian safety has enabled American cities and towns to invest in transportation projects that state DOTs would otherwise have overlooked. Thanks to these programs, communities have helped main streets thrive, provided kids with safer routes to school, and made biking an attractive transportation option. The […]
The Street of the Future: No Humans Necessary
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This 45-second simulation of cute miniature jelly beans multi-ton driverless vehicles navigating the intersection of twin 12-lane monstrosities was featured on Atlantic Cities yesterday, and it’s been making the rounds via Twitter. With Google engineers tooling around in vehicles that drive themselves, it looks like the 1950′s-era dream of cars on autopilot zooming about on massive elevated highways has morphed into a thoroughly […]
Truffula Buffs Rebuff Mazda: The Lorax Selling Cars? Enough Is Enough!
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If you read Dr. Seuss’s The Lorax growing up or you read it to your kids today, then the sight of Mazda trotting out the protector of Truffula trees to hawk cars may have stirred deep feelings of revulsion. Our friend the Zozo has a petition on Change.org for you: In these advertisements Mazda and Universal claim that a new automobile […]
Americans Can’t Afford a Highway-Centric Transportation Bill
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Gas prices, you may have heard, are on the rise again. And so is pandering about pain at the pump. Four years after $4 a gallon gas spawned “Drill, Baby, Drill” and insane political gimmickry on the presidential campaign trail (remember the “gas tax holiday” favored by John McCain and Hillary Clinton?), gas price populism is back […]
Six Lies the GOP Is Telling About the House Transportation Bill
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The transportation-plus-drilling bill that John Boehner and company are trying to ram through the House is an attack on transit riders, pedestrians, cyclists, city dwellers, and every American who can’t afford to drive everywhere. Under this bill, all the dedicated federal funding streams for transit, biking, and walking would disappear, leading to widespread service cuts and more injuries and deaths […]