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
National Transit Union Proposes a Smart Fuel Subsidy
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Tired of hearing about gas tax holidays, bridge toll suspensions, and rebates for drivers? Here’s a policy proposal that will actually improve commutes, not just encourage trips by car: subsidizing fuel for transit systems. As the Wall Street Journal reported earlier this week, rising diesel prices are hitting transit agencies hard (preview only), leading to […]
Car Buyers Pick Their Poison: Free Gun or Free Gas
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With Detroit increasingly desperate to unload inventory, one Missouri car dealership seems to have struck gold with a special promotion: Buyers get a $250 coupon towards either a gun or gasoline. The offer comes from Max Motors, a small dealership south of Kansas City that has slapped the image of a grimacing cowboy wielding two […]
Cartoon Tuesday: Mode Switch
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This number from cartoonist Bob Lafay makes a good companion to last week’s news that some bike models are in short supply throughout New York City, perhaps reflecting the effect of gas prices on manufacturers’ inventories. The panic subsides once you start pedaling.
National Poll: Americans Expect Gas Prices to Rise More
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Fifteen Percent Live Near Convenient Transit Options By a margin greater than four to one, Americans think the price of gas is more likely to hit $5 per gallon than drop to $3 per gallon, according to poll results released last week by Survey USA. With a rash of stories about how drivers are changing […]
Alabama Students Walk to School to Protest Gas Prices
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On their way to class, Brooks High students brave the shoulder along route 72. Perhaps taking a page from their peers in New Jersey, students at Brooks High in Florence, Alabama are ditching their cars in favor of walking to school. The Times Daily of northwest Alabama reports: Students began wondering how much they could […]
Urge Congress to Support Amtrak and Passenger Rail
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Here’s a great way to support transit before we head in to another traffic-snarled Memorial Day weekend. H.R. 6003, the Passenger Rail Investment and Improvement Act, is currently in need of co-sponsors in the House (a version has already passed the Senate). The bill "authorizes Amtrak for the five years Fiscal 2008-2012, provides for capital […]
Trucks Gone Green?
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This image comes courtesy of TrucksDeliver.org, not the Onion. If BP can stand for "Beyond Petroleum," what’s to stop the trucking industry from claiming to "deliver a cleaner tomorrow"? Not much, apparently. In a story about the current practices of K Street lobbyists, the Washington Post reports that even the American Trucking Associations — a […]
Donald Shoup: Planners Are Versed in Parking Politics, Not Policy
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Un-Shoupian parking policy on display on Brooklyn’s Fourth Avenue The Toronto Star gave parking policy maven Donald Shoup some major play earlier this week, running a profile of the UCLA professor excerpted from journalist Tim Falconer’s new book, "Drive." In the piece, we learn why Shoup believes planners are apt to make bad judgments when […]
Northern Virginia Locked In to Congested Roads
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Suburbanites in northern Virginia are finding their streets more clogged with traffic than ever, and, as the Washington Post reported earlier this week, they aren’t about to get bailed out by road-widening projects. Here’s the crux of the problem, told from the Post reporter’s decidedly windshield perspective: Thoroughfares like Rolling Road are the blood vessels […]
Video Contest Seeks Winning Pitch for Transit
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Attention aspiring Streetfilm directors: U.S. PIRG has noticed that transit doesn’t seem to be on the radar of most pols, so it’s enlisting the YouTube generation to help lawmakers see the light. From the U.S. PIRG website: Are you tired of being stuck in traffic? Shouldn’t we have better options? In the last decade, […]
Delaware Senator Dares to Utter the Word “Transit”
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Even as the price of gas turns into a hot-button campaign issue, the presidential candidates are studiously avoiding the "T" word — transit — for the most part. But the notion of driving less and riding more is bubbling up, even in the corridors of Congress. We turn to Delaware Senator Thomas Carper, who made […]
How Much Would You Actually Save With a Gas Tax “Holiday”?
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Drivers depend on gas tax revenue almost as much as they depend on gas. The folks at Jabberwonk have put together a simple gas tax "holiday" calculator. Enter your car’s fuel efficiency and the miles you expect to drive, and the calculator spits out how much you would save this summer if the gas tax […]