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
Back to the Grid, Part 2: John Norquist on Reclaiming American Cities
| | No Comments
Brady Street, which boasts some of the best street life in Milwaukee, has flourished thanks in part to the defeat of a nearby freeway spur and the redevelopment that followed. Photo: Steve Filmanowicz. As mayor of Milwaukee from 1988 to 2004, CNU President John Norquist made urbanism and livability top priorities. Some of his most […]
Back to the Grid: John Norquist on How to Fix National Transpo Policy
| | 2 Comments
The news coming out of Washington last week jacked up expectations for national transportation policy to new heights. Cabinet members Ray LaHood and Shaun Donovan announced a partnership to connect transportation and housing policy, branded as the "Sustainable Communities Initiative." The second-in-command at DOT, Vice Admiral Thomas Barrett, told a New York audience that "building […]
AARP Joins Campaign to Reform National Transpo Policy
| | No Comments
Photo: AARP AARP announced today that it will join the Transportation for America campaign to advocate for a "broad restructuring" of national transportation policy. In a letter sent to Congressional leaders last week [PDF], AARP said that it is "working to enable older adults to live independently in their homes and communities throughout their lifespan, […]
Wiki Wednesday: Funding Green Transportation With CLEAN TEA
| | No Comments
The decline in driving makes the gas tax less reliable as a transportation funding stream. VMT graph: FHWA. One of the big challenges that federal policymakers will soon have to address is how to pay for a new generation of transportation investment. The federal gas tax, pegged at 18.4 cents per gallon since 1993, just […]
Do You Schluff Enough?
| | 3 Comments
Robert Sullivan, author of a recent biking etiquette piece in the New York Times that sparked some heated discussion in the comments section of New York Streetsblog, presents this video introducing the concept of "schluffing." He says the word is meant to evoke "a kind of sleepy riding" not to be confused with schlepping, which […]
Wiki Wednesday: Zürich, Where Transit Gets Priority on the Street
| | 7 Comments
Ready for some transit system envy? This week’s StreetsWiki entry comes from Livable Streets member Andrew Nash, who fills us in on how surface transit became the mode of choice in Zürich, Switzerland: Photo: Nicholas Kibre/Wikipedia The first thing one notices about Zürich is that trams are ubiquitous downtown. The city considered changing its tram […]
LaHood to Bike Advocates: U.S. DOT Will Be Your “Full Partner”
| | 4 Comments
BikePortland‘s Jonathan Maus is down in D.C. today for the National Bike Summit, where Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood gave the opening address this morning. From Maus’s recap: Photo: Jonathan Maus At the outset of his remarks, he said, “I want all of you to know you have a full partner at the US DOT in […]
Cartoon Tuesday: Triple Parking
| | No Comments
Head over to Toronto bike advocacy blog Take the Tooker for the denouement to this transportation fable. Hat tip: Greater Greater Washington.
Boston Gets Serious About Bike-Share
| | No Comments
The AP reports that Boston is looking to launch a bike-share program — and not the skimpy, half-hearted variety: The city has put out a request for proposals to create a bike share program. The proposal envisions a network of 150 stations scattered across the city with 1,500 bicycles available to students, commuters and visitors […]
Meet the New White House Director of Urban Affairs
| | No Comments
Here’s newly appointed White House director of Urban Affairs Adolfo Carrión back in his Bronx Borough President days, striking a pose with Transportation Alternatives’ Noah Budnick in 2006. The picture was snapped on Bike to Work Day, which Carrión observed every year by sponsoring a ride. Overall, his record as an urbanist left much to […]
Wiki Wednesday: Bike Boulevard
| | 5 Comments
The inclusion of $825 million for Transportation Enhancements in the stimulus package should help pay for a lot of bike projects. Writing for Citiwire this week, transportation analyst Sam Seskin suggests investing a chunk of that stimulus money in bicycle boulevards, as opposed to bike lanes or cycle tracks. What are bike boulevards? This week’s […]
Hope Springs Eternal for American Transpo Policy
| | No Comments
In case you missed the broadcast on Friday, watch this episode of NOW. Told mostly from the perspective of Charlotte’s Pat McCrory, the Republican mayor who brought light rail to North Carolina’s biggest city, the show hits just about every major transportation issue to surface during the stimulus bill debate. Federal policies that discriminate against […]