Ben Fried

Ben Fried is the editor-in-chief of Streetsblog. He joined Streetsblog as a New York City reporter in 2008. Today he oversees Streetsblog's family of sites covering stories of significance to the national movement for better walking, biking, and transit.

Ben graduated from Oberlin College with a concentration in architecture, and he holds a Master’s in Journalism from Columbia University.

He lives with his wife in Ditmas Park, Brooklyn, and he loves the Mets.

Recent Posts

Photo: NYC Mayor's Office
STREETSBLOG NYC

Yesterday’s Times Square Toll Was Terrible — But So Is a Typical Day of NYC Traffic Violence

By Brad Aaron and Ben Fried |
Within half an hour of Thursday's noontime motorist rampage in Times Square, Governor Cuomo was on the scene. At 1:30 p.m., Mayor de Blasio convened a press conference with Police Commissioner James O'Neill and Fire Commissioner Daniel Nigro, confirming the awful toll: one person killed and 22 injured, with four victims in critical condition. Given the high-profile location, the number of victims, and recent instances of people using vehicles to kill for ideology, it's understandable that yesterday's crash drew so much attention. But it's important to recognize that as terrible as the Times Square carnage was for a single incident, the same human toll occurs on a daily basis on NYC streets -- it's just dispersed across the city.

Welcome to the New and Improved Streetsblog

By Ben Fried |
For the first time in nearly nine years, we’re debuting a sitewide redesign of Streetsblog. There were two main goals we wanted to accomplish with this redesign: creating a portal for quick access to important recent stories across every Streetsblog site, and upgrading the front end of the site to work well on the full range of devices that people use to consume media.

Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi Are Falling for Infrastructure Propaganda

By Angie Schmitt and Ben Fried |
We’re going to see a lot of stories about Donald Trump and infrastructure in the next few months, and this reporting will be heavily influenced by a message that has been honed and perfected by the American Society of Civil Engineers. It will be important to see through these arguments and view the Trump infrastructure plan with clear eyes. Already, leading Congressional Democrats […]
A median bus station in Quito, Ecuador. Photo: Ken Smith/Urban Milwaukee
STREETSBLOG USA

Looking to Quito’s BRT as a Model for Milwaukee

By Ben Fried |
With Milwaukee looking to implement a BRT system connecting downtown to the suburb of Wauwatosa, Ken Smith of Urban Milwaukee was eager to get a look at how BRT works in Quito, when he was in the city for the recent UN Habitat III summit. The system impressed him, and Smith wonders if Milwaukee will be able to duplicate the factors that make Quito's BRT successful.
Andrew Cuomo and Chuck Schumer must resist the urge to collaborate with Donald Trump on infrastructure. Trump photo via Gage Skidmore/Flickr; Schumer photo via NASA/Bill Ingalls/Wikimedia Commons

Do Not Collaborate With Hatred

By Ben Fried |
On the day after the election, I watched as Chuck Schumer and Andrew Cuomo, Democrats who represent my state, said they could find common ground with Donald Trump, with Cuomo specifically mentioning “infrastructure” as a potential area of collaboration. Today I’m writing about far more urgent and important reasons to oppose Trump and his agenda.

What Changed Yesterday, and What Didn’t

By Ben Fried |
America just elected Donald Trump, who got a foothold in national politics by fanning a conspiracy about Barack Obama’s country of origin, who ran a campaign premised on a naked appeal to racist anger and resentment, who shredded every norm of conduct on his way to the presidency. He’s going to occupy the White House […]
STREETSBLOG USA

Straightening Out the Vestigial Kinks in Bus Routes

By Ben Fried |
Just a few months after Houston reorganized its bus network to provide more frequent service where more people can use it — without increasing the operating budget — ridership is already on the upswing. A lot goes in to bus network analysis and how to put scarce resources to better use. But some inefficiencies clearly stand out on a […]
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