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
Welcome to the New and Improved Streetsblog
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Our old site design had a good run, but it was clearly time to implement a modern interface better suited for the breadth of coverage that Streetsblog reporters and editors now produce.
Steve Bannon Would Love to Team Up With Chuck Schumer on Infrastructure
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We mentioned it briefly last week, but Trump advisor Steve Bannon’s comments to the Hollywood Reporter about infrastructure are worth a closer look. It helps explain why Democrats like Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi are making a grave mistake when they line up to help Trump implement this plan. Bannon is the propagandist who entered the Trump campaign team after […]
Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi Are Falling for Infrastructure Propaganda
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We're going to see a lot of stories about Donald Trump and infrastructure in the next few months. It will be important to see through these arguments and view the Trump infrastructure plan with clear eyes.
Do Not Collaborate With Hatred
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Last week, 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. We responded with a post explaining why this was a strategic mistake in terms of transportation policy. Today […]
What Changed Yesterday, and What Didn’t
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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 […]
The Upside of Seattle’s Transit Expansion: High Capacity
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The Seattle region’s 62-mile transit expansion plan has some serious flaws. Namely, the city of Seattle, where the ridership needs are greatest, gets short shrift compared to suburban areas. Zach Shaner at Seattle Transit Blog argues that ST3, as the plan is called, also gets a lot right. Instead of running on defunct freight tracks or operating at-grade […]
Before You Get Too Excited About Seattle’s Big Transit Expansion…
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Read Doug Trumm’s post at the Urbanist about Sound Transit’s $50 billion, 25-year expansion plan, known as ST3, which the agency revealed yesterday. It’s ambitious in scope, but will the new lines meet the region’s most pressing transit needs? Piecing together the project list has been an exercise in regional politics, since voters will decide this November whether […]
Rescuing New Ideas From the Purgatory of Old Bureaucracy
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Your city may have a complete streets policy. Your mayor may say all the right things about making streets work for walking, biking, and transit. But if the inner workings of government — city budgets, agency protocols — aren’t set up to enable big street design breakthroughs, all you’ll get are scattershot improvements. Writing for Network blog Broken Sidewalk, Chris […]
It’s Happening: Construction of Maryland’s Purple Line Set to Start This Year
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Yesterday, Maryland Governor Larry Hogan announced that a contractor has been selected to build the 14-mile Purple Line light rail in DC’s Maryland suburbs. It’s a milestone and a major relief following Hogan’s long history of brinkmanship with the project. Kelli Raboy at Greater Greater Washington posted the happy news: After Marylanders elected Governor Larry Hogan […]
A Car-Free Downtown and Other Ideas From Portland’s Mayoral Debate
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It’s always interesting to see what mayoral candidates say about streets and transportation in a public debate. Who’s done their homework on transportation policy? Who understands in their gut why better streets for walking, biking, and transit are good for the city? Which candidates are willing to take a stand on these issues while making their case to voters? Most […]
Northeast Ohio to State DOT: Road Expansions Getting Out of Hand
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If you could point to one aspect of American transportation policy that’s more disastrous than all the others, expanding highways and roads to the point of absurdity is probably it. In northeast Ohio, cities like Cleveland and Akron were hollowed out by highway building, but the state DOT still privileges road expansion instead of maintenance or investment in transit, […]
Straightening Out the Vestigial Kinks in Bus Routes
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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 […]