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

A median bus station in Quito, Ecuador. Photo: Ken Smith/Urban Milwaukee

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 […]

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 […]

Before You Get Too Excited About Seattle’s Big Transit Expansion…

By Ben Fried |
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

By Ben Fried |
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 […]

A Car-Free Downtown and Other Ideas From Portland’s Mayoral Debate

By Ben Fried |
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

By Ben Fried |
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

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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