Media Watch
Streetsblog Basics
NYPD Blames Victim After Box Truck Driver Kills Cyclist Corbin Carr, 17, in Hell’s Kitchen
In light of the department's track record of putting out misleading crash information, initial police accounts can't be trusted in the absence of video evidence or testimony from witnesses other than the driver.
June 29, 2017
Crowding Is a Symptom of What Ails the Subways, Not a Cause
The Times came out with a piece on subway delays this morning that's getting heavy play on Twitter. It has some compelling visualizations of the rise in ridership and decline in reliability, but it starts off by framing poor service in a way that obscures the root of the subway's troubles.
June 28, 2017
Blaming People for Wearing Black Wins the Prize for Anti-Pedestrian Idiocy
It takes a special kind of callousness to say that pedestrians are making city streets dangerous by wearing black. And yet, that's exactly what the Seattle Times did this weekend.
May 31, 2017
The Today Show Completely Botched Its Coverage of America’s Pedestrian Safety Crisis
They say you should never let a crisis go to waste. Well, there's a life-threatening crisis happening for people who walk in this country, but our national media is wasting this chance to inform the public how to fix it.
March 31, 2017
Truck Crash on Freeway Paralyzes Traffic. Seattle Times: Ditch the Bike Lanes!
Last month, a truck crashed on a major Seattle freeway, paralyzing traffic for miles. The whole episode demonstrated the fragility of the freeway system, and the need for more resilient transportation networks. But the Seattle Times had a hotter hot take. The real culprit, according to the paper's editorial board? Bike lanes.
March 7, 2017
The Scarcer the Parking, the More Room for Things That Make Cities Tick
More housing, more jobs, safer streets, less parking. Let's keep it up.
February 1, 2017
To This New Yorker, NYC Drivers Seem Almost Homicidal
Inspired by Michael Levin's recent piece in the Daily News.
December 8, 2016
NYPD and the Paranoid Narcissist’s View of Change on NYC Streets
Police park for free everywhere and observe the city through their windshields. They think most New Yorkers share this point of view, but they're badly mistaken.
December 5, 2016
The 4 Biggest Sins Committed By Reporters Covering Pedestrian Deaths
Each year, motorists on American streets kill nearly 5,000 pedestrians. The loss of life is enormous -- equivalent to 12 jumbo jets crashing with no survivors -- but the steady drumbeat of pedestrian fatalities doesn't register as an urgent public safety crisis. Maybe it would seem more urgent if the press covered pedestrian deaths as the preventable outcome of a broken system, instead of a series of random "accidents."
October 3, 2016
When Media Outlets Cover Delivery Cyclists, They Rarely Talk to Them
NYC's mostly-immigrant food delivery cyclists don't have it easy, working on car-centric streets through all sorts of weather, all while under pressure to make their deliveries as quickly as possible.
July 29, 2016
