Ben Kallos
Streetsblog Basics
Manhattan CB 8 Votes Against Basic Striped Crosstown Bike Lanes
Last night, by a vote of 25-19 with one abstention, Manhattan Community Board 8 voted against DOT's plan for three pairs of painted crosstown bike lanes on the Upper East Side. Despite four months of deliberations, bike lane opponents managed to achieve their desired outcome last night, sending a strong signal that no bike lane design is too mild to avoid their wrath.
May 19, 2016
DOT Finalizes Weak Bike-Share Station Maps for Manhattan Expansion [Updated]
DOT's bike-share expansion maps for the Upper West Side and Upper East Side are now final, and they're not any better than the draft maps that showed a thinned-out network of stations for some of the city's densest neighborhoods.
July 10, 2015
Can New York City Reform Its Dysfunctional Community Board System?
New York City's 59 community boards often serve as the sole venues where the public can assess and vet street design projects. But they are also structured in a way that inhibits any sort of change, giving de facto veto power over street improvements to a small clique who can serve for life.
May 1, 2015
Ben Kallos Won’t Talk About Why He Wants to Gut the Right of Way Law
On October 8, 2014, the driver of a Roosevelt Island Operating Corporation bus hit cyclist Anna Maria Moström while making a left turn. Moström was mortally injured. Two days later, a Coca-Cola truck driver hit an unidentified 86-year-old man in a crosswalk while turning from E. 96th Street onto Third Avenue. The senior died from his injuries. Both drivers reportedly failed to yield.
March 18, 2015
NYPD: Failure to Yield Caused Crash That Left Cyclist Brain Dead; No Charges
Update: Moström was removed from life support a week after the crash, according to the Post.
October 13, 2014
Kallos Puts Out a Meek Report on Upper East Side Street Safety
The Upper East Side is full of dangerous intersections, and residents are clamoring for bus countdown clocks, benches, and bike racks, according to a two-part report released today by Council Member Ben Kallos [PDF 1, 2]. It's not often a council member releases a report on livable streets, and Kallos should be commended for his interest. (DOT says it "has not received any similar reports from other elected officials.") But the report amounts to a wish list of small fixes, with nary a recommendation to improve street design and enforcement in the neighborhood.
October 3, 2014
Ben Kallos Seeks to Make NYPD Traffic Summons Data Open and Mappable
As part of a raft of bills on government data and transparency, Council Member Ben Kallos has introduced legislation that would require the city to release and map data about where NYPD issues moving violations, among other things. The bill would open up new traffic enforcement information to the public, but it might also require a top-to-bottom overhaul of how city agencies issue and process violation notices.
June 2, 2014
Two Pedestrians Killed in a Month in Same Upper East Side Precinct
Motorists have killed two pedestrians in the 19th Precinct, on the Upper East Side, in the last month. The second victim was a woman hit by a school bus driver yesterday.
May 9, 2014