Media Watch

Last week an MTA bus driver crushed a pedestrian to death in Mott Haven. By all accounts the victim, walking with a cane, was in the crosswalk at Willis Avenue and E. 147th Street when the driver ran him over while turning left.

If you're wondering who complains about a wrist-tap fine for speeding through a school zone during school hours -- the type of person who has Council Member Mark Weprin sweating bullets over the city's new 25 mph speed limit -- check out this Times Ledger op-ed from one Bob Friedrich, an Eastern Queens eminence who believes NYC's small and constrained speed camera program is a government conspiracy to balance the city budget on the backs of working stiffs who just want to ignore traffic laws without interference.

Police filed no charges against the MTA bus driver who killed a pedestrian in Bedford-Stuyvesant two weeks ago. Instead, NYPD and the tabloids put the victim on trial.

When the news broke last week that a cyclist had critically injured a pedestrian in Central Park, a number of things happened that you don't normally see after a serious New York City traffic crash.

Earlier this week, in an "investigation" seeking to link bike lanes to traffic congestion, ABC 7 reporter Jim Hoffer drove around Manhattan avenues timing his trips. The station ostensibly wanted to test DOT's numbers showing that average travel times on two streets with protected bike lanes decreased after the lanes were installed.

This just in from the crack investigative team at ABC 7: Driving in Manhattan stinks!

New Yorkers have seen their fair share of malicious press about bikes, from willful ignorance in Daily News editorials to Marcia Kramer linking cyclists to terrorists. But sometimes, it's not maliciousness that causes trouble. A story from WPIX reporter Kaitlin Monte this morning may have been intended to educate the public, but did little more than circulate misinformation. A moment of fact-checking before going on air could have salvaged much of the piece -- and perhaps spotlighted a newsworthy scandal right under the reporter's nose.

I've been trying to put my finger on why this morning's Daily News editorial about slower speed limits got under my skin so much. The core message is fine -- New York does need to measure the impact of new street safety policies. But it's obscured by a thick layer of ignorance.

Earlier this week, BuzzFeed gleaned some fun facts about the Hudson River bridges and tunnels from a Port Authority data dump on the number of eastbound automobiles, buses, and trucks. If you took the numbers at face value, you might be left with the impression that cars are the most important thing moving around New York. But when you measure people instead of vehicles, the numbers look quite different.