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Safer Streets Are Out of Control! A CBS2 Special Investigation
Before you get to the outrageous part of this post, first an announcement from reader Steve Vaccaro:
August 13, 2010
New Report Examines the Media’s Role in the Gas Tax Debate
The success of state-level plans to increase gas taxes is tied to the media's portrayal of the proposals in question, with narratives tied to "crumbling infrastructure" and "economic progress" showing more success than those emphasizing long-term transportation budget gaps, according to a new report released by the University of Vermont's Transportation Research Center (TRC).
May 26, 2010
Brooklyn Paper on PPW: Double-Parking Takes Precedence Over Safety
The self-hating cyclists at the Brooklyn Paper are at it again. A year after siding with a handful of merchants who wanted to erase the Fifth Avenue bike lane, Gersh Kuntzman and the editors of Brooklyn's flagship media property say they don't want to see a protected, two-way bike path on Prospect Park West:
May 7, 2010
Anonymous Bike Lane Opponent Scores Media Coup on NY1
This report on the proposed Prospect Park West bike lane from NY1's Jeanine Ramirez doesn't quite stoop to Marcia Kramer levels of fabrication, but that might make it even more insidious. Slap together a few shots of ill-informed people on the street, add an anonymous flyer, and you've got a story headlined "Park Slope Residents Oppose Addition Of Bike Lane."
April 21, 2010
Reality Check: A Small Fraction of NYC Streets Have Bike Lanes
Cross motorhead journo Marcia Kramer with sidewalk-hogging Brooklyn Beep Marty Markowitz and this is the unholy offspring that you get: A skewed news segment on the proposed Prospect Park West bike lane, where facts don't matter and wild assumptions go unchallenged.
April 14, 2010
Do You Walk in NYC? Then You Don’t Matter to CBS2’s Marcia Kramer
No one warps a two-minute segment about New York City pedestrian improvements quite like CBS2 reporter Marcia Kramer.
April 7, 2010
On American Streets, “Freak Accidents” Are Freakishly Common
This week Sarah has pointed to two bloggers making the case for the removal of both "avid cyclist" and "alternative transportation" from the livable streets lexicon. When it comes to media write-ups of traffic crashes, we nominate "freak accident" to the list of terms slated for obsolescence.
March 23, 2010
NYPD Kisses the Blarney Stone After Ray Kelly Saves the Day
We couldn't help notice that, while police information czar Paul Browne was seemingly chatting up every media outlet in town about his boss coming to the aid of a fallen pedestrian this week, we were adding two letters to our stack of NYPD freedom of information rejections.
March 19, 2010
City Bus Hits and Kills Cyclist on Crotona Avenue in the Bronx
The Daily News and NY1 are reporting that a 57-year-old cyclist was killed by a city bus this morning after riding to avoid an open car door. The NY1 report describes the collision by saying that the cyclist "struck" the bus:
March 17, 2010
With a Chuckle, Daily News Calls for Life-Saving Traffic Tech
We appreciate that the Daily News on Tuesday editorialized in favor of traffic-calming, life-saving traffic cameras. But we don't understand the paper's attempt at levity in its recounting of the city's latest fatality data. Here's a sample:
February 4, 2010