Car culture
Taken For A Ride
A film/video by Jim Klein and Martha Olson, 1996, 53 min.
Addresses a key question:
"Why is U.S. public transportation the worst in the industrial
world?"
Parts (subtitled in the film/video):
1. What’s Good for GM...
Get rid of streetcars to make room for cars
2. The Plot Thickens...
National City Lines (NCL) formed to acquire public transit lines and ruin service
3. Turning Point...
Post-W.W.II exodus from cities to suburbs; busses replace trolleys
4. End of the Line...
NCL destroyed urban streetcars
5. Road to Nowhere...
Highway lobby takes control
6. Trouble in Paradise...
Degradation of air and urban neighborhoods
7. Back to the Future...
"Intelligent vehicles" as highway lobby’s hope
8. Paying the Piper...
Diversity of transport modes is vital to urban life
Optional resources
"Transportation Conspiracies,"
NPR's Sounds Like Science, 16 January 1999 -- "Where did America's streetcars go?
NPR's Dan Charles reports that some people believe General Motors was responsible for a
conspiracy to junk the streetcars in favor of buses." (Time 5:30; requires
RealPlayer 2.0 or higher)
Taken
for a Ride (Video) -- PBS' "Point of View" press release, with brief review
(June 1997)
How
to purchase Taken for a Ride video, with brief reviews (New Day Films)
"The Inside Man: Francis V. Du Pont," in Creating
the Interstate System, by Richard F. Weingroff, Public Roads Online, Summer
1996 (v. 60, n. 1)
Thomas Detwyler maintains this page (tdetwyle@uwsp.edu)
Last updated 7 February 2001
� Copyright 1998-2001 by Thomas Detwyler