"Taken For A Ride" Free Showing
The 1996 documentary “Taken For A Ride” is being shown for free on Wednesday (8/27) at 7pm at the Colony Theatre. The 52-minute piece documents what is believed to be “death by intent” of public rail transit at the hands of big auto companies such as GM. From the back cover of the video jacket:
-->Following a long buried trail of auto/oil industry schemes, Taken for a Ride exposes the dummy companies, secret stock transactions and propaganda campaigns that motorized one third of the nation’s streetcars. Tracks were torn up overnight, and ear splitting, bone jarring buses took the trolley’s place. Scores of American cities lost their streetcars, including five of the nation’s ten largest. The same players, organized as “the highway lobby,” then campaigned for a network of urban freeways that would destroy America’s downtowns and turn the dream into a nightmare.
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August 20th, 2008 at 11:39 am
What a great job the auto companies have done for this country. I wouldn’t be sad to see all 3 go in the tank, and at least 1 will soon.
August 20th, 2008 at 11:58 am
I don’t think there’s really an excuse for the auto makers. I bought a Prius last year which I could sell for a profit right now. There is a clear market for The Car 2.0. Chevy is coming with the Volt, but really, hybrids are a small step above what Henry Ford designed.
There is plenty of room for innovation and no room for pity. We need cars that are ultra-safe, drive themselves, and are much more efficient. I get 43 mpg. That’s evolutionary. How about 200 mpg, or simply full battery electric? How about Hydrogen? Those are revolutionary, not evolutionary ideas.
Most injurious accidents are caused by speed differential, not raw speed. We’ve seen how efficiently computers can control trains, amusement park rides, inventory control, and other facets of life that have made life incredibly more efficient. There’s no doubt that bulk traffic loads could move better with a computer running things.
I’ll argue any day that the freedom and efficiency by low-occupancy vehicles has been a major key to America’s dominance in the world economy. It isn’t faultless by any means, and there is plenty of room for enterprising people to take it to the next level. Didn’t one of those auto makers give us the line “lead, follow, or get out of the way”? Time to practice what they preach.
August 21st, 2008 at 2:32 pm
I certainly don’t wish the demise of the auto companies and all those workers, but I do hope they do take on a much more groundbreaking perspective from an energy consideration to the styling of their vehicles.