FILM / VIDEO

TAKEN FOR A RIDE
A film by Jim Klein and Martha Olson / 52 minutes

Why do we spend so much time sitting in traffic? Why does America have the worst public transit in the industrialized world, and the most freeways? Taken for a Ride reveals the tragic and little known story of an auto and oil industry campaign, led by General Motors, to buy and dismantle streetcar lines. Across the nation, tracks were torn up - sometimes overnight - and diesel buses placed on city streets.

The highway lobby then pushed through Congress a vast network of urban freeways that doubled the cost of the interstates, fueled suburban development, increased auto dependence, and elicited passionate opposition. Seventeen city freeways were stopped by citizens who would become the leading edge of a new environmental movement.

With investigative journalism, vintage archival footage and candid interviews, Taken for a Ride presents a revealing history of our cities in the 20th century that is also a meditation on corporate power, city form, citizen protest, and the social and environmental implications of transportation.

“ A story that needs to be told! Taken for a Ride shows courage and determination in uncovering this ‘hidden history.’ It is surprisingly moving and solidly documented.”
-Kenneth Jackson, author of Crabgrass Frontier and Professor of History at Columbia University

“ A tragically important story. This valuable documentary should be seen by anyone interested in the cris of America’s cities and suburbs.”
-James Kunstler, author, The Geography of Nowhere

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