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Taken for a Ride - The U.S. History of the Assault on Public Transport in the Last Century

PEACE REBEL · 449.3K views · 2014-07-01 · 56:25

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Overview

A 1996 documentary on the twentieth-century American decline of public transport and the role of car companies and the highway lobby in it. It is best known for its account of GM's streetcar buyouts.

On Hacker News

HN cites it as the go-to documentary on how car-industry interests undermined US transit.

Recommended by 2 HN people across 2 months · HN mentions 2015–2025

Topics

Transit, cities & urban planningWorld historyDocumentaries & storytelling
Search by tags
streetcarshighway lobbygmurban transitcar dependence

What people said

caravaggi0 · 2018-12 · Recommendation

and building trains makes people ride trains. The fundamental rule is path of least resistance, literally and figuratively. It also matters who has the powerful interest. Seen this? Taken for a Ride - The U.S. History of the Assault on Public Transport in the Last Century [VIDEO]

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myth_buster · 2015-08 · Recommendation

I think the documentary Taken for a ride(1996) [0][1] which showed up on /r/Documentaries [2] is perhaps relevant to this discussion. [0] [LINK] [1] [VIDEO] [2] [LINK]

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wonder_er · 2025-01 · Reference

most us cities did have subways (or streetcars), then GM bought 'em all and shut them down. [0] [0] Taken for a Ride - The U.S. History of the Assault on Public Transport in the Last Century: [VIDEO]

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Sources

Video by PEACE REBEL, played through YouTube.

Data and selection notes

HN summaries and labels may contain AI errors. HN dates refer to discussions, not video publication.

HN Library: HackerTube export (2026-10-31) and open-index/hacker-news. Upstream summaries and classifications may contain AI errors.

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