BIKE: Taken for a Ride?

[Michael Bluejay]

I'm playing devil's advocate about the film _Taken for a Ride_, which 
posits that GM conspired to kill streetcars:

	http://BicycleUniverse.info/transpo/takenforaride.html


Here's a local showing of the film:

> Wednesday, June 29, 7 p.m.
> Third Coast Activist Film Night at Alamo Drafthouse Cinema, "Taken for 
> a Ride"
> Why does the United States 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 were 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.
> "An important piece of American history, and a powerful critique of 
> the influence of corporate wealth on our daily lives. I hope it will 
> be widely seen. We desperately need to stop the destruction of our 
> cities and make them clean, beautiful places to live." - Howard Zinn
> Location: Alamo Drafthouse Cinema (4th and Colorado).
> Tickets ($6.50 general, $5 student/senior) are available at the event 
> or online at http://www.originalalamo.com/downtown/