THE VIDEO SHELF · us public transport history
Taken for a Ride - The U.S. History of the Assault on Public Transport in the Last Century
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.
Why HN readers recommended it
HN cites it as the go-to documentary on how car-industry interests undermined US transit.
This is a summary from the source dataset, not an endorsement by Hacker News or the video creator.
Video & recommendation details
- Creator / channel
- PEACE REBEL
- Topic
- us public transport history
- Format
- documentary
- Level
- general
- HN recommenders in dataset
- 2
- HN mentions in dataset
- 5
- Recommendation years in dataset
- 2015–2025
These counts and years describe the included Hacker News records; they are not YouTube views or the video’s publication date.
From the original HN conversations
Excerpts from the recorded comments. Follow each source for the full comment and surrounding discussion.
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]
myth_buster on Hacker News · 2015-08
In The Uber endgame: privatized public transitand 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 …
caravaggi0 on Hacker News · 2018-12
In Fundamental rule of traffic: building new roads makes people drive more (2015)
Summaries, classifications and recommendation records are from the HackerTube source dataset. Read about this library and its limitations.