We watched “Taken for a ride” documentary that finally gave an answer to my inquiries about American transportation. I am European and, before, I never quite understood why Americans use drive-ups, rather than doing healthy walking, and—why sitting in traffic for them seems natural, except for the fact that they have so big road arteries and easy free parking spaces, that function as incentive to drive, not to forget that gas prices (very high in Europe) here are very cheap. Moreover, since I started using the bus to commute to campus, I had an impression of some kind of stigma enveloping the bus system, as if it is in use for poor and minorities.
The movie is a semi- historical document, explaining the trends in contemporary American life, an investigative report on a set of social problems and their causes. Issues like our over-reliance on cars and the failures of public transportation to meet the needs of people. The historical causes are identified in General Motors ' projects to shape American life around its own interests. Again, we are talking Capitalism! The documentary is well evidence based on archive documents. Central concerns are on infrastructure and how business interests shape public policy.
The first part shows (General Motor) G. M. 's role in the 1930s and 1940s dismantling of streetcars and taking the space for a bus company. This strategy was intended to push more people into driving cars, since buses were a poor substitute for the streetcars. The
The United State has always been weak in public transportation and mass transit tools. California was once supposed to be different and revolutionized. Trolleys connecting the suburbs to the city and business districts was the main reason why cities expanded vertically. These mass transit tools organized the transits in an extremely environmentally friendly way. But the venue of cars and the thought of independence flattered americans pushing them to each buy a car, synonym of their independence. Now the trains and connecting public transportations have practically disappeared and are irrelevant.
Transportation in the region has a long and successful past. However, public transportation has consistently taken a back seat to the personal automobile. There has been a strong core of persons who rely on public transportation to achieve mobility, and governmental
The wide use of transportation contributes to how society is increasingly turning away from walking. Since, the majority of people drive either their own cars or a form of public transportation regularly they have lost the sense of distance. People may never even know that the daily commute they may take to work is faster to walk to then it is to wait in traffic for. For example, recently my roommate invited me along so she should get a tattoo at a parlor in our hometown. We had to take a bus to get near to the location because it is a bit far away from UCR, but once we got off at a bus stop instead of walking the short distance that would take about 15 minutes we decided to call an Uber. We both haven’t been in our hometown in a while, so instead of enjoying it we decided to take a car. At my high school, students were allowed to drive themselves to the campus beginning junior year. I never got my license during high school, so I would either be picked up by one of my parents or a friend who drove to themselves to school would. However, whenever one of my parents would pick me up they would refuse to pick me up directly in front of the school because of the ridiculous amount of traffic. They had me walk a little over half a mile each day after school to the exact same spot. Even though, half a mile wasn’t a long walk I realized a difference between taking that small walk and being driven home by
Moreover, public transportation is mainly common in means of transportation in and out of NYC due to the convenience, cost, and efficiency of public transportation. It has become more easily accessible due to having subways in nearly every other block,which is cheaper and faster. Public transportation is faster than driving into the city at times since it escapes the traffic on roads since it is underneath. Public transportation contains buses,trains,and light rails as well. Once again, automobile and the city of tomorrow can coexist, but it is not ideal in today’s
From here on, I am going to illustrate my lifestyle in a rural area versus a well developed city. I came from a small village in China. Walking to places has been build on me since I was a little kid; it was one of my habit. Back in the days, nothing seems handy to own. I remembered it was indeed hard to own a small motorcycle, not to speak of cars. On account of that, I treasure walking gratefully. I can walk to my school, relative's house, convenient stores, as well as markets for food. That has been my lifestyle for ten years until I came to the United States. My lifestyle has changed from walking to commuting through buses. San Francisco is a fairly developed city. We can access to every part of SF through muni, and the buses come in very often. Gradually, I start taking the bus to school, to hangouts with friends, and restaurants. I don’t remember when but I started to feel and think buses are so convenient. I rely on buses so much that I became surprisingly lazy. I would choose to take the bus even when the destination is
Many communities a part of metro Atlanta are against the expansion of public transportation since they believe that crime rates increase in their communities. There is also a distorted economic view associated with the main public transportation service. Many natives in Atlanta connect poverty with public transportation, resulting in a higher amount of people choosing to buy and rental vehicles or ride taxis instead of riding Marta. An additional hindrance of the progression of public transportation is gerrymandering, manipulating boundaries in order maintain desired
The author of this article wrote that it is important for the citizens of Detroit to vote for a public rail and bus transit system. Puentes states that there are a myriad amount of jobs but there is also no way to get to them. Although there are many buses, trains and routes in Detroit, there are no connecting routes from one region to another or to the city itself. This makes it harder for people to get to their jobs in less than an hour. Something else the author mentions is that most of the families in Detroit receive low income, so they cannot pay for all the buses needed in order to go to work.
Riding the subway to a New York City resident is nothing new. It’s something that many of us New Yorkers have to use as transportation because living in a crowded city with limited space to drive is not very ideal. For the people who do drive, they do so for personal comfort and convenience. But for us commuters, having to not look for parking and worry about traffic takes up less of our time. On the other hand we experience train delays and disturbances in personal space. Nonetheless, the pros outweigh the cons and using the subway has become a part of our daily routines for many of us New Yorkers. Marc Auge states that, “If he draws himself into the field of his ethnological inquiry, it is no less fitting for his readers to broaden the scope of appreciation of the work for riders.” With that in mind, I observed the connections with my experience riding the subway in a city integrated with many different peoples and cultures.
In 1925, the New York Railways removed 46 miles of tracks to substitute buses. Span argues that the political battle between railways and buses had already been fought by the time General Motors got involved, influencing the type of
Many Americans rely heavily on their cars to get them from place to place. In the past, people walked to get to where they needed to go. In the suburbs for example “walking as a
The Ride is the story of the heinous and gruesome murder of ten year old, Jeffrey Curley, a case that is familiar to many in the Massachusetts area. The book works its way from the grisly crime to the years afterward. It focuses on the family of Jeffrey, heavily weighted on the life of Cambridge Firefighter Bob Curley, Jeffrey’s father. Charles Jaynes and Salvatore Sicari, both from Jeffrey’s neighborhood were convicted of the murder. Within this essay I will demonstrate from The Ride the relationship between reporting and suffering that may have been brought on for the crime victims of this case, the relationship between the victim profiles and the victim family profiles, the role in which the family may have played in the
The review of this movie is based on sociological matters that are outshined in the film and touch on the lives of the individuals, their way of living, morals, behavior and cultural aspects. The film is set in a real society and concentrating much on social issues of the society more than the economic, technological and political status of this society based in New York.
Public transportation is serious need of a massive overhaul in this nation. We are in desperate need to catch up to the European standard of public transportation in this country. In Europe, citizens can travel across cities, bodies of water, and even counties with their state of the art public transportation system. Europeans are not nearly as reliant on cars and oil as the United States is because they have the much more practical option of taking the transportation provided to them by the government to where ever they need to go. They have set a model that the United States needs to strive for and meet in the near future.
Public transportation can help reduce stress caused by driving, save money, and also protect our environment by reducing the number of vehicles on the road. In order to get more people off the road and into the public transportation system we must increase the number of buses and taxis that are available. We must also increase the number of stops available for daily bus routes. With more stops on the map more people are likely to use the bus system. Each city or town will be able to decide where more bus stops are needed and make the adjustments necessary to provide better service for the taxpaying citizens. Of course, none of this is possible without adequate funds in each town/city and the gas tax is guaranteed to provide those funds. Providing more public transportation will help us reach our ultimate goal of protecting the environment and ourselves.
At some point during World War II, G.M became the biggest company in the United States and owned a large number of brands and a financing fund.