Sociology 3945: Worksheet--"Taken for a Ride: General Motors and the Demise of Mass Transit"

1. What percent of Americans owned automobiles in 1922? What was the major method of transportation, particularly in cities?

2. How was General Motors involved with eliminating streetcar lines in major cities?

3. When General Motors and its corporate allies were convicted of criminal anti-trust violations for their role in the above process, what was the penalty?

4. Who created and who headed the National Highway Users Conference in 1932?

5. How did GM promote the Federal Interstate Highway System and when did Congress authorize that system?

6. When citizen protest developed in the 1960s, what were the central issues, and were the protests effective?

Sociology 3945: Groups--"Taken for a Ride: GM and the Demise of Mass Transit"

1. Would streetcar systems have been eliminated and replaced by diesel busses even without the illegal activities of General Motors and the companies that joined them in forming National City Lines? How would you support your conclusions?

2. How would the United States be different if we still had high quality, large-scale mass transit in cities large and small? Do you think the overall quality of life would be better or worse?

3. Which model of the power structure in the United States is more consistent with what you saw in this video: power elite or pluralist?

4. The episode which seems to best fit the power elite model is the decision to build the Interstate Highway System. Do a power elite analysis of that decision.