mass transit

Definition of mass transit

chiefly US

: the transportation of large numbers of people by means of buses, subway trains, etc., especially within urban areas also : the system, vehicles, or facilities engaged in such transportation I rode mass transit—first the bus, then Metro—for nearly two decades. — Fred Barnes

Examples of mass transit in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web Under the resolution, designs for new developments and mass transit projects would not allow for developers to jeopardize the safety of bikers and pedestrians by prioritizing drivers. — Jess Nocera, baltimoresun.com, "Howard County Council passes resolutions to ease future Ellicott City flooding, ‘desegregate’ schools," 9 Oct. 2019 Elsewhere in Florida, Jacksonville will get $20 million for sea terminal improvements and Miami $22 million to improve its mass transit corridor as part of the grants. — Steven Lemongello, orlandosentinel.com, "Lake Nona gets $20 million federal grant for driverless bus system, other improvements," 18 Sep. 2019 As a private start-up, Uber represented pure possibility — at its peak, a $69 billion wrecking ball threatening entities as vast as the taxi industry, mass transit networks and automotive giants, all at the same time. — Mike Isaac, New York Times, "How Uber Got Lost," 24 Aug. 2019 Instead, Wilcox said, the focus is often more about mass transit response and evacuating people who don’t have other means to get themselves to safety. — Erin Baldassari, The Mercury News, "Map: These Bay Area towns could face major traffic jams during an emergency," 22 Aug. 2019 California has even mandated that, by 2029, all buses purchased by its mass transit agencies be zero-emission. — Aarian Marshall, WIRED, "Why Electric Buses Haven't Taken Over the World—Yet," 7 June 2019 But the capital city’s mass transit system has been badly damaged by the protests, and U.N. conferences typically rely on a host city’s transportation infrastructure to bring delegates to and from the conference venue. — Jean Chemnick, Science | AAAS, "Unrest in Chile prompts cancellation of U.N. climate conference," 30 Oct. 2019 Without mass transit, that means students must have a car that can make the trip, often over wintry roads. — David Jesse, Freep.com, "Getting to college from rural Michigan is tough. Staying is tougher," 22 Oct. 2019 Of course, the metro was only the grandest form of Soviet mass transit. — Wired, "The Former Soviet Union's Surprisingly Gorgeous Subways," 29 Sep. 2019

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'mass transit.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

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Last Updated

3 Dec 2019

Cite this Entry

“Mass transit.” The Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster Inc., https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/mass%20transit. Accessed 13 December 2019.

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