public transit

noun

variants: or British public transport

Definition of public transit

: mass transit … an annoying little secret of suburban life is that, even with traffic congestion, it's almost always faster to get somewhere in a car than by riding public transit.— Gregg Easterbrook

Examples of public transit in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

According to the American Public Transportation Association’s latest figures, public transit ridership has shown an overall decline of 2.88 percent. — Patrick Sisson, Curbed, "Are Uber and Lyft helping or hurting public transit?," 8 May 2018 Philadelphia isn’t the only major city seeing declines in public transit ridership. — Aubrey Nagle, Philly.com, "Philly's population grows again, Meek Mill's arresting officer once lied to FBI | Morning Newsletter," 22 Mar. 2018 Hopefully none of his guests will have to depend on New York’s failing public transit system to get there. — Lisa Ryan, The Cut, "In Bid to be Cool Governor, Cuomo Is Hosting a Fundraiser at Surf Lodge," 11 July 2018 The Chamber is also recommending the district outsource services like nursing and tech support and suspend bus services for high school students in favor of utilizing the city's public transit system. — Arika Herron, Indianapolis Star, "Chamber calls for nearly $500M in IPS cuts in exchange for support of $100M tax hike," 11 July 2018 From 1896 to 1919, public transit patrons hopped on and off such colorful streetcars open to the breezes, as well as the occasional downpour. — Jacques Kelly, baltimoresun.com, "Jacques Kelly: Museum's restoration of Car 554 brings back the era of open summer streetcars," 7 July 2018 Over the last half-decade, public transit ridership declined nationwide. — Daniel Sperling, Scientific American, "Can Ride-Hailing Improve Public Transportation Instead of Undercutting It?," 5 July 2018 Most of the money is going to public transit operators, but a small slice is going to UCSF and Kaiser Permanente. — Catherine Ho, SFChronicle.com, "Chariot adds commute routes for UCSF employees, with public funding," 28 June 2018 The company proposes to be a last-mile transportation solution, offering commuters an alternative to cars for travel between a public transit station and the final destination, for instance. — NBC News, "Scooter startup Bird raises $300 million in latest funding round," 28 June 2018

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

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public television

public transportation

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Last Updated

8 Oct 2018

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The first known use of public transit was in 1847

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