Awhile back, I was listening to an episode of author James Howard Kunstler's podcast, The Kunstlercast. During it, they suggested that backers of transit systems refer to them as "public transit" rather than "mass transit" to make the concept more palatable to the general population. The reasoning is that "mass" is somewhat of a dehumanizing term and adds fuel to the "transit is communistic" line of doofus logic. Meanwhile people are said to have a better perception of "public" such as "public place" (as in "don't pick your nose in public") or the public library.

 

Thoughts? Should we be calling it public transit on this site and in daily conversation?

"Public Transit" sounds like "public schools", which are socialistic.  Right? 

 

Lets face it the concept is no-win outside of the Northeast, West Coast and a handful of other places. 

Agreed. I hate the term "mass transit".

 

Possible better alternatives:

Public transit

Public transportation

Shared-vehicle transportation

Fixed-route transportation

 

ALL transportation (including cars) in the US is publicly funded. Let's stop acting like only buses and trains get/need subsidies!

 

Alternate less car-friendly wording for roads/cars:

Car-only public roads

mass transportation-it certainly is right now more than buses

congestion

crap the government makes us pay for.