jitney

[Sallie Lemons]

In New York, there is a "jitney" that leaves from Manhattan and goes to
several towns in the Hamptons. It is a privately owned bus company with a
prescribed route.

James Smith wrote:

> The only use of "jitney" with which I am familiar is
> for cars, vans, and small trucks used in unregulated,
> free-market mass transport in places such as Africa,
> the Phillipines, and Mexico and Central America
>
> --- Drew Danielson <drew.danielson at CMU.EDU> wrote:
> > OK, first let me acknowledge that my grammar tanked
> > in my last message.
> > I hereby "grammar-flame" myself.
> >
> > I did some reading on the word "jitney" yesterday.
> > From what I was able
> > to dig up on the Internet, it generally refers to
> > independently-owned or
> > private vans or small buses that usually follow a
> > fixed route.  But
> > sites that describe a "jitney" in Pittsburgh
> > consistently refer to
> > independently-owned, for-hire cars (with drivers).
> > In an informal
> > interview with a Pittsburgher at the gas station
> > where I bought some
> > cigarettes last night the gentleman stated,
> > "Pittsburgh's cornered the
> > market on jitneys."
> >
> > I wasn't able to find this definition in connection
> > to other cities
> > (searching on google.com for "jitney" "[name of
> > city]").  The Victoria
> > Transport Policy Institute defines "jitney" thusly,
> > "[j]itney services
> > use vans or small buses to provide self-financing,
> > privately operated
> > transit service."  In this case, it's used as a
> > technical term for a
> > type of shuttle service.
> >
> > Note:  In my searching, I found that there's a play
> > by August Wilson
> > about a Pittsburgh jitney driver currently playing
> > on Broadway (it's
> > called: "Jitney").
>
> =====
> James D. SMITH                 |If history teaches anything
> SLC, UT                        |it is that we will be sued
> jsmithjamessmith at yahoo.com     |whether we act quickly and decisively
>                                |or slowly and cautiously.
>
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