rapid transitn.adj.

1870 N.Y. Times 3 Feb. 8 A public meeting was held..for the purpose of considering the questions of the exemption of bonds and mortgages from taxation, rapid transit and other matters of general interest.

1903 W. D. Howells Lett. Home i. 3 The whole place is filthier, with the pulling down and building up, the delving for the Rapid Transit.

1952 J. S. Kendall Golden Age New Orleans Theater i. 1 When the little Louisiana capital was still struggling for existence..there were no railroads or parlor cars, no rapid transit.

2004 J. McCourt Queer Street iii. 30 The latter were driven to wonder about and begin (very often early-on via the seductive availability of rapid transit) to seek out if not yet the City of Night, then certainly the City of Twilight.

1872 N.Y. Herald 19 Jan. 5/2 Their room has been filled by crowds of all sorts from New York and Brooklyn, all expecting some legislation to be put through on the rapid transit plan.

1890 W. Carleton City Legends 128 Then the leader said: ‘Dere's nothin' 'gainst de rapid transit plan—Jus' you get to hebben, my bredren, any honest way you can!’

1920 F. S. Fitzgerald This Side of Paradise i. iii. 111 I am instructing Mr. Barton to specialize on such things as Northern Pacific and these Rapid Transit Companies, as they call the street-cars.

1961 L. Mumford City in Hist. xiv. 425 Señor Soria y Mata..boldly proposed to make the new city a function of a spinal rapid-transit system.

1976 Illustr. London News Nov. 29/2 A rapid transit system is essentially one with an exclusive right of way.

1994 Sci. Amer. Mar. 6/2 An aid to relieving the badly congested traffic conditions in the famous downtown ‘Loop’ section of the elevated rapid-transit lines.