[Open-transport] naming: Transit vs Transport

Fri Feb 20 09:59:08 UTC 2015

Hello,

Indeed usage varies even within the English language.

"Transportation" (US English) is usually called "transport" (UK
English). This is the very general term for any mechanized way of
movement, including bicycles but generally not walking unless it's in a
multi-modal combination. It includes private cars and anything else that
moves people or goods (I may be missing some of the nuances of UK
English but this is the basic idea).

"Transit" or "public transit" (US English) mean shared vehicles like
buses and trains, but generally not taxis. "Mass transit" usually refers
to the heavier, high capacity modes like suburban rail. The equivalent
UK English term is "public transport". Note that private cars are never
referred to as "transit", as transit is connoted to be public, and it
doesn't include freight transport.

The "food digestion process" meaning that Pieter mentioned for "transit"
does exist in French, but if it exists in US English at all it must be a
completely technical usage that only doctors or biologists would know.
It might have that meaning in other Latin languages (Elf I suppose you
can evaluate that yourself for Italian) but most French people I know
who work in transportation technology have seen the English word
"transit" so much that they will readily use it with this meaning in
conversation.

And good suggestion Pieter, WordReference is an excellent resource for
this kind of translation questions.

-Andrew

On Fri, Feb 20, 2015, at 10:39, Pieter Colpaert wrote:
> Hi Elf,
> 
> RE transport, transportation or transit, see 
> http://forum.wordreference.com/showthread.php?t=146246 → native EN 
> speakers don't have a clue either ;)
> 
> But... MapOurTransit sounds to me like you're going to map the food 
> transit, from eating to elimination in stool (don't know whether native 
> speakers would make this connection as well). Thus, I would prefer 
> MapOurTransport.
> 
> Furthermore, be aware that FixMyTransport already exists (yet it has 
> been closed down): http://www.fixmytransport.com/
> 
> Kind regards,
> 
> Pieter
> 
> 
> On 2015-02-20 09:44, ☮ elf Pavlik ☮ wrote:
> > Howdy!
> >
> > We did some more work in last two weeks on tooling for generating GTFS
> > feeds based on crowdsourced data: mapping with GPS devices + editing OSM
> > + manual entry of timetable information into spreadsheets. Please expect
> > proper announcement with links in next days!
> >
> > We consider naming it in a similar way to FixMyStreet - MapOurTransit, I
> > wonder how do you see use of Transit / Transport terminology?
> >
> > GTFS uses General *Transit* Feed Specification, also *Transit*
> > Developers group[2]. Then *Transportation* Camp and of course this Open
> > *Transport* WG.
> >
> > I don't see it as a big deal, still would appreciate your feedback which
> > we would take into account in terminology which we use in that project.
> >
> > Thank you :)
> >
> > [1] https://developers.google.com/transit/gtfs/
> > [2] https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/transit-developers
> > [3] http://transportationcamp.org/
> > [4] http://transport.okfn.org/
> >
> >
> >
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> 
> 
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