paratransit

English

WOTD – 26 April 2012

Etymology

From para- (“beside”) +‎ transit, perhaps influenced by paraplegia. US from 1972.

Pronunciation

• (US) IPA^(key): /ˌpeɪɹəˈtɹænzɪt/

  • Audio (Midland US, male voice):

    (file)

• (US, rare or nonstandard) IPA^(key): /ˌpeɪɹəˈtɹænsɪt/

  • Audio (Midland US, male voice):

    (file)

Noun

paratransit (countable and uncountable, plural paratransits)

1. An auxiliary transit service without fixed routes or schedules, usually serving the disabled on demand. [From 1972.]
   • 2000, Marco Bristo, Promises to Keep: A Decade of Federal Enforcement of the Americans with Disabilities Act, page 279:

     The disability community had hoped that the submission of ADA complementary paratransit plans to FTA would constitute an opportunity for real monitoring of local progress and that FTA would take action to ensure that transit agencies were in compliance with their plans.

   • 2009 January 18, Gregory Beyer, “For Disabled Riders, New Bumps in the Road”, in New York Times‎^[1]:

     So about twice a week, he calls a day in advance to arrange a trip […] through Access-a-Ride, the city’s door-to-door paratransit service for the elderly and the disabled.

   • 2010, Kenneth Button, A Dictionary of Transport Analysis, page 295:

     In developing countries the form of paratransit modes range from simple non-motorized human, mainly hand-drawn or pedal-driven, or animal-powered vehicles to motorized minibuses.

Translations

auxiliary transit service for the disabled

• Finnish: invataksi (fi)
• Russian: паратранзит m (paratranzit)
• Spanish: paratránsito m, paratransporte m
• Swedish: färdtjänst (sv) c

See also

• paratransit on Wikipedia.Wikipedia