ABSTRACT
The intercity bus provided a new means of moving people in mass throughout urban and rural America in the early 20th century. In the age of road motor transport the bus was the public transport service to everywhere. Bus transport in the United States originated in the second decade of the 20th century when numerous entrepreneurs throughout the nation ran local services between nearby communities using automobile sedans or stretched-out cars, more commonly known as jitneys. With no formal schedules or routes, there were only improvised picking-up points. Travelling experiences during the Second World War considerably weakened this positive depression era image of bus terminals as centres of activity and progress. During these years many Americans were forced from their cars onto buses and trains, which by 1944 were responsible for 41.4 per cent of passenger miles in contrast to 11 per cent in 1939. By the 1960s car ownership among Americans had risen noticeably.
