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Message Details  Subject: Prepositions preceding modes of
transportation Question: I'm sure this is a useless question,
but it has been bothering me since it occurred to me. Why is it
we travel ''on'' a bus, ''on'' a train, ''on'' a boat, ''on'' a
plane, but ''in'' a car? As we also travel ''in'' cabs and
police cruisers, it begs to reason that it has less to do with
ownership of the vehicle and more to do with the size of the
vehicle.  Nevertheless, the original models for automobiles
weren't enclosed, to it seems likely that the usage would have
favored ''on,'' since the riders were not ''in'' anything.  The
best reason I can think of is that the u