Motorcycle Taxis in Newark, New Jersey, 1926

Taxicabs are not always automobiles. The term came from nineteenth-century "cabriolet" carriages whose passengers paid fares that were calculated by "taximeters." The taxicabs in this photograph are motorcycles. They offered convenient point-to-point transportation -- whether between transit systems or simply around town -- to paying Newark, New Jersey, customers in the mid-1920s.