Runabout (carriage)

[3] A typical example was the light buggy used in the 1890s for daily duties by senior staff of the San Francisco Fire Department.

[4] Runabouts could be either fancy or plain, but not encumbered with fenders, heavy tops or optional accessories that added weight.

[3] In 1881, Rufus Meade Stivers produced runabout bodies using a patent held by Joseph Tilton.

[5] Stivers, a blacksmith and wheelwright, produced the runabouts in his carriage manufactory on East 31st Street, Manhattan, established in 1851.

However, buggies titled "runabout" were produced by other manufacturers and soon applied to many different shapes without regard to the original meaning.