Enhancing Airport Access with Emerging Mobility (2025)
Chapter: Glossary
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"Glossary." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2025. Enhancing Airport Access with Emerging Mobility. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.
doi: 10.17226/28600.
Glossary
| 5G | Fifth generation wireless technology standard for cellular mobile communications. |
| Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) | Advanced air mobility (AAM)—including urban air mobility (UAM) and regional air mobility (RAM)—is the broad concept of a safe and efficient aviation transportation system that can transport passengers or cargo within and between urban and suburban areas as well as smaller communities. |
| Airport Access | “The process by which people and goods travel from their local origins to nearby airports. The people include air passengers, airport and airline employees, persons accompanying the air passenger to the airport, and casual visitors. The goods include freight, mail, fuel, and items used at the airport” (Gorstein et al. 1978). |
| Articulated or Bellows Bus | A bus divided into two or more sections that are connected by flexible joints. These joints, often referred to as “articulations,” allow the bus to bend and articulate; this makes it longer and gives it a larger capacity than a transit bus. The most common design includes a hinge or accordion-like section in the middle of the bus, which facilitates maneuvering through city streets in the urban areas where it is used. |
| Automated People Mover (APM) | “A guided transit mode with fully automated operation, featuring vehicles that operate on guideways with exclusive right of way” (American Society of Civil Engineers 2002). |
| Automated Vehicle | Vehicle that can automate some or all driving tasks (e.g., steering, acceleration/deceleration, traffic signal compliance, and object detection and avoidance) through sensory inputs and specialized algorithms (Ha et al. 2020). |
| Coasting | Method of charging batteries for some electric vehicles. While a vehicle is moving forward without using battery power, kinetic energy generated by the wheels’ rotation is transformed into electricity. |
| Connected and Automated Vehicles (CAVs) | Vehicles that leverage both connectivity and automation to remove human operators from the driver’s seat, thereby reducing the likelihood of human error (e.g., speeding, distracted driving, and driving under the influence). |
| Driverless Vehicle | Vehicle with an elevated level of automation (SAE Levels 4 and 5) that does not require intervention by a human driver, even as a fallback. |
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Suggested Citation:
"Glossary." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2025. Enhancing Airport Access with Emerging Mobility. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.
doi: 10.17226/28600.
| First and Last Miles (FLM) | The segments of the passenger journey that require travelers to find an additional mode of transportation—besides the plane—to reach the airport from their local origin and to arrive at their final destination from the airport. |
| Florida Project | The planning and development of Walt Disney World during the 1960s. |
| Ground-Effect Vehicle (GEV) | Vehicle that can move over a surface by using the reactions of the air displaced by its wings as air is pushed against the surface of the earth or water. |
| Hybrid-Electric Vehicle (HEV) | A vehicle with a traditional internal combustion engine and a fuel tank, as well as one or more electric motors and a battery pack. Any vehicle that utilizes more than one form of onboard energy to achieve propulsion is considered a hybrid. |
| Intercity Rail Passenger Transportation | Rail passenger transportation that connects cities together via long-distance routes; however, intercity rail does not include commuter rail passenger transportation. Commuter rail involves short-haul rail passenger transportation in metropolitan and suburban areas, usually with reduced fare, multiple-ride, and commuter tickets as well as morning and evening peak period operations. |
| Internal Combustion Engine (ICE) | An engine that generates motive power by burning gasoline, oil, or another fuel with air inside the engine. As the hot gases produced by this reaction expand, they are used to drive a piston or do other work. |
| Low-Speed Automated Vehicle (LSAV) | Automated vehicles that operate as public transportation and offer shared mobility services. |
| Maglev | A pod and magnetic levitation–based mode of transportation in a vacuum-sealed tube or system of tubes that operates in a low-pressure environment to reduce drag, increasing efficiency to drastically reduce travel times. Superconducting magnets on both train cars and guideways create magnetic fields that can be used to levitate, accelerate, decelerate, and lower trains along the guideways. |
| Microtransit | Shared transportation that combines traditional fixed-route transit and ride-hailing technology. |
| Mobility-as-a-Service (MaaS) | Digital apps and related technologies that enable users to plan, book, and pay for different offers and combinations of mobility services. |
| Multiport | Airport facilities where different modes of transportation are fully integrated and interconnected. The combined multiport facility is used by passengers of different transportation modes, with the option for passengers to connect with other services. |
| Older Americans Act of 1965 | First legal act to assist in the development of new or improved programs in rural areas. Initially meant to aid older communities, this law is considered the beginning of government assistance in rural communities, which tend to have large populations of older adults. |
| Park-and-Ride | System for reducing urban traffic congestion in which drivers leave their cars in parking lots outside of a city and travel to the city center on public transportation. |
Page
239
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Suggested Citation:
"Glossary." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2025. Enhancing Airport Access with Emerging Mobility. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.
doi: 10.17226/28600.
| Platoon | Group of vehicles traveling in close proximity to one another, nose to tail, at highway speeds. A lead vehicle is followed by several other vehicles that closely match their speed and maneuvers to the lead vehicle. |
| Regenerative Braking | An electric vehicle’s motor converts some kinetic energy into electricity, whereas traditional brake pads cause energy loss through heat. |
| Ride-Hailing | A customer orders a customized ride from an electronic device, usually via a smartphone app. |
| Robot Taxi | Driverless vehicle (SAE Level 4 or 5 automation) operated for a ridesharing company. |
| Shared Mobility | Shared use of a motor vehicle, bicycle, or other low-speed transportation mode that allows users to obtain short-term access to transportation as needed. |
| Slow-Moving Conveyor Mechanism | Moving walkway that transports people across a horizontal or inclined plane over a short to medium distance, usually between 1,000 and 5,000 feet. |
| STOLport | Facilities designed for the operation of short takeoff and landing (STOL) vehicles, aerial vehicles that can take off and land on short runways (typically, runways shorter than 5,000 feet). |
| Urban Air Mobility (UAM) | New air transportation system that enables passengers and cargo to travel in and around densely populated and built environments with the use of electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft. These aircraft are equipped with innovations such as enhanced battery technologies and electric propulsion. |
| Vehicle-to-Cloud | Vehicle connectivity to internet services, which facilitates software, map, and weather updates. |
| Vehicle-to-Everything (V2X) | Vehicle connectivity with all sensors, cameras, and wireless technologies—like Wi-Fi, radio frequencies, and LTE and 5G cellular technologies—that allow cars to share information with each other, their drivers, and their surroundings. |
| Vehicle-to-Grid | Vehicle batteries that receive electricity from the power grid and can act as suppliers to the grid during peak demand. |
| Vehicle-to-Home | Vehicle batteries that can be used to power users’ homes as either backup power sources or as alternatives to utility power grids. |
| Vehicle-to-Infrastructure (V2I) | Vehicle technology that uses cameras and dedicated short-range communications to detect, parse, and exchange data with roadway infrastructure (traffic signals, roadway signs, lane markers, etc.). |
| Vehicle-to-Pedestrian | Vehicle technology that establishes direct communication with a pedestrian by detecting and responding to their actions, typically via the pedestrian’s personal device. The scope of this technology can also apply to other vulnerable road users, such as cyclists (Sewalkar and Seitz 2019). |
| Vehicle-to-Vehicle (V2V) | Vehicle connectivity that enables exchange of movement information between connected vehicles. This connection can improve safety, traffic flow, and environmental impact. |
Page
237
Share
Suggested Citation:
"Glossary." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2025. Enhancing Airport Access with Emerging Mobility. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.
doi: 10.17226/28600.
Page
238
Share
Suggested Citation:
"Glossary." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2025. Enhancing Airport Access with Emerging Mobility. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.
doi: 10.17226/28600.
Page
239
Share
Suggested Citation:
"Glossary." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2025. Enhancing Airport Access with Emerging Mobility. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.
doi: 10.17226/28600.
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