Automated Guideway Transit (FTA): Guided transit passenger vehicles operating singly or in multi-car trains with a fully automated system (no crew on transit units). Service may be on a fixed schedule or in response to a passenger-activated call button. Automated guideway transit includes personal rapid transit, group rapid transit and people mover system.

Automated Guideway Vehicle (FTA): Guided transit passenger vehicles operating under a fully automated system (no crew on transit units).

Base Case: A scenario that projects existing conditions into the future. From a transit perspective, the base case would be the current level of transit service (and different "alternatives" would reflect changes to existing service). The base case is sometimes called the "baseline", "no action", or "no build" alternative.

Benefit-Cost Analysis: A methodology to identify, estimate and compare the benefits and costs associated with a particular action (e.g., transportation improvements). A benefit-cost analysis typically considers multiple types of impacts, as they pertain to different groups of people in different areas over time. In project evaluation studies, benefit-cost analysis is conducted to measure economic efficiency and distributional impacts.

Busway (FTA): A roadway reserved for buses only. It may be a grade separated or controlled access roadway. Also known as "Bus Lane."

Capital Costs (Adapted from the FTA definition for "Capital Expense"): The expenses related to the purchase of tangible property or other items eligible to be capitalized (e.g., vehicle tire leasing). Property includes tangible assets with an expected service life of more than one year at the time of their installation, and a unit cost greater than $1,000. Generally, these are any items eligible as a capital expense under federal, state or local requirements.

Commuter Rail (FTA): Long-haul rail passenger service operating between metropolitan and suburban areas, whether within or across the geographical boundaries of a state, usually characterized by reduced fare for multiple rides, and commutation tickets for regular, recurring riders. Also known as "regional rail" or "suburban rail."

Congestion Management: Strategies to reduce traffic congestion, which can include demand management techniques (e.g., tolls) or systems management tools (e.g., better incident response or traffic controls).

Consumer Surplus: The cumulative difference between the costs users perceive they incur and what they would be willing to incur.

Demand Response (FTA): Passenger cars, vans or buses with fewer than 25 seats operating in response to calls from passengers or their agents to the transit operator, who then dispatches a vehicle to pick up the passengers and transport them to their destinations. A demand response operation is characterized by the following: (a) The vehicles do no operate over a fixed route or on a fixed schedule except, perhaps, on a temporary basis to satisfy a special need; and (b) typically, the vehicles may be dispatched to pick up several passengers at different pick-up points before taking them to their respective destinations and may even be interrupted en route to these destinations to pick up other passengers. The following types of operations fall under the above definitions provided they are not on a scheduled fixed route basis: Many origins-many destinations, many origins-one destination, one origin-many destinations, and one origin-one destination. Also called "Dial-a-Ride" and "Paratransit."

Depreciation and Amortization (FTA): The charges that reflect the loss in service value of the transit agency's assets. Depreciation and amortization include the depreciation of the physical facilities such as guideways, tracks and roadbeds, elevated structures, passenger stations and parking facilities, revenue vehicles, operating stations, and facilities (including buildings, equipment and furnishings) for power generation and distribution, revenue vehicle movement control, data processing, revenue collection and processing, and other general administration. Amortization of the intangible costs of the transit agency includes organization costs, franchises, patents, goodwill and other intangible assets.

Direct Costs: Resources used to implement and operate the transit improvement including planning, design, construction, operation, and maintenance.

Distributional Analysis: Evaluation undertaken to determine the degree to which different groups of people are impacted by projects (i.e., accrue benefits, or incur costs). Affected groups may include transportation users or non-users, and impacts are typically assessed with respect to ethnicity, income level, and geography.

Expense Transfers (FTA): Accounts to be used for reporting adjustments and reclassifications of expenses previously reported. Expense transfers include reclassifications of expenses from one function to another; a composite category of expense encompassing labor, fringe benefits, materials and services used in the transit agency's internal information system to reclassify costs between cost centers and work orders; and, a credit account to be used for adjusting entries transferring expenses to receivables, property, or work-in-process for capital projects.

Externalities: Costs that are not internalized in the prices paid for the goods and services needed to build and operate a project - for example, the costs of air pollution on people and property near highways where automobiles and transit vehicles generate pollution. These costs are sometimes referred to as "spillover costs".

Farebox Revenue: Monies collected from transit riders in exchange for transit trips.

Feeder Service: Provides access between linehaul transit service and trip origins and destinations.

Fixed Guideway (FTA): Any public transportation facility utilizing and occupying a separate right-of-way or rails for the exclusive use of public transportation service including, but not limited to, fixed rail, automated guideway transit, and exclusive facilities for buses and other high-occupancy vehicles; and also means a public transportation facility using a fixed catenary system and right-of-way useable by other forms of transportation.

Fixed Route (APTA): Service provided on a repetitive, fixed-schedule basis along a specific route with vehicles stopping to pick up and deliver passengers to specific locations; each fixed-route trip serves the same origins and destinations, unlike demand response. Includes route deviation service, where revenue vehicles deviate from fixed routes on a discretionary basis.

Full-Cost Valuation: Methodology that attempts to identify and quantify all impacts.

Headways: Average time between arrivals of transit vehicles.

Heavy Rail (FTA): High-speed, passenger rail cars operating singly or in trains of two or more cars on fixed rails in separate rights-of-way from which all other vehicular and foot traffic are excluded. Also known as "rapid rail."

High-Occupancy Vehicle (HOV) Facility (FTA): An exclusive or controlled access right-of-way, which is restricted to high occupancy vehicles at all times or for a set period of time. State and/or local officials determine the designation of an HOV facility. Also called "busway," "transitway," or "commuter lane."

Integrated Transit Service: Buses that both collect passengers (i.e., provide feeder services) and go on to carry them in the same vehicle at higher speed in a linehaul fashion.

Intermodal (APTA): Those issues or activities which involve or affect more than one mode of transportation, including transportation connections, choices, cooperation and coordination of various modes. Also know as "multimodal."

Inventory Costs: Opportunity costs associated with storing commodities before they are used.

Level of Service: An indicator of service quality, which may account for average speed, service frequency, reliability, and/or hours of operation.

Light Rail (FTA): Lightweight passenger rail cars operating singly (or in short, usually two-car, trains) on fixed rails in right-of-way that is not separated from other traffic for much of the way. Light rail vehicles are driven electrically with power being drawn from an overhead electric line via a trolley or a pantograph. Also known as "streetcar," "tramway," or "trolley car."

Linehaul Service: Provides high-speed service along a fixed transit route.

Major Investment Study (MIS): A MIS is required when there is a potential need for both a major capital transportation investment and federal funding. A major investment is a transit or highway improvement of substantial cost that is expected to have a significant effect on capacity, traffic flow, level-of-service, or mode share. The decision to initiate an MIS is a local collaborative one typically involving the Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO), transit agency, state DOT, and city and county governments.

Non-Fixed Route (APTA): Service that is not provided on a repetitive, fixed-schedule basis along a specific route to specific locations. Demand response is the only non-fixed-route mode.

Off-Peak Traveler: Transit rider who is not traveling during morning or evening work or school commuting hours.

Operating Costs: Costs associated with salaries, wages and benefits; services; materials and supplies (e.g., fuel, tires); utilities; casualty and liability; taxes; purchased transportation (contracted transportation and services); expense transfers, and miscellaneous expenses.

Opportunity Cost: The value of a resource in its next best use.

Optimal Dispatch Behavior: Behavior that minimizes the total of transit user time and transit agency operating costs.

Option Value of Transit: Theory that people may be willing to pay for a transportation improvement, even if they do not plan to use it regularly, in order to preserve their option to use it.

Paratransit (APTA): Another name for "Demand Response."

Park and Ride Facility (FTA): A parking garage and/or pavement used for parking passengers' automobiles, either free or for a fee, while they use transit agency facilities. Park-and-ride facilities are generally established as collector sites for rail or bus service. Park-and-ride facilities may also serve as collector sites for vanpools and carpools, and as transit centers.

Peak Traveler: Transit rider who travels during morning or evening work or school commuting hours.

Public Transit (adapted from APTA definition for "Public Transportation" and FTA definition for "Mass Transportation"): Another name for "Public Transportation," "Mass Transit," or "Transit." Includes transportation by bus, or rail, or other conveyance, publicly owned, providing to the general public or special service (but not including school buses) on a regular and continuing basis.

Rolling Stock (FTA): The revenue vehicles used in providing transit service for passengers. The term revenue vehicles includes the body and chassis and all fixtures and appliances inside or attached to the body or chassis, except fare collection equipment and revenue vehicle movement control equipment (radios). For rubber-tired vehicles, it includes the cost of one set of tires and tubes to make the vehicle operational, if the tires and tubes are owned by the transit agency.

Secondary Impact: Impacts that derive from the primary impact of building, operating, and maintaining transit facilities and service; some of the major categories include: environmental impacts (e.g., pollution), land use changes, and economic development benefits (including impacts on jobs, income, and profits).

Social Equity: A concept that considers the fairness of the distribution of impacts (see also Distributional Analysis). The determination of "fairness" is essentially a value judgment, and typically considers both horizontal equity (are people in the same situation treated similarly?) and vertical equity (are people in different situations treated differently?).

Transit Center (APTA): A fixed location where passengers interchange from one route or vehicle to another that has significant infrastructure such as a waiting room, benches, restrooms, sales outlet, ticket or pass vending machines, and/or other services.

Transitway (APTA): Another name for "High-Occupancy Vehicle Facility."

Transportation Network: Integrated system of all modes of travel such as carpool, auto, bus transit, and bicycle.

Travel Demand Analysis/Forecasting: Predicting the response of a transit user.

Travel Time: Calculated to include time spent walking, waiting, transferring, and traveling in-vehicle.

Trip Tables: Provides the number of trips, between all possible pairs of origin and destination zones, that are assigned to the network, which are differentiated by mode.

Urbanization Economies: Economic benefits attributable to cities and urban areas as a result of firms and households sharing common resources and infrastructure.

Valuation: The estimated or determined market value of a good or service.