Commonly Used Transit Acronyms
| AA | Area Agency on Aging |
| ADA | Americans with Disabilities Act |
| AHTD | Arkansas State Highway and Transportation Department |
| APTA | American Public Transit Association |
| ATA | Arkansas Transit Association |
| CDL | Commercial Drivers License |
| CTAA | Community Transportation Association of America |
| DBE | Disadvantaged Business Enterprise |
| DD | Developmentally Disabled or Developmental Disability |
| DOT | Department of Transportation |
| E&D | Elderly and Disabled (Elderly Persons and Persons with Disabilities) |
| FFY | Federal Fiscal Year |
| FHWA | Federal Highway Administration |
| FRA | Federal Rail Administration |
| FTA | Federal Transit Administration |
| FY | Fiscal Year |
| HHS | Health and Human Services |
| ISTEA | Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act of 1991 |
| MPO | Metropolitan Planning Organization |
| NPRM | Notice of Proposed Rulemaking |
| RTAP | Rural Transit Assistance Program |
| SAFETEA-LU | Safe, Accountable, Flexible and efficient Transportation Equity Act of 2003 - A Legacy for Users |
| TEA-21 | Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century |
Commonly Used Transit Terms
| Accessible Vehicle | A vehicle equipped with a wheelchair accessibility package or ramp which allows passengers using wheelchairs to enter, exit, and ride the vehicle. |
| American with Disabilities Act (ADA) | A civil rights law passed by Congress in 1990, which makes it illegal to discriminate against people with disabilities in employment, services provided by state and local governments, public and private transportation, public accommodations and telecommunications. |
| AHTD | Arkansas State Highway and Transportation Department |
| ATA | Arkansas Transit Association |
| Bus | A self-propelled rubber-tired vehicle that (1) operates on streets and roads without being confined to a fixed guideway; and (2) is designed to accommodate 15 or more persons based upon size and design. |
| Commuter | A person who travels regularly between the same two points for the same reason, usually employment. |
| Contract Route | A route operated to accommodate rides for which another agency (i.e., human service agencies or elderly programs) has contracted for the service. |
| Demand-Responsive | A transportation service characterized by flexible routing and scheduling of relatively small vehicles to provide door-to-door or point-to-point transportation at the users demand; and, that operates either on the street and highway system (e.g., taxicab) or on a guideway. |
| Department of Transportation (DOT) | The Federal Department of Transportation. |
| Disabled Individual | An individual who has a physical or mental impairment, which substantially limits one or more major life activities. |
| Express Service | Service along a route that provides higher speeds and fewer stops than generally found on other portions of a system or on the same route in local service. |
| Fare | The designated payment for a ride on a passenger vehicle, whether cash, tokens, transfer, coupon, or pass. |
| Federal Transit Administration (FTA) | A part of the United States Department of Transportation which administers the federal program of financial assistance to public transit (formerly known as the Urban Mass Transportation Administration or UMTA). |
| Fixed Route | Transportation service operated over a set route or network of routes generally on a regular time schedule. |
| Intercity Transportation | Transportation service between cities, usually on a fixed route, fixed schedule by certified carriers. |
| Intracity Transportation | Transportation service within a city. |
| Metropolitan Planning Organization | The agency designated by law as responsible for developing transportation plans and programs within an urbanized area. |
| Operating Cost | The recurring costs of providing transit service, i.e., wages, salaries, fuel, oil, taxes, maintenance, depreciation, insurance, marketing, etc. |
| Paratransit | One of several forms of small-capacity passenger transportation including taxis, car pools, specialized vans, Dial-A-Ride, and shared-ride. |
| Park-and-Ride | A type of transportation where a single occupant (usually) drives to a designated point by private auto and transfers to a public mode of transportation such as bus, rail, vanpool, carpool, etc. for the remainder of the trip. |
| Passenger | A person (excluding the driver or crew members) who rides a public transportation vehicle. |
| Passenger Miles | The total number of passengers carried by a transit system divided by the number of miles traveled. |
| Passenger Trip | One person making a one-way trip from origin to destination. One round trip equals two passenger trips. |
| Public Transportation | Transportation by a conveyance that provides regular and continuing general or special transportation to the public, but does not include school bus, charter, or intercity bus transportation or intercity passenger rail transportation provided by AMTRAK. |
| Ride-sharing | A transportation service which includes carpooling, vanpooling, buspooling and transit. |
| Rural | A community with a population with less 5,000 population |
| Transit System | The facilities, equipment, personnel, and procedures needed to provide and maintain public transportation service. |
| Transportation | Movement of people or goods from one place to another by public or private means. |
| Urban | The term used to describe cities. The size of those areas is differentiated by calling cities of more than 50,000 population "urbanized areas" and those of 5,000-50,000, "urban areas". |
Arkansas Transit Association
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