Constituent groups: Constituent groups include
private companies involved in various aspects of transportation,
such as rail, truck, and marine carriers, airlines, and manufacturers
and suppliers of equipment; state and local governments; the research
community; and others such as transportation user groups and associations.
Intermodal: A transportation service making
use of different modes of transportation.
Modal administrations: These are the organizational
units within DOT that are responsible for the various transportation
modes, namely, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), the
Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), the Federal Railroad Administration
(FRA), the Federal Transit Administration (FTA), the Maritime
Administration (MARAD), the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
(NHTSA), and the U.S. Coast Guard (USCG). The Bureau of Transportation
Statistics (BTS) is also included as one of the organizational
units within DOT, although it is not responsible for any individual
transportation mode.
Modes: These are the major types of transportation,
namely, highway, water, rail, air, and pipeline.
Multimodal: Relating to or characterized
by several different modes of transportation.
NSTC Transportation R&D Committee: This
committee is a federal interagency planning group managed by the
White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. The Deputy
Secretary of Transportation, Mortimer Downey, and NASA's Associate
Administrator for Aeronautics, Robert Whitehead, are Chair and
Vice-Chair, respectively, of the NSTC Transportation R&D Committee.
R&D: See "S&T."
S&T: The terms "S&T" (science
and technology) and "R&D" (research and development)
are used interchangeably by the NSTC Committee on Transportation
R&D to encompass basic research, applied research, technology
development, technology deployment, engineering, and education
and training. In DOD terminology, R&D includes all the aforementioned
activities, whereas S&T encompasses only basic research, applied
research, and technology development.
Transportation S&T Strategy Team: This
interagency group, cochaired by NASA and the Policy Office of
the Office of the Secretary of Transportation (OST), is working
to develop a transportation S&T strategy under the auspices
of the NSTC Transportation R&D Committee. Team members include
representatives from the modal administrations within DOT, as
well as from the U.S. Departments of Commerce, Defense, Energy,
and State; the Environmental Protection Agency; and NASA. Representatives
of OMB, OSTP, and the OST Budget Office also participate in team
activities.