Glossary of Environmental and Transportation Terms

Many people are unfamiliar with the environmental studies that must occur with a federally funded transportation project like the ICC. From the Purpose and Need Statement to the Record of Decision, the ICC will undergo an intense environmental analysis in order to determine the appropriate course of action in attempting to satisfy the project needs and comply with the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (NEPA). This section of our web site is designed to provide definitions or meanings of transportation and environmental terms.

• Acceleration Lane

• Alternatives

• Area of Potential Effect (APE)

• Assessment of Potential (AOP)

• At-Grade Intersection

• Average Daily Traffic (ADT)

• Bypass

• Capacity

• Channelized Intersection

• Cloverleaf

• Collector – Distributor Road (C/D)

• Community Impact Assessment

• Congestion Management System (CMS)

• Constrained Long-Range Plan (CLRP)

• Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ)

• Cultural/Historic Resources

• Cycle

• Cycle Length

• Density

• Design Approval

• Design Hourly Volume (DHV)

• Design Speed

• Design Year

• Diamond interchange

• Directional interchange

• Diverge

• Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS)

• Environmental Justice

• Environmental Streamlining

• Environmental Traffic

• Executive Order 13274: Environmental Stewardship

• Expressway

• Final Environmental Impact Study (FEIS)

• Finding of No Significant Impact (FONSI)

• Flyover

• Free Flow

• Frontage Road

• Grade

• Grade Separation

• High Occupancy Vehicle (HOV)

• Interagency Working Group (IAWG)

• Interchange

• Intersection

• Level-of-Service (LOS)

• Link

• Local Road

• Location Approval

• Loop ramp

• Major Investment Study (MIS)

• Maryland Environmental Policy Act (MEPA)

• Measure of Effectiveness (MOE)

• Median

• Median opening

• Median turn lane

• Merge

• Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO)

• NEPA (National Environmental Policy Act) of 1969

• No-Action (“No-Build”) Alternative

• Noise Abatement

• Noise Sensitive Area/Receptor Site (NSA)

• Notice of Intent (NOI)

• Origin-Destination Survey

• Overpass

• Partial cloverleaf (parclo)

• Peak Period

• Phase

• Preferred Alternative

• Priority Funding Area (PFA)

• Public Involvement

• Purpose and Need Statement

• Quadrant

• Queue

• Ramp

• Ramp Metering

• Record of Decision (ROD)

• Right-of-Way

• Roadway

• Scoping

• Secondary and Cumulative Effects Analysis (SCEA)

• Shoulder

• Sight Distance

• Single Point Urban Interchange (SPUI) Or Single-Point Diamond

• Slip Ramp

• Socio-Economic Environment

• State Transportation Improvement Program (STIP)

• Stormwater Management (SWM)

• Stream Restoration & Enhancement

• Surface Street

• Transportation Demand Management (TDM)

• Transportation Improvement Program (TIP)

• Transportation Planning Board (TPB)

• Transportation System Management (TSM)

• Travel Time

• Trip Generation

• Turning Movement Count

• Underpass

• Value Engineering (VE)

• Vehicle Miles Traveled (VMT) or Vehicle Miles of Travel

• Volume to Capacity Ratio (V/C)

• Weave

• Wetland Creation & Protection

• Wildflowers

• Wildlife