SUMC preferred usage

These are the preferred ways to use various terms from our industry. Generally we can say that we prefer closed compounds to hyphenated or open ones. For terms not included here, see the style authorities page for general guidelines. If you find yourself frequently using a term that's not in this list, and it's something you see rendered in a number of different ways, please feel free to add an entry to this list. If this eventually gets too long, we can split it into separate pages, titled something like "Term (usage)." For terms like autonomous vehicles or electric vehicles that are commonly referred to by initialisms, spell out the term on the first usage in a work or a major section, and indicate the abbreviation in parentheses. After that, you can use the initials. (E.g., "electric vehicles (EVs)" on first use, "EVs" thereafter.)

Automated spell-checkers may have different ideas about what is correct, so you might consider adding the preferred versions to a personal dictionary to avoid nagging and squiggly lines.

If you're quoting something from a non-SUMC source that uses a different rendering of one of these terms, it's okay to correct it to our preferred version without indicating the correction with brackets. If a source uses an entirely different term, in a way that we define differently (seen most commonly with "rideshare" to mean ridehail), then you should substitute our preferred term but use brackets. (This all goes for general writing, but not formal academic or legal contexts, which have stricter rules about indicating changes.)

Where this list has entries with no further commentary, assume that this is the preferred version of the term, and further usage is assumed to be self-explanatory based on general rules around abbreviations, etc.

• Autonomous vehicles (AVs)
• Bikeshare: Write “bikeshare” or “bikesharing.” No hyphenation (“bike-share”) or spacing (“bike share”).
• Carshare: Use “carshare” or “carsharing.” No hyphenation (“car-share”) or spacing (“car share”).
• First and Last Mile: Use space between words when referring to the concept alone (i.e. “the first and last mile on a transportation journey”). When using part or all of the term as an adjective *before* a noun, hyphenate (i.e. “first-mile”, “last-mile”, “first-/last-mile”, “first- and last-mile”, and “first- or last-mile” in front of words like “problem” or “connections”). For adjectival use placed after a noun, no hyphens are necessary. Do not capitalize unless used at the beginning of a sentence.
• Micromobility: No hyphenation or spacing. This term should be used for fleet deployments of bikes and scooters, or else individually owned bikes or scooters used for personal trips--but not to mean bikes and scooters generally, and definitely not for bikes/trikes transporting cargo or other non-personal loads.
• Microtransit: Please refer to the service format as “microtransit”. There should be no hyphenation (ie. “micro-transit”) or spacing (ie. “micro transit”). DEFINE USAGE. Other terms that are related but not necessarily interchangeable with microtransit:
  • Demand-responsive transit/transport (DRT): Note hyphenation and also that it's not "demand-response." Per NTD, this refers to "a transit mode comprised of passenger cars, vans or small buses 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." This is the broadest term for this class of transit, of which microtransit and paratransit are subsets.
  • Paratransit: Even though in olden times, and outside the US, paratransit was used to refer to DRT in general, since the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), it's most commonly understood to mean wheelchair-accessible DRT for people with disabilities. Sometimes you'll see "ADA paratransit" to refer to the required service in the "shadow" of fixed routes, contrasted with "premium paratransit" to mean service outside the parameters of what's required (either in terms of timing, distance, or the passengers served).
  • Flexible shuttle service
  • Flex-route services
• Mobility as a service (MaaS): Use “mobility as a service (MaaS)” at first reference. The full term is not capitalized and does not take hyphens in any position.
• Mobility on demand (MOD): No hyphens and need not be capitalized in general usage, but it should be in proper names (e.g. "Mobility on Demand Sandbox" but "sixteen mobility on demand (MOD) projects").
• Public transit: This term can be used interchangeably with “public transportation.”
  • However, it should not be used interchangeably with “fixed-route transit”: Use in preference to “public transit” when you want to refer to scheduled bus or train service that operates on a specific route, and not the service or industry generally.
• Ridehail: Use “ridehail” or “ridehailing.” This is our preferred term for the on-demand freeform taxi service provided by Uber and Lyft. You'll often see it used interchangeably with the following, and it's not worth correcting when quoting (beyond fixing space or hyphenation):
  • Transportation network company/companies (TNCs): This originates with the California legal definition of the service type, the first statutory definition in the US.
  • Ridesourcing: Means the same thing as ridehailing, but we should prefer -hailing in our own original writing.
• Ridesharing: Please refer to the practice as “rideshare” or “ridesharing”. DEFINE IN OPPOSITION TO RIDEHAIL. This term can be used interchangeably with:
  • Carpool/carpooling
  • Slugging
  • Community carpool
  • Vanpooling