How Might Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) Impact City Operations?
When considering how UAM operations might impact a city, it is important to consider exactly how the unique operations of all city departments might be affected.
In advance of the MOVE 2022 conference beginning June 15th and the panel session “How do we integrate Advanced Air Mobility into connected transport?,” the following post is an excerpt of a forthcoming document summarizing the work of Urban Movement Labs over the past year as a part of the Urban Air Mobility (UAM) Partnership.
Since early 2021, Urban Movement Labs (UML) has been leading the work of the Urban Air Mobility (UAM) Partnership, a product of a public-private partnership between the City of Los Angeles Mayor’s Office, the Los Angeles Department of Transportation (LADOT), and private sector partners. This model of public-private-community partnership is foundational to UML’s mission and serves as an example for cities around the world on how to co-design new parts of cities’ transportation networks. The UAM Partnership has focused on educating and engaging Los Angeles residents and city departments around a new and dynamic transportation technology - electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) vehicles. The work conducted under the UAM Partnership sets a precedent for how diverse stakeholders can collaborate on a safe, community-centered approach to integrating aerial mobility technology into existing and new multimodal platforms.
The City of Los Angeles is the second-largest city in the United States, with an equally large public organization managing the day-to-day operations of the city. With nearly four million residents across 15 Council Districts, the City employs more than 50,000 people across 44 unique departments1. When considering how UAM operations might impact city operations, it is important to consider exactly how the unique operations of all city departments might be impacted. Building on the prior topics exploring the regulatory role when it comes to UAM, and the pending federal regulations that might affect city operations, the following tables outline how the unique departments within the City of Los Angeles may guide UAM policies and regulations, and/or how their operations may be affected by potential UAM operations.
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In closing, future UAM operations could potentially affect 36 of 44 unique departments within the City, or over 80% of city departments. This initial review indicates a substantial opportunity to further engage multiple city departments to educate and inform departmental staff and leadership as to specific policies, regulations, or similar that might need to be considered for future UAM operations.
Urban Movement Labs will continue to engage additional city agencies as appropriate to gather input that will direct local policy development. Where applicable, feedback will be passed along to federal & state agencies for consideration.
For more information and to stay up-to-date on future publications, visit www.urbanmovementlabs.com.