What Pending Federal Policies Should Cities be Monitoring in Relation to Advanced Air Mobility (AAM)?
Is this technology real and will these new aircraft really be allowed to fly?
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.
When considering potential UAM operations in a city, many cities ask questions like, “is this technology real;” and, “will these new aircraft really be allowed to fly?” The simple (and nowhere complete) answer is, “yes,” and there are a number of pending regulations currently being developed by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) that will define this new mode and the operations of UAM vehicles. Since this new mode of aviation is still developing, the pending FAA regulations and guidance will likely evolve. At Urban Movement Labs, we see this as an opportunity for local cities to educate themselves on how this new mode might potentially affect a variety of day-to-day city functions, so that cities can be better prepared when this mode of transport becomes “real,” and more importantly, when private property owners begin to approach city departments with plans to construct the supporting infrastructure.
While many aspects of aviation are regulated at the federal or state level, local jurisdictions have the opportunity to inform state and federal policy development through formal comment periods. Comment periods are also an opportunity to extend local outreach efforts to inform stakeholders on specific ecosystem components and solicit targeted feedback that reflects community concerns and perspectives.
At least five FAA policy products are being developed and are expected to be scheduled for public review and comment in 2022, while the Advanced Air Mobility Strategic Framework will be reviewed and commented upon through the FAA’s Advanced Aviation Advisory Committee (AAAC), formerly the Drone Advisory Committee. The tables below outline an expected timeline of FAA policy product releases and identifies potentially impacted departments within the City of Los Angeles.
As part of the work of the UAM Partnership, Urban Movement Labs plans to develop informational materials to educate stakeholders and frame specific policy issues within the local context. For each of these anticipated FAA products, UML plans to engage directly with impacted agencies and community stakeholders with the following approach:
Develop engagement materials to inform stakeholders about FAA products. These materials will be made available for other jurisdictions to access and utilize via UML’s website.
Collect feedback from stakeholders to provide a comprehensive comments report for each FAA product. Feedback formally submitted by UML will be made available to partners to encourage additional community response to FAA products.
The anticipated FAA products will serve as discussion topics at national and international conferences, and present further opportunities to solicit feedback from other public agencies exploring UAM operations within their respective cities.
Further, it is the goal of Urban Movement Labs to use these policy and regulation development processes as opportunities to continue informing and engaging with community stakeholders, with a goal of providing comments to the FAA that reflect the broad community goals and concerns in Los Angeles.
For more information and to stay up-to-date on future publications, visit www.urbanmovementlabs.com.