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CFTE Glossary
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Bad debt expense
Estimated cost of losses which may be realized as a result of a failure to collect on receivables. The loss is recorded when information is available that an asset (in this case, receivables) has probably been impaired or a liability incurred and when the amount can be reasonably estimated. For accounting purposes, the bad debt expense estimate is recorded when the allowance account is established or periodically adjusted.
Balanced transportation
Balanced transportation
Another term for "intermodalism."
Bargaining agent
A labor union designated by an appropriate government agency or recognized by the employer as the exclusive representative of all employees in the bargaining unit for purposes of collective bargaining.
Base fare
The price charged to one adult for one transit ride; excludes transfer charges, zone charges, express service charges, peak period surcharges and reduced fares.
Base period
The period between the morning and evening peak periods when transit service is generally scheduled on a constant interval. Also known as "off-peak period."
Basis Point
A shorthand financial reference to one-hundredth of one percent (.01 percent) used in connection with yield and interest rates.
Best Management Practice (BMP)
A practice or combination of practices that are the most effective and practicable (including technological, economic, and institutional considerations) means of controlling point or nonpoint source pollutants at levels compatible with environmental quality goals.
Bi-fueled vehicle
Vehicles which have the capacity to operate using two different fuels, such as CNG and diesel or CNG and gasoline.
Bike-and-ride
Activity involving the use of a bicycle in conjunction with another type of transportation such as public transit. Typically, bike-and-ride facilities include bicycle storage areas adjacent to transit stops, giving transit riders the option of traveling to the stops without the use of a motorized vehicle.
Binding arbitration
Arbitration with a final and binding award, which is often enforceable in the courts.
Board of Supervisors
A county's legislative body. Board members are elected by popular vote and are responsible for enacting ordinances, imposing taxes, making appropriations, and establishing county policy. The board adopts the general plan, zoning, and subdivision regulations.
Bond
A three-party agreement providing legal assurance of contract.
Bond Counsel
A lawyer or law firm, with expertise in bond law, retained by the issuer to render an opinion upon the closing of a municipal bond issue regarding the legality of issuance and other matters including the description of security pledged and an opinion as to the tax-exempt status of the bond.
Bond Insurance
A financial guarantee provided by a major insurance company (usually AAA rated) as to the timely repayment of interest and principal of a bond issue.
Book value
Net amount at which an asset or liability is carried on the books of account (also referred to as carrying value or amount). It equals the gross nominal amount of any asset or liability minus any allowance or valuation amount.
Broker
A person who arranges transportation for another. Also see "transportation broker."
Brownfield
Abandoned or under-used properties where expansion or redevelopment is complicated by real or perceived environmental contamination. Brownfields are often located in formerly industrial areas.
BSMS
Bus service management system
Budget authority
Empowerment by Congress that allows federal agencies to incur obligations to spend or lend money. This empowerment generally is in the form of appropriations from general revenues to the U.S. Treasury. However, for discretionary programs, it is in the form of "contract authority" derived from the Trust Fund Resource.
Budget resolution
A federal budgetary term that refers to a concurrent resolution passed by both Houses of Congress, but not requiring the signature of the President, setting forth the congressional budget for each of five fiscal years. The budget resolution sets forth various budget total and functional allocations, and may include reconciliation instructions to designated congressional committees.
Budget Scoring
Estimating the budgetary effects of pending and enacted legislation and comparing them to limits set in the budget resolution or legislation. With regard to federal credit assistance, budget authority and outlays are scored on a present-value basis, according to estimated default risks and interest subsidies, rather than a cash-flow basis.
Buffer
A strip of land that physically separates two or more different land uses. These areas typically are landscaped with evergreen plants or contain walls that strengthen the barrier between uses.
Build/operate/transfer
Public-private partnership arrangement involving private construction, private operation for given period of time, and eventual transfer to public ownership.
Building type zoning code
Traditional zoning manages the externalities of development by separating land uses (commercial, residential, office, etc.). This "Euclidean" approach dictates both the look and use of all buildings in a community. A Building Type Zoning Code allows market demand to determine the mix of uses, within the constraints of building type set by the community. The community establishes zones of building type and allows building owners to determine the uses. The look and layout of a street is carefully controlled to reflect neighborhood scale, parking standards, and pedestrian accessibility, but building owners and occupants are allowed maximum flexibility to determine how the buildings will be used.
Build-to
A boundary or alignment, usually parallel to the property line, along which a building or structure must be placed. It usually establishes the maximum distance away from the property line that a building or structure may be placed.
Bus
Any of several types of self-propelled vehicles, generally rubber-tired, intended for use on city streets, highways and busways, including, but not limited to, minibuses, forty and thirty-foot buses, articulated buses, double-deck buses and electrically powered trolley buses, used by public entities to provide designated public transportation service and by private entities to provide transportation service including, but not limited to, specified public transportation services.
Bus charter service
Establishments primarily engaged in furnishing passenger transportation charter service where such operations are principally outside a single municipality, outside one contiguous group of municipalities or outside a single municipality and its suburbs.
Bus discretionary capital
Federal funding granted under Section 3 of the Federal Transit Act (formerly known as the Urban Mass Transportation Act). These discretionary funds are used for bus- related construction projects or to replace, rehabilitate or purchase buses.
Bus lane
A street or highway lane primarily for buses, either all day or during specific periods, but sometimes also used by carpools meeting requirements set out in traffic laws.
Bus Rapid Transit (BRT)
Any of a variety of bus facilities, vehicles, and related systems intended to accommodate high capacity, improved speed, greater passenger convenience and comfort, and improved reliability and predictability of service, compared with ordinary in-street bus service. BRT routes may be in exclusive right of way, reserved lanes in streets, or lanes shared with other traffic. There are many similarities with light rail.
Bus shelter
A building or other structure constructed near a bus stop, to provide seating and protection from the weather for the convenience of waiting passengers.
Bus stop
A place where passengers can board or alight from the bus, usually identified by a sign.
Business Improvement Districts (BID)
A BID is a special taxing district implemented to generate revenue for infrastructure improvements necessary for economic development projects within a designed geographic district. Funds generated are used for services such as business retention and recruitment, professional management, marketing, improved maintenance, enhanced safety, and physical improvements to the streetscapes of the district.
Buspool
See "vanpool."
Busway
Exclusive freeway lane for buses and carpools.
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