Reimagining the Future of Transportation with Personal Flight: Preparing and Planning for Urban Air Mobility

On January 12, 2020, the Transportation Research Board (TRB) of the National Academies hosted a workshop titled “Reimagining the Future of Transportation with Personal Flight: Preparing and Planning for Urban Air Mobility” at the 99th Annual Meeting of the Transportation Research Board in Washington, D.C. The workshop facilitated a dialogue among over 130 participants from public-sector organizations, private companies, non-governmental organizations, and educational institutions. Government, industry, and academic thought leaders presented and participated in panel discussions with the audience about opportunities and challenges, planning issues, community acceptance, research, and next steps needed for implementation, emphasizing the future of multimodal UAM. In the second half of the workshop, attendees participated in interactive breakout sessions and reported back on next steps for research needed to guide the safe, sustainable, and equitable implementation of UAM. The workshop emphasized the role of safety, community acceptance, multimodal vertiport infrastructure, and automation shaping the future of UAM. This workshop synopsis covers findings and discussions from the event and summarizes the key topics explored throughout the day.