[Federal Register Volume 74, Number 145 (Thursday, July 30, 2009)]
[Notices]
[Pages 38079-38080]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: E9-18013]


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DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

Office of the Secretary

[Docket No. DOT-OST-2008-0038]


Agency Information Collection Activities; New Information 
Collection: Survey of Over-the-Road Bus Companies About Accessible 
Transportation for Individuals With Disabilities

AGENCY: Office of the Secretary, DOT.

ACTION: Notice and request for comments.

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SUMMARY: In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, the 
U.S. Department of Transportation, Office of the Secretary, announces 
its plan to submit the Information Collection Request (ICR) described 
below to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for its review and 
approval. The new information collection is associated with a required 
review pursuant to the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA), 
implementing regulations for a Survey Over-the-Road Bus (OTRB) 
Companies located at subpart H of 49 CFR part 37. The collected 
information would assist DOT with any decision to modify or retain the 
requirements contained in the ADA regulations. On April 22, 2008, the 
Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) published a Federal 
Register notice (at 73 FR 21685) allowing for a 60-day comment period 
on a new ICR involving OTRBs. Two comments were received on this issue.

DATES: Please send your comments by August 31, 2009. OMB must receive 
your comments by this date in order to act quickly on the ICR.

ADDRESSES: All comments should reference Federal Docket Management 
System (FDMS) Docket Number DOT-OST-2008-0038. Interested persons are 
invited to submit written comments on the proposed information 
collection to the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, Office 
of Management and Budget. Comments should be addressed to the attention 
of the DOT FMCSA Desk Officer via electronic mail at [email protected], or faxed to (202) 395-6974, or mailed to the 
Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, Office of Management and 
Budget, Docket Library, Room 10102, 725 17th Street, NW., Washington, 
DC 20503.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Mr. Peter Chandler, Federal Motor 
Carrier Safety Administration, Office of Enforcement and Compliance, 
Commercial Passenger Carrier Safety Division, 1200 New Jersey Avenue, 
SE., Washington, DC 20590. Telephone: (202) 366-5763, or e-mail 
[email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
    Title: Survey of Over-the-Road Bus Companies About Accessible 
Transportation for Individuals With Disabilities.
    Type of Information Collection Request: New information collection.
    Respondents: Private entities that operate over-the-road buses 
(OTRBs) are primarily in the business of transporting people, and whose 
operations affect commerce.
    Estimated Number of Respondents: 3,800.
    Estimated Time per Response: The estimated average burden per 
response is 15 minutes.
    Estimated Total Annual Burden: 950 hours [(3,800 responses x 15 
minutes per response)/60 minutes = 950 hours, or 1,900 if conducted 
twice a year].
    Frequency of Response: This proposed information collection is 
planned to be conducted only once or twice a year. A decision to 
request the information for a second time would be based upon the 
number of responses and the content of such responses to the initial 
request.
    Background: On September 28, 1998, DOT issued final regulations, in 
response to the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (Pub. L. 101-
336, 104 Stat. 327, 42 U.S.C. 12101-12213 and 47 U.S.C. 225 and 611), 
which required the accessibility of new OTRBs and accessible OTRB 
service. The regulations require commercial OTRB operators to ensure 
that passengers with disabilities can use OTRBs. DOT is required by 49 
CFR 37.215 to review the various requirements within the ADA 
regulations for OTRB companies. As part of this review, DOT is required 
to consider certain factors including the percentage of accessible 
ORTBs in the fleets of OTRB companies, the success of such companies at 
meeting the requests of passengers with disabilities for accessible 
OTRBs in a timely manner, ridership of OTRBs by passengers with 
disabilities, volume of complaints by passengers with disabilities, and 
the cost and service impacts of these requirements. After the review, 
DOT is required to decide whether it is appropriate to somehow revise 
the ADA regulations for OTRB companies (i.e., whether certain 
provisions of the ADA regulations should be removed, modified, or made 
more stringent).
    DOT has an information collection to cover this paperwork burden 
under

[[Page 38080]]

OMB Control Number 2100-0019 to provide the Agency with data for use in 
its review of the ADA related requirements and to monitor compliance by 
OTRB companies. Such data are reported to FMCSA as the agency delegated 
by DOT for this purpose. DOT needs additional data from OTRB companies 
so that it can conduct an effective review and make an informed 
regulatory policy decision on whether there is a need to revise, modify 
or remove any of the ADA regulations involving OTRBs. Specifically, 
data about bus fleet accessibility, fulfillment of accessible bus 
requests, and ridership and volume of complaints by passengers with 
disabilities, are needed from OTRB companies.
    DOT needs the new data to conduct the required review of the 
various requirements within the ADA regulations for OTRB companies. The 
Department, however, would need FMCSA to send letters to approximately 
3,800 registered OTRB companies that will be asked to complete and 
submit an enclosed form or make an on-line data submission via a 
customized Web site.
    As noted above, FMCSA published inadvertently a notice in the 
Federal Register with a 60-day public comment period to announce this 
new proposed ICR on April 22, 2008. Two comments were received. Peter 
Pan Bus Lines, Inc. and the American Bus Association questioned FMCSA's 
authority to publish this new ICR when DOT had the authority to do so 
under OMB Control Number 2100-0019. While this new information 
collection request seeks different data from DOT's OMB Control Number 
2100-0019 Information Collection, the initial 60-day Federal Register 
notice on this issue should have been published by DOT, rather than by 
FMCSA. It is true that FMCSA would administer this new information 
collection upon OMB approval, but the Department and FMCSA determined 
that the new information collection request should be issued by DOT 
since it has the statutory authority to conduct the required review 
under the ADA regulations.
    Public Comments Invited: You are asked to comment on any aspect of 
this information collection, including: (1) Whether the proposed 
collection is necessary for the performance of DOT's functions; (2) the 
accuracy of the estimated burden; (3) ways for the DOT to enhance the 
quality, usefulness, and clarity of the collected information; and (4) 
ways that the burden could be minimized without reducing the quality of 
the collected information.

    Issued in Washington, DC, on July 22, 2009.
Patricia Lawton,
DOT PRA Clearance Officer, Office of the Chief Information Officer.
[FR Doc. E9-18013 Filed 7-29-09; 8:45 am]
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