[Federal Register Volume 84, Number 228 (Tuesday, November 26, 2019)]
[Notices]
[Pages 65214-65216]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2019-25638]
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION
Office of the Secretary
[Docket No. DOT-OST-2019-0165]
Non-Traditional and Emerging Transportation Technology (NETT)
Council
AGENCY: Office of the Secretary (OST), Department of Transportation
(DOT).
ACTION: Request for comment.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
SUMMARY: In April 2019, the Department of Transportation (DOT) created
the Non-Traditional and Emerging Transportation Technology (NETT)
Council, an internal deliberative body at DOT, to identify and resolve
jurisdictional and regulatory gaps associated with non-traditional and
emerging transportation projects pending before DOT, including with
respect to safety oversight, environmental review, and funding issues.
The Office of the Secretary of Transportation invites comments on
projects, issues, or topics that DOT should consider through the NETT
Council, including regulatory models and other alternative approaches
for non-traditional and emerging transportation technologies.
DATES: Comments are requested by January 10, 2020. See the
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION section on ``Public Participation,'' below,
for more information about written comments.
Written Comments: Comments should refer to the docket number above
and be submitted by one of the following methods:
Federal Rulemaking Portal: http://www.regulations.gov.
Follow the online instructions for submitting comments.
Mail: Docket Management Facility, U.S. Department of
Transportation, 1200 New Jersey Avenue SE, West Building Ground Floor,
Room W12-140, Washington, DC 20590-0001.
Hand Delivery: 1200 New Jersey Avenue SE, West Building
Ground Floor, Room W12-140, Washington, DC, between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m.
ET, Monday
[[Page 65215]]
through Friday, except Federal Holidays.
Instructions: For detailed instructions on submitting comments and
additional information on the rulemaking process, see the Public
Participation heading of the SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION section of this
document. Note that all comments received will be posted without change
to http://www.regulations.gov, including any personal information
provided.
Privacy Act: Except as provided below, all comments received into
the docket will be made public in their entirety. The comments will be
searchable by the name of the individual submitting the comment (or
signing the comment, if submitted on behalf of an association,
business, labor union, etc.). You should not include information in
your comment that you do not want to be made public. You may review
DOT's complete Privacy Act Statement in the Federal Register published
on April 11, 2000 (65 FR 19477-78) or at https://www.transportation.gov/privacy.
Docket: For access to the docket to read background documents or
comments received, go to http://www.regulations.gov or to the street
address listed above. Follow the online instructions for accessing the
dockets.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: For policy issues, please email
[email protected] or contact Philip Sung at 202-366-0442. For legal
issues, please contact Sean Ford at 202-366-1841. Office hours are from
8 a.m. to 5 p.m., EST, Monday through Friday, except Federal holidays.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Congress provides authority to the
Department of Transportation (Department or DOT) to regulate the safety
of transportation. This authority is implemented by the Department's
operating administrations and extends to particular technologies and
certain operational scenarios. Some new technologies and operational
scenarios may not fit precisely into the Department's existing
regulatory structure. The Non-Traditional and Emerging Transportation
Technology Council (Council or NETT Council) was formed to provide
project sponsors a single point of access to the Department to discuss
innovative transportation plans and proposals, to coordinate oversight
of such projects, and to develop and establish Department-wide
processes, solutions, and best practices for managing new
transportation technology subject to the Department's jurisdiction.
Since the Council's inception, innovators and stakeholders have
approached the Department with concepts and ideas that vary in their
stage of development. To ensure that the Council is responsive to the
needs of the public and industry, the Department is interested in
hearing from stakeholders and the public as to whether and to what
extent the Department's existing regulatory construct supports or
hinders innovation. The Department is also seeking comment on how the
NETT Council can better be in a position to support transportation
innovation.
The questions below are meant to guide commenters; however,
commenters are invited to provide their views on issues surrounding
non-traditional and emerging transportation technologies and other
general comments related to this topic. Further, although the questions
focus on specific types of stakeholders, we would appreciate the views
of all commenters on all questions. Finally, in this notice, the
Department is not requesting comment on issues related to automated
vehicles \1\ or unmanned aerial systems (UAS), except to the limited
extent of operations where these technologies (or technologies based on
or derived from them) are being used in ways that do not fit within the
Department's existing regulatory structures. To the extent possible,
please provide technical information, regulatory citations, data, or
other evidence to support your comments.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\1\ For a description of the Department's activities on
automated vehicles, please visit https://www.transportation.gov/AV.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
1. Are there existing Federal transportation laws or regulations
that inhibit innovation by creating barriers to testing, certifying or
verifying compliance, or operating non-traditional and emerging
transportation technologies? Please provide specific examples, explain
why the requirement imposes a barrier, and identify the specific law or
regulation that you believe should be changed and describe how it
should be changed. Please identify all associated regulations that
should be changed, including specific citations to the Code of Federal
Regulations and explain the need for the change.
2. Are there existing design or performance requirements that may
contribute to a reduced safety purpose or impose more cost or
restriction on the design of non-traditional and emerging
transportation technologies than is warranted?
3. If you identified a barrier to innovation in response to
Question 1 or 2, above, can this barrier be removed or mitigated
without resorting to additional rulemaking? If rulemaking is necessary,
please identify all associated regulations that should be changed,
including specific citations to the Code of Federal Regulations and
explain the need for the change and how safety will not adversely be
impacted.
4. If you identified a barrier to innovation in response to
Question 1 or 2, above, is legislation necessary to remove or mitigate
that innovation barrier? Please identify the barrier with specificity,
explain why it is a barrier, and identify the specific law that you
believe should be changed. Please describe how it should be changed and
why there will be no adverse impact to safety.
5. Do you believe that there are international bodies or
organizations (at any level) that the Department should be working with
to develop standards or best practices for potential application to
non-traditional and emerging transportation technologies in the United
States?
6. Does the current landscape of State/local/Tribal regulation for
non-traditional and emerging transportation technologies hinder or
support innovation? More specifically:
a. What laws or regulations do State, local, or Tribal governments
rely upon, other than Federal transportation laws and regulations, to
regulate the safe design, construction, and operational safety of non-
traditional or emerging transportation technologies (e.g., hyperloop
and non-traditional tunneling)? In what ways do these laws or
regulations hinder or support innovation? (Please be specific in your
response.)
b. Are there State/local/Tribal occupational license regimes that
govern the safe conduct of operators of non-traditional or emerging
transportation technologies? Do they hinder or support innovation?
c. Are there State/local/Tribal laws that assist innovators in
developing safe prototypes, road testing, deploying, or commercializing
new transportation technologies? (Comments on regulatory gaps or
feasibility studies and analyses are encouraged.)
7. Would intermodal or cross-sector regulations support or inhibit
innovation and ensure safety of transportation infrastructure, as well
as the safe movement of goods, services, capital and the traveling
public? Please explain why or why not. Include specific examples,
studies, or other data if available.
8. Would cross-sector or cross-modal transportation safety
regulations support or inhibit investments in non-traditional and
emerging transportation
[[Page 65216]]
technologies? Please explain why or why not. Include specific examples,
studies, or other data if available.
9. How can Federal policies, regulations, or legislation be used to
foster mobility service providers, remove barriers to new non-
traditional and emerging transport operations, or promote safe,
efficient, environmentally sound and user-friendly mobility systems?
Please explain, using specific examples where feasible.
10. Technology Companies/Innovators: What standards or code of
conduct are relevant to ensuring a balance between supporting
innovation and ensuring the safety of transportation infrastructure and
the traveling public?
11. Technology Companies/Innovators: What actions can the NETT
Council take to support your work, while maintaining its safety focus?
a. At what point in the development of the technology or operation
would it be ideal to interface with the NETT Council?
b. Considering the resource constraints and the potential cross
modal nature of non-traditional and emerging transportation
technologies, would an on-going relationship with the NETT Council
during the development and construction of your project be helpful to
assess potential safety risks and unintended consequences be helpful?
If so, how often should engagements occur?
12. Local, State, Tribal, and Other Public Entities: What support
should the NETT Council consider providing when non-traditional/
emerging transportation technology companies propose a non-traditional
or emerging transportation technology or system in your jurisdiction?
a. In what way could Federal action help maintain the overall
safety of the design, construction, and operation system? What aspects
do you believe are best addressed by State, local, and Tribal entities?
Please provide specific examples to support your comment.
b. In what way could Federal actions assist you in overseeing any
risks (safety or other) and unintended consequences that are local in
nature? In what way could they interfere with your oversight and
enforcement authorities? Please provide specific examples to support
your comment.
c. In what way could Federal actions improve or clarify oversight
roles? Please provide specific examples to support your comment.
13. Local, State, Tribal, and Other Public Entities: Has a company
approached you about a non-traditional or emerging transportation
technology? If so, are there any best practices you can share from
working with companies that could shape how the NETT Council approaches
non-traditional or emerging transportation proposals?
Public Participation
How do I prepare and submit comments?
Your comments must be written in English. To ensure that your
comments are filed correctly in the docket, please include the docket
number of this document in your comments.
Please submit one copy (two copies if submitting by mail or hand
delivery) of your comments, including the attachments, to the docket
following the instructions given above under ADDRESSES. Please note, if
you are submitting comments electronically as a PDF (Adobe) file, we
ask that the documents submitted be scanned using an Optical Character
Recognition (OCR) process, thus allowing the agency to search and copy
certain portions of your submissions.
How do I submit confidential business information?
Any submissions containing Confidential Information must be
delivered to OST in the following manner:
Submitted in a sealed envelope marked ``confidential
treatment requested'';
Document(s) or information that the submitter would like
withheld should be marked ``PROPIN''; Accompanied by an index listing
the document(s) or information that the submitter would like the
Departments to withhold. The index should include information such as
numbers used to identify the relevant document(s) or information,
document title and description, and relevant page numbers and/or
section numbers within a document; and
Submitted with a statement explaining the submitter's
grounds for objecting to disclosure of the information to the public.
OST will treat such marked submissions as confidential under the
FOIA, and will not include it in the public docket. OST also requests
that submitters of Confidential Information include a non-confidential
version (either redacted or summarized) of those confidential
submissions in the public docket. In the event that the submitter
cannot provide a non-confidential version of its submission, OST
requests that the submitter post a notice in the docket stating that it
has provided OST with Confidential Information. Should a submitter fail
to docket either a non-confidential version of its submission or to
post a notice that Confidential Information has been provided, we will
note the receipt of the submission on the docket, with the submitter's
organization or name (to the degree permitted by law) and the date of
submission.
Will the agency consider late comments?
U.S. DOT will consider all comments received before the close of
business on the comment closing date indicated above under DATES. To
the extent possible, the Agency will also consider comments received
after that date.
How can I read the comments submitted by other people?
You may read the comments received at the address given above under
WRITTEN COMMENTS. The hours of the docket are indicated above in the
same location. You may also see the comments on the internet,
identified by the docket number at the heading of this notice, at
http://www.regulations.gov.
Issued in Washington, DC, under authority delegated at 49 CFR
1.25a.
Finch Fulton,
Deputy Assistant Secretary for Transportation Policy.
[FR Doc. 2019-25638 Filed 11-25-19; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4910-9X-P