[Federal Register: January 6, 2006 (Volume 71, Number 4)]
[Notices]
[Page 969-970]
From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:fr06ja06-79]
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DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION
Federal Highway Administration
[FHWA Docket No. FHWA-05-22706]
Motor Vehicle Registration and Licensed Driver Information
AGENCY: Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), DOT.
ACTION: Notice; request for comments.
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SUMMARY: The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) annually analyzes
and publishes motor vehicle registration and licensed driver
information obtained from the States, the District of Columbia, and
Puerto Rico. This notice seeks public input from users on the quality,
timeliness, comprehensiveness, and other characteristics of these data.
Based on this input and other information, the FHWA will determine
whether it is necessary to change the motor vehicle registration and
licensed driver information collected. The FHWA is considering various
options for these data programs including investigating alternative
sources of data from the public or private sector, developing enhanced
software to capture and process the data more efficiently, and
maintaining the status quo.
DATES: Comments should be received on or before March 7, 2006.
ADDRESSES: Mail or hand deliver comments for the docket number that
appears in the heading of this document to the U.S. Department of
Transportation, Dockets Management Facility, Room PL-401, 400 Seventh
Street, SW., Washington, DC 20590-0001, or submit electronically at
http://dms.dot.gov/submit or fax comments to (202) 493-2251.
Alternatively, comments may be submitted to the Federal rulemaking
portal at http://www.regulations.gov. All comments must include the
docket number that appears in the heading of this document. All
comments received will be available for examination and copying at the
above address from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., e.t., Monday through Friday,
except Federal holidays. Those desiring notification of receipt of
comments must include a self-addressed, stamped postcard or you may
print the acknowledgement page that appears after submitting comments
electronically. Anyone is able to search the electronic form of all
comments in any one of our dockets by the name of the individual
submitting the comment (or signing the comment, if submitted on behalf
of an association, business, or labor union). Anyone may review DOT's
complete Privacy Act Statement in the Federal Register published on
April 11, 2000 (Volume 65, Number 70, Pages 19477-78) or you may visit
http://dms.dot.gov.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Mr. Tom Howard, 202-366-2833, Office
of Highway Policy Information, HPPI-10, or Mr. Milton Hsieh, Office of
Chief Counsel, HCC-40, 202-366-1397. Office hours are from 7:45 a.m. to
4:15 p.m., e.t., Monday through Friday, except Federal holidays.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Electronic Access and Filing: You may submit or retrieve comments
online through the Document Management System (DMS) at: http://dms.dot.gov/submit.
Electronic submission and retrieval help and
guidelines are available under the help section. Alternatively,
Internet users may access all comments received by the U.S. DOT Docket
Facility by using the universal resource locator (URL) http://dms.dot.gov.
It is available 24 hours each day, 365 days each year.
Please follow the instructions. An electronic copy of this document may
also be downloaded by accessing the Office of
[[Page 970]]
the Federal Register's home page at http://www.archives.gov and from the Government Printing Office's Web page at http://www.gpoaccess.gov/
nara.
Background: The FHWA collects and publishes motor vehicle
registration and licensed driver information obtained from the States,
the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico. This information is
collected from State departments of transportation pursuant to 23 CFR
420.105 and is published in Highway Statistics.\1\
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\1\ Highway Statistics is an annual report containing analyzed
data on motor fuel, motor vehicles, driver licensing, highway user
taxation, State and local highway finance, highway mileage, and
other selected data. This report has been published each year since
1945. It is available at the following URL: http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/policy/ohpi/hss/
.
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The information in Highway Statistics is used in the development of
highway legislation at the Federal level. The information is also used
in preparing legislatively required reports to Congress, in keeping
State governments informed, and, in general, as an aid to highway
planning, programming, budgeting, forecasting, and fiscal management.
This information is also used extensively in the evaluation of Federal,
State, and local highway programs. The FHWA has re-assessed DOT
internal needs for these data and has preliminarily determined that the
information in Highway Statistics meets the Federal need of providing a
national perspective on highway program activities.
This notice seeks public input from users on the quality,
timeliness, comprehensiveness, and other characteristics of the motor
vehicle registration and licensed driver data collected by the FHWA and
published in Highway Statistics. Based on this input and other
information, the FHWA will determine whether it is necessary to change
the motor vehicle registration and licensed driver information
collected. The motor vehicle registration data currently collected by
the FHWA can be found in Highway Statistics tables MV-1, MV-2, MV-7,
MV-9, MV-10 and MV-11. The licensed driver data currently collected by
the FHWA can be found in Highway Statistics tables DL-1C, DL-20 and DL-
22.
Motor vehicle registration: The motor vehicle registration data
collection practices vary among the States. States register specific
vehicle types on a calendar year or fiscal year basis. States may use
some form of a ``staggered'' system to register motor vehicles to
permit a distribution of the renewal workload throughout all months. In
addition, most States allow pre-registration or permit ``grace
periods'' to better distribute the annual registration workload.
States report motor vehicle registrations by major vehicle classes:
automobiles, buses, trucks, and motorcycles. The truck category
includes light trucks to the extent they can be identified and
separated from automobiles. Data on trucks, buses, trailers, and
semitrailers are given in tables MV-9, MV-10, and MV-11, respectively.
Although the detail of motor-vehicle data has improved in recent years,
it is not yet possible to obtain from all States separate data on
single-unit trucks and combinations. Some States provide data for light
trucks and truck tractors, but for many States the FHWA estimates this
information using other data sources, such as the Vehicle Inventory and
Use Survey conducted by the Bureau of the Census.\2\ The table MV-9
light truck category includes pickups, vans (full-size and mini),
utility-type vehicles, as well as other vehicles (panel trucks and
delivery vans generally of 10,000 pounds or less gross vehicle weight).
Registrations of publicly owned motor vehicles are reported in table
MV-7.
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\2\ This report is available at the following URL: http://www.census.gov/svsd/www/tiusview.html
.
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Registration practices for commercial vehicles also differ greatly
among the States. Some States register a tractor-semitrailer
combination as a single unit; others register the tractor and the
semitrailer separately. Regardless of how they were registered, only
the power units have been included in the truck count in table MV-1.
Some States register buses with trucks or automobiles; many States do
not report light utility trailers separately from commercial trailers
or semitrailers; and some States do not require registration of car or
light utility trailers.
Drivers' License: Each State, the District of Columbia, and Puerto
Rico administers its own driver licensing system. Since 1954 all States
have required drivers to be licensed, and since 1959 all States have
required examination prior to licensing. Tests of knowledge of State
driving laws and practices, vision, and driving proficiency are now
required for new licensees. The State distribution of total U.S.
licensed drivers, by sex and age group, is shown in table DL-1C.
The distribution of total U.S. licensed drivers, by sex and age
group, is shown in table DL-20.
DL-22 displays the number of drivers by sex and age groups for each
State. For the States that do not provide the driver license data
broken out to the top age bracket of 85 and over, we have redistributed
the last age bracket provided by each State according to the Census
population data for those particular age brackets in that particular
State.
Conclusion: This notice seeks public input from users on the
quality, timeliness, comprehensiveness, and other characteristics of
these data. Based on this input and other information, the FHWA will
determine whether it is necessary to change the motor vehicle
registration and licensed driver information collected, and the steps
needed to ensure the quality of the information.
Specifically, the FHWA is interested in comments from users of
motor vehicle registration and licensed driver information on data
uses, data quality, data timeliness, data availability, and how well
data meets user needs. Currently, the FHWA is considering various
options for these data programs including investigating alternative
sources of data from the public or private sector, developing enhanced
software to capture and process the data more efficiently, and
maintaining the status quo.
Issued on: December 28, 2005.
J. Richard Capka,
Acting Federal Highway Administrator.
[FR Doc. E6-11 Filed 1-5-06; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4910-22-P