Agency Information Collection Activities; Submission to the Office of Management and Budget for Review and Approval; Request for Comment; Child Passenger Safety Perceptions and Practices in Ridesharing and Autonomous Vehicles

Agency Information Collection Activities; Submission to the Office of Management and Budget for Review and Approval; Request for Comment; Child Passenger Safety Perceptions and Practices in Ridesharing and Autonomous Vehicles

Publication: Federal Register
Agency: National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
Byline: Nanda Narayanan Srinivasan
Date: 27 December 2022
Subjects: American Government

, Autonomous Vehicles, Safety, Taxicabs & Limousines

[Federal Register Volume 87, Number 247 (Tuesday, December 27, 2022)]
[Notices]
[Pages 79442-79444]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2022-28132]

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DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

National Highway Traffic Safety Administration

[Docket No. NHTSA-2022-0080]

AGENCY: National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA),
Department of Transportation (DOT).

ACTION: Notice and request for comments on a request for approval of a
new information collection.

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SUMMARY: In compliance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (PRA),
this notice announces that the Information Collection Request (ICR)
abstracted below will be submitted to the Office of Management and
Budget (OMB) for review and approval. The ICR describes the nature of
the information collection and its expected burden. This ICR is for a
new collection of information for which NHTSA intends to seek OMB
approval on Child Passenger Safety Perceptions and Practices in
Ridesharing and Autonomous Vehicles. A Federal Register notice with a
60-day comment period soliciting comments on the following information
collection was published on October 17, 2022. NHTSA received two sets
of comments from three organizations, which we address below.

DATES: Comments must be submitted on or before January 26, 2023.

ADDRESSES: Written comments and recommendations for the proposed
information collection, including suggestions for reducing burden,
should be submitted to the Office of Management and Budget at
www.reginfo.gov/public/do/PRAMain. To find this particular information
collection, select ``Currently under Review--Open for Public Comment''
or use the search function.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: For additional information or access
to background documents, contact Kathy Sifrit, Ph.D., Office of
Behavioral Safety Research (NPD-320), (202) 366-9982, National Highway
Traffic Safety Administration, W46-472, U.S. Department of
Transportation, 1200 New Jersey Avenue SE, Washington, DC 20590.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Under the PRA (44 U.S.C. 3501 et seq.), a
Federal agency must receive approval from the Office of Management and
Budget (OMB) before it collects certain information from the public and
a person is not required to respond to a collection of information by a
Federal agency unless the collection displays a valid OMB control
number. In compliance with these requirements, this notice announces
that the following information collection request will be submitted
OMB.
Title: Child Passenger Safety Perceptions and Practices in
Ridesharing and Autonomous Vehicles.
OMB Control Number: New.
Form Numbers: NHTSA Forms 1687, 1688, 1689, and 1690.
Type of Request: Approval of a new information collection.
Type of Review Requested: Regular.
Length of Approval Requested: Three years from date of approval.
Summary of the Collection of Information: The National Highway
Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) of the U.S. Department of
Transportation is seeking approval for a one-time voluntary information
collection from 24 caregivers of children 8 years old or younger and 12
licensed drivers of rideshare vehicles. The purpose of the collection
is to describe child passenger safety (CPS) attitudes and behaviors
from caregivers and rideshare drivers. A NHTSA contractor expects to
provide screening questionnaires to 200 potential participants to
determine their eligibility for the focus group study and to collect
contact information for scheduling with a potential burden of 15
minutes per respondent or 50 hours. From the 200 potential
participants, the contractor will contact and enroll up to 36
participants in the study. Six 90-minute focus groups will be
conducted, each with six participants. Including the five minutes for
participants to complete informed consent, the burden per focus group
participant is 95 minutes or 57 hours. The total expected burden for
screening, scheduling, and participating in the focus groups is 107
hours. A trained moderator will conduct separate virtual focus groups
for caregivers/parents of at least one child 8 years old or younger who
frequently use rideshare vehicles to transport children (two groups)
and those who infrequently transport children in rideshare vehicles
(two groups) as well as for rideshare drivers who frequently have child
passengers 8 years old or younger (one group) and those who
infrequently have child passengers (one group). The contractor will
collect participants' attitudes and self-reported behaviors from the
focus groups. NHTSA's contractor received Institutional Review Board
(IRB) approval to conduct the focus groups. NHTSA will use the
information to produce a technical report containing descriptive and
qualitative assessments of caregivers/parents' and rideshare drivers'
attitudes and behaviors related to CPS in rideshare vehicles. NHTSA
will make the technical report available to a variety of audiences
interested in improving highway safety through the agency website and
the National Transportation Library. This collection will inform the
development of behavioral safety countermeasures, particularly in the
areas of communications and training related to CPS in rideshare
vehicles and potentially future vehicles with Automated Driving
Systems.
Description of the Need for the Information and Proposed Use of the
Information: NHTSA has estimated that using a car seat reduces the risk
of fatal injury for infants (under 1 year old) by 71 percent for
passenger cars and by 58 percent for light trucks such as pickups,
SUVs, and minivans. For toddlers (1 to 4 years old), the corresponding
reductions are 54 percent and 59 percent. \1\ However, children are not
always restrained appropriately. In 2020 there were 181 passenger
vehicle occupant fatalities among children under 4 years old, and 31
percent were unrestrained (based on known restraint use). In the 4-to-7
age group, there were 207 fatalities; 43 percent were unrestrained
(based on known restraint use).\2\
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\1\ Kahane, C. J. (2015, January). Lives saved by vehicle safety
technologies and associated Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards,
1960 to 2012--Passenger cars and LTVs--With reviews of 26 FMVSS and
the effectiveness of their associated safety technologies in
reducing fatalities, injuries, and crashes (Report No. DOT HS 812
069). National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. https://crashstats.nhtsa.dot.gov/Api/Public/ViewPublication/812069
\2\ National Center for Statistics and Analysis. (2022, July).
Occupant protection in passenger vehicles: 2020 data (Traffic Safety
Facts. Report No. DOT HS 813 326). National Highway Traffic Safety
Administration. https://crashstats.nhtsa.dot.gov/Api/Public/ViewPublication/813326

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[[Page 79443]]

The use of ridesharing services has increased dramatically over the
past few years. In 2018, 36 percent of U.S. adults used ridesharing
services, such as Uber and Lyft. This percentage is more than twice the
share of the population who used ridesharing apps in 2015.\3\ As the
use of ridesharing vehicles increases, concerns regarding how children
are being transported in these vehicles are emerging. However, limited
research has been conducted on CRS use in ridesharing vehicles. A study
conducted by Prince, et al. showed lower rates of CRS use and higher
rates of injuries in crashes involving taxis in New York City.\4\ In an
online national survey of parents with children under eight, 59 percent
reported that they transported their children differently when
traveling in rideshare vehicles compared with private vehicles.\5\ Of
those, 37 percent reported holding the child on their lap and 25
percent allowed the child to ride without a CRS. Several online and in-
person surveys with parents and caregivers point to specific
circumstances in which non-use of CRS is perceived as more acceptable,
including riding in a rideshare or taxi; traveling while on vacation,
carpooling, when traveling short distances; and finding there is no CRS
available.6 7 8
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\3\ Pew Research Center (2019, January 4). More Americans are
using ride-hailing apps. https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/01/04/more-americans-are-using-ride-hailing-apps/.
\4\ Prince, P., Hines, L. M., Bauer, M. J., Liu, C., Luo, J.,
Garnett, M., & Pressley, J. C. (2019). Pediatric Restraint Use and
Injury in New York City Taxis Compared with Other Passenger
Vehicles. Transportation Research Record, 2673(7), 541-549. https://doi.org/10.1177/0361198119843091.
\5\ Owens, J. M., Womack, K. T., & Barowski, L. (2019,
September). Factors Surrounding Child Seat Usage in Rideshare
Services (Technical Report No. 01-005). Safety through Disruption
(Safe-D) University Transportation Center. https://rosap.ntl.bts.gov/view/dot/63050.
\6\ Levi, S., Lee, H., Ren, W., Polson, A., & McCloskey, S.
(2020, December). Awareness and availability of child passenger
safety information resources (Report No. DOT HS 813 035). National
Highway Traffic Safety Administration. https://rosap.ntl.bts.gov/view/dot/54283.
\7\ McDonald, C., Kennedy, E., Fleisher, L., & Zonfrillo, M.
(2018). Situational Use of Child Restraint Systems and Carpooling
Behaviors in Parents and Caregivers. International Journal of
Environmental Research and Public Health, 15(8), 1788. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph15081788.
\8\ Niu, L., Gao, Y. M., Tian, Y., & Pan, S. M. (2019). Safety
awareness and use of child safety seats among parents after the
legislation in Shanghai. Chinese journal of traumatology = Zhonghua
chuang shang za zhi, 22(2), 85-87. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cjtee.2018.08.005.
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There also is a lack of research on best practice approaches for
promoting child safety in rideshare vehicles, and regulatory
inconsistencies (e.g., types of vehicles covered under restraint laws,
severity of fines for violations of the law, age of child covered by
child restraint laws, etc.) only contribute to the confusion on the
part of caregivers and rideshare drivers. A better understanding of
caregiver and rideshare driver behaviors and attitudes related to
restraint use in rideshare services is needed to inform the development
of public policy, regulations, enforcement measures, and educational
campaigns.
60-Day Notice: A Federal Register notice with a 60-day comment
period soliciting public comments on the following information
collection was published on October 17, 2022 (87 FR 62922). Two sets of
comments were submitted by three organizations: one comment was
submitted by Safe Kids Worldwide and Safe Kids in Automated Vehicle
Alliance (SKAVA), and the other comment was submitted by the Texas
Department of Transportation (TxDOT). Safe Kids Worldwide, SKAVA, and
the TxDOT were supportive of the agency's efforts to understand the
behavior and attitudes of caregivers and rideshare drivers regarding
child passenger safety (CPS) in rideshare vehicles. Safe Kids Worldwide
and SKAVA noted that this research will help inform solutions to
inconsistencies with CPS in rideshare vehicles. TxDOT recommended some
changes in project design to enhance the quality, utility, and clarity
of the information to be collected. We appreciate the comments from
Safe Kids Worldwide, SKAVA, and TxDOT and thank them for thoughtfully
considering the described program.
The TxDOT raised concerns about the study design. They expressed
concern that the number of participants in the focus groups would not
be representative of the population and recommended increasing the
sample size. The data collection plan includes enrolling 36
participants (24 caregivers and 12 rideshare drivers) for the focus
groups. While we recognize that this may seem to be a small sample
size, this number is in line with qualitative research methods
guidelines suggesting that 4-8 participants are enough to reach
saturation in focus group research.\9\ Additionally, TxDOT noted the
current study would be useful to examine attitudes and behaviors
related to advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) available in the
market and used in some rideshare vehicles, and whether the existence
of ADAS impacts choice and use of rideshare vehicles. We agree that
examining attitudes and behaviors related to ADAS in rideshare vehicles
is important; however, this line of questioning is unrelated to
understanding CPS in rideshare vehicles and is beyond the scope of this
study.
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\9\ Hennink, M. & Kaiser, B. N. (2022). Sample sizes for
saturation in qualitative research: A systematic review of empirical
tests. Social Science & Medicine, 292. 1-10. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2021.114523.
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Affected Public: Parents of children 8 years old or younger and
adult licensed drivers of ridesharing vehicles.
Estimated Number of Respondents: 200 potential participants with 36
participating in focus groups.
Frequency: This study is a one-time information collection, and
there will be no recurrence.
Number of Responses: Each respondent responds to each form only
once.
Estimated Total Annual Burden Hours: The total estimated burden
with this collection is 107 hours. NHTSA estimates that up to 200
potential respondents will need to be screened for eligibility by
completing a 10-minute screening questionnaire before finding 36 people
to participate in the focus groups. The contractor will contact the
eligible participants to determine whether they are still interested
and if so, to schedule a focus group for an additional potential burden
of five minutes. As such, screening and scheduling may take up to 15
minutes per potential participant. The goal is to schedule 36
participants for six focus groups (four caregiver groups and two driver
groups).
Each focus group is estimated to last 90 minutes. Including
informed consent, NHTSA estimates the burden as 95 minutes per
participant. During the focus group, participants will discuss their
experiences in traveling with children in rideshare vehicles, behavior
with respect to using seat belts or CRSs when travelling in personal
vehicles and rideshare vehicles, opinions regarding CPS in rideshare
vehicles, etc. Assuming a 10-minute completion time for the recruitment
screener questionnaire, 5 minutes for contacting and scheduling
potential participants for the focus group sessions, 5 minutes for
informed consent for participants, and 90 minutes for participating in
the focus groups the total hour burden 107 hours. The calculation of
the total estimated burden is shown in Table 1 below.

[[Page 79444]]

Table 1--Estimated Burden Hours by Form
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Time per
Form No. Form name and description Respondents respondent Total time
(minutes) (hours)
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1687........................... Screener and Follow-Scheduling. 200 15 50
1688........................... Informed Consent (Caregivers).. 24 5 2
1689........................... Informed Consent (Drivers)..... 12 5 1
1690........................... Focus Group Participation...... 36 90 54
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Total...................... ............................... .............. .............. 107
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Estimated Total Annual Burden Cost: NHTSA estimates that there are
no costs to respondents beyond the time spent participating in the
study.
Public Comments Invited: You are asked to comment on any aspects of
this information collection, including (a) whether the proposed
collection of information is necessary for the proper performance of
the functions of the agency, including whether the information will
have practical utility; (b) the accuracy of the agency's estimate of
the burden of the proposed collection of information, including the
validity of the methodology and assumptions used; (c) ways to enhance
the quality, utility and clarity of the information to be collected;
and (d) ways to minimize the burden of the collection of information on
respondents, including the use of appropriate automated, electronic,
mechanical, or other technological collection techniques or other forms
of information technology.
Authority: The Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995; 44 U.S.C. chapter
35, as amended; 49 CFR 1.49; and DOT Order 1351.29A.

Nanda Narayanan Srinivasan,
Associate Administrator, Research and Program Development.
[FR Doc. 2022-28132 Filed 12-23-22; 8:45 am]
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