Draft Plan for Regulatory Assessment

Executive Order 12866 requires Federal agencies to submit certain regulatory actions to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for review.  The agency must provide OMB the text of the regulatory action, together with an assessment of the impacts of the regulatory action.  The assessment must describe the need for the regulatory action and how it will meet that need.  The assessment must also explain how the regulatory action is consistent with statutory mandates, promotes the President's priorities, and avoids undue interference with State, local, and tribal governments in the exercise of their governmental functions.  The assessment must be done for a proposed rule and for a final rule.  The Board seeks comment on this draft plan for developing a regulatory assessment for the proposed rule.  The proposed rule will be published at a later date.

Baseline - A regulatory action is compared to a baseline to evaluate the impacts of the rule.  The baseline is a reasonable forecast of what would happen in the absence of the regulatory action.  Although specific accessibility guidelines for passenger vessels currently do not exist, newly constructed vessels provide some level of accessibility.  As discussed below, the Board plans to conduct case studies of various types of passenger vessels to determine current practices and develop a baseline.

Case studies - The case studies will include a representative sample of passenger vessels that are permitted to carry more than 150 passengers or more than 49 overnight passengers.  Data on passenger vessels constructed since 1997 that meet these criteria are summarized below.  Data for the time period 1997 to 2003 was primarily provided by the U.S. Coast Guard and is based on build dates.  Data for 2004 came from the U.S. shipyards contracts list on the website of Marine Log (www.marinelog.com) and the Winter 2004 newsletter from the International Council of Cruise Lines (www.iccl.org), and is based on delivery dates. 

Summary of New Construction Vessel Data

* estimated                         

Based on the above data, the Board proposes to conduct case studies of the following types of passenger vessels.  Because of the variety within the ferry type, four different types of ferries are proposed for the case studies.  Although only one coastal cruise vessel was constructed since 1997, this vessel type is included because the guidelines will have impacts on passenger guest rooms.  No gaming vessels were included because the issues present in them are expected to be present in the other vessels of the case studies.

Question 1.  Are the passenger vessels proposed for the case studies representative of the types which may be constructed in the future or should other vessel types be included in the case studies?

Potential impacts - The case studies will evaluate the potential impacts of the sections of the proposed rule that are expected to add space or features or present design challenges for newly constructed passenger vessels.  The proposed rule will be based on the draft guidelines.  The Board may modify sections based on comments on the draft guidelines.

The following table lists all scoping sections from chapter 2.  The letter “Y” is used to indicate scoping sections that are expected to add space or features or present design challenges for newly constructed passenger vessels.  The letter “N” is used to indicate scoping sections that are not expected to add space or features or present a design challenge.  For chapters 3 through 10, only the technical sections that are expected to add space or features or present design challenges for newly constructed passenger vessels are included in the table and are marked with the letter “Y.” In addition to evaluating the sections indicated in the table, the following issues will also be evaluated in the case studies.  First, the impact of the guidelines on the electrical power supply of the vessels, and any related changes needed in the vessels to support an increase in generating capacity will be evaluated.  Applicable sections contributing to such an impact include V206.2.1 (onboard accessible route between decks), V207.3 (elevators), V215 (emergency alarm systems), V216.4.2.1 (exit sign illumination), V404.3.2 (emergency power for automatic doors and gates serving an accessible means of escape), V409.5 (power operated doors or gates on platform lifts), V410.3 (emergency power for elevators considered part of an accessible means of escape), V410.4 (emergency power for platform lifts considered part of an accessible means of escape), and V411.6 (two-way communication systems in areas of temporary refuge).

Secondly, the case studies will evaluate the impact of the guidelines on doors which are required to have coamings.  Accessible routes required by V206 and accessible means of escape required by V207 may connect or go through doors required to have coamings.  These doors must comply with V404.2 which sets out three configurations of access.  Lastly, the cases studies will evaluate the impact of the guidelines on the weight, speed, and stability of the vessels.

Question 2.  The Board is interested in receiving comments from designers, shipyards, and operators regarding the potential impacts of the scoping and technical provisions on newly constructed passenger vessels.  Will any scoping or technical provisions that are marked with the letter “N” in the table below have potential impacts that should be evaluated in the case studies?  Please provide specific information about current design practices and how the scoping or technical sections would impact the design.  Similar information is also sought for sections marked with the letter “Y.”

Aggregate costs - The regulatory assessment will aggregate the costs of the proposed rule for passenger vessels projected to be constructed in the future.

Question 3.  What methods should be used to project the number of passenger vessels which will be constructed in the future that will be permitted to carry more than 150 passenger or more than 49 overnight passengers? One method is to use the average number of each type of passenger vessel constructed between 1997 and 2004.  Another method is to use the number of existing passenger vessels and to assume that vessels will be replaced after an average vessel service life.  For example, if the average vessel service life is 40 years, it could be assumed that 2.5 percent of the existing vessels would be replaced each year.  This method assumes that there is no net increase or decrease in the total number of passenger vessels.  Is this a realistic assumption?  What is the average service life for various types of vessels?  Are there other methods or data sources that should be used to project the number of passenger vessels to be constructed in the future?

Alterations - The guidelines also apply to existing passenger vessels when they are altered.  When an alteration to a passenger vessel is conducted, section V202 requires accessibility improvements to be made to the maximum extent feasible based on the degree of alteration performed.  In general, altered elements and spaces are required to comply with new construction requirements unless an exception has modified the new construction requirement. Question 4.  The Board seeks comment on whether certain elements or spaces on existing passenger vessels are altered on a regular schedule?  How frequently are the elements or spaces altered?  Are certain elements and spaces on existing passenger vessels more likely to be altered than others?  What are the conditions or events that would trigger alterations to the elements or spaces?  Do industry or governmental organizations track alterations done to existing passenger vessels?  If this information is not available, how should the Board estimate the impact of proposed rule on alterations to existing passenger vessels?

Existing vessels that are not altered - The guidelines apply only to newly constructed and altered passenger vessels.  Other ADA requirements such as readily achievable barrier removal and program accessibility may require that accessibility improvements be performed in existing passenger vessels that are not altered.  The Department of Justice and Department of Transportation are responsible for issuing regulations for the other ADA requirements and will evaluate the impacts of those requirements on existing non-altered passenger vessels when they adopt standards for the accessible design of passenger vessels.