17. The Chair of the informal working group on Quiet Road Transport Vehicles (QRTV), reported on the good progress (GRB-54-18) made by the group at its sixth and seventh meetings held in San Diego, California, USA on 15 May 2011 and in Osaka, Japan on 31 August 2011. He announced that the next meeting of the group was planned to be held in Baltimore, Maryland, USA on 18 October 2011. He clarified that the group was focusing on key elements such as definitions, applicability, type of sound produced, etc. He underlined the need of benchmarking on silent vehicles (i.e. establishing maximum sound level at speeds below 30 to 20 km/h). He added that vehicle speed and tires were fundamental in this process. Referring to the discussion during the last session of the Executive Committee of the 1998 Agreement (AC.3) (see ECE/TRANS/WP.29/1091, para. 112), the expert from the United States of America informed GRB that his country will co-sponsor, with Japan, a proposal for developing a UN GTR (through GRB/QRTV) to ensure harmonization with the current development of a proposed regulation in his country. He added that according to the notice of intent (NOI) of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), an environmental assessment, together with a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) would be published in July 2012 (www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2011-07-12/pdf/2011-17341.pdf). The Chair of the GRB presented his understanding of the USA timeline and questioned the very short time to finalize the performance requirements of the USA regulation and the UN GTR. The expert from the United States of America stated that the development of the draft UN GTR should follow the timeline of NHTSA rulemaking process and that probably the broad range of options that he believes will be initially proposed in the NPRM, would be reduced in the rulemaking process, easing GRB’s task. The Chair of QRTV suggested that his understanding of the USA regulation process, meaningful discussions and alignment of the USA regulation and the UN GTR may be precluded by USA law regarding ex-parte discussions once the NPRM is issued.

18. The WBU expert, informed GRB about the perception needs of visually impaired people to locate a vehicle, its direction and speed. He added that specific noises (i.e.: acceleration, deceleration and idling) of internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles were important information in identifying vehicle distance, as is also the case for vulnerable road users such as children and elderly people. In this respect, the Chair of QRTV informed GRB that his group was identifying criteria to have the most informative audible warning device.

19. The expert from the United Kingdom informed GRB about the project report of the Transport Research Laboratory (TRL) on the assessment of perceived safety risk from quiet electric and hybrid vehicles to vision-impaired pedestrians (www.dft.gov.uk/publications/trl-report-ppr525). Finally GRB noted an article (GRB-54-07) submitted by the expert from the Netherlands on effects of electric vehicles on road safety.

20. GRB agreed to resume discussion of this agenda item at its February 2012 session, awaiting the proposal for developing a UN GTR by Japan and United States of America and the outcome of the next meeting of informal working group on QRTV.