Vehicle design standards are intended to reduce the unwanted impacts of transport systems, and to meet consumer and industry expectations. When complemented by the necessary regulatory framework, they provide a set of legal standards with which vehicles in a market must comply. The need for design standards came about due to the increasing use of motor vehicles, and the hazardous impacts they have on communities. However, not all countries and jurisdictions have taken the same approach to the development and implementation of vehicle standards. Research on early regulations shows that they were originally developed on a localised basis, that is, individual countries usually developed regulations independently of other countries. North America, Europe, and Japan have traditionally accounted for the majority share of the world's production and consumption of passenger vehicles. While local production in many developing countries is growing, manufacturers from these three economies built over 78% of the total of 58 million cars and trucks built world-wide in 1998, and accounted for over 77% of world sales. In the USA, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) administers the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards (FMVSS). These standards have been mostly developed in the USA, in response to local conditions, experience, and research. Canada uses a system of vehicle design standards based largely on the FMVSS. In Europe, the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) administers the development of automotive safety and emissions regulations for adoption by its contracting parties which includes representation from essentially all European countries. Japan has also developed its own system of design standards. Although this has traditionally been a domestic activity, Japanese standards have often been based to some degree on either US or European requirements. These three economic powers have also served as the primary centres for vehicle standard rule-making in the world. Australia's system of vehicle regulations provides a good example of one country's standards which have drawn on aspects of all three of the major automotive players. Sixty per cent of Australia's current vehicle design standards, known as the Australian Design Rules (ADRs), are aligned fully or partially with UNECE regulations; the remainder either are based on US or Japanese standards, or are standards unique to Australia (Federal Office of Road Safety, 1999). The ADRs are the basis for much of the discussion in this chapter on harmonisation of international standards, scope, identifying the need for a standard, enforcement, type approval, compliance and conformity.
Samenvatting