Memorandum - NHTSA

VI-6
In order to make an estimate of personally licensed MPVs with lifts, the following inforrnatior
was used. The 1990 census estimated the US. population at 248.7 million. Officials at the
Texas Rehabilitation Commission estimate that they fund approximately 150 lift installations
annually and that this constitutes about 1/4 of the total number installed in Texas, in personall;:
licensed vehicles. The population of Texas was 6.8 percent of the US. population in 1990.
Extrapolating the estimated number of lifts installed in Texas to the US. population results in
8,800 [150X4/0.068]. Officials in Louisiana estimate that their Vocational Rehabilitation
Agency funds 50 lift installations annually and that this represents 1/5 of the total number
installed in Louisiana, in personally licensed vehicles. The population of Louisiana was 1.7
percent of the U.S. population in 1990.9 Extrapolation of this data results in an estimate of
15,000 [SOX5/0.017] for the U.S. Finally, officials at the Department of Veterans Affairs
(DVA) reported that in Fiscal Year 1994 they funded modifications to 1,846 vans. It is valid to
assume that nearly all of these modification involved a lift installation. The total veteran
population of the U.S. is about 11 percent of the total population. It may be reasonable to asslime
that the veteran population contains a higher level of persons with disabilities than the overall
population due to injuries incurred during wartime. Extrapolating the estimated lift installations
in the DVA to the entire U.S. population should result in a value that defines the upper end of the
likely range of lift installations. This extrapolation results in a value of 17,000 [ 1846/0.1I] lifcs.
9 Although the magnitude of the U.S. population has increased to an estimated 272 million people, the
agency assumes the Texas and Louisiana population proportions are about the same.