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Measuring Border Delay and Crossing Times at the US/Mexico Border

Project Description

As part of their Freight Performance Measurement (FPM) initiative, The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) is interested in examining automated measurement for travel times in freight-significant corridors and at major U.S. land border crossings. Towards this end, Battelle and the Texas Transportation Institute have teamed together to 1) identify and select a technology that could be used to support an automated border crossing time measurement system and 2) install the system at the Bridge of the Americas (BOTA) in El Paso, TX.

This project consists of 2 phases. The first phase, identifying and selecting the technology for the proposed system, analyzed 6 technologies that could more easily and precisely measure border crossing times using a consistent methodology that is comparable from one measurement location to another. Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) was selected as the best suited technology to support this type of system. The results of Phase 1 of this project can be found at: http://tti.tamu.edu/about_tti/international/cross_border/mobility.htm.

Building off of the work conducted as part of Phase 1, the project team is moving towards the implementation of a system that uses RFID technology to collect, disseminate, and archive crossing times at BOTA so they can be viewed by all stakeholders involved in the border crossing process. This project is currently in process, and the research team has produced the following deliverables to date:

Current Progress

This Document provides an overview of the project, and the current progress of the research team.

Stakeholder Meeting Participant List and Notes

On February 20, 2008 the project team hosted a meeting in El Paso, Texas in order to inform local stakeholders about the objectives and goals of the project, and to address any questions or concerns they had dealing with the project. The Stakeholder Participant List provides a list of the attendees of this meeting, while the Stakeholder Meeting Notes summarizes the topics discussed at this meeting.

Task 1 Deliverables

These documents lay the foundation for the project, and serve to illustrate how the proposed system will be implemented at BOTA. The Current State Analysis outlines the operations at BOTA, while the Plan for Collecting Baseline Data illustrates how border crossing times will be measured by the proposed system. The Preliminary Design Document provides a blueprint for the system that will be implemented by the project team.

Task 2 Deliverables

This document summarizes the work conducted in Phase 1 of this project, and provides a Concept of Operations for an RFID based system.

Task 3 Deliverables

These documents build off of the work conducted in Tasks 1 and 2, providing additional details for how the proposed system will function. The Final Design Document provides a detailed list of the equipment that will be needed in order to install the proposed system. The Test and Evaluation Master Plan presents a list of tests that must be conducted on the equipment in order to ensure that it is working properly, and also identifies key performance parameters for the proposed system. The Implementation Plan serves as a general guide for installing this type of system at other land Ports of Entry (POEs) along the U.S.¿s Northern or Southern border.

More deliverables will be posted on this site as the project moves towards completion.

Texas Transportation Researcher Articles

Congestion management solutions - Volume 43, Number 4

For More Information

Juan Villa
CE/TTI Building, Room 603
TTI/Economics, Trade, and Logistics Program
Texas A&M University System
3135 TAMU
College Station, TX  77843-3135
ph. (979) 862-3382 · fax (979) 845-6008
j-villa@tamu.edu
Dave Winterich
CE/TTI Building, Room 603
TTI/Economics, Trade, and Logistics Program
Texas A&M University System
3135 TAMU
College Station, TX  77843-3135
ph. (979) 458-0919
D-Winterich@ttimail.tamu.edu

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