The impact of the recent United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) on the energy trade between the United States and Mexico—especially as it relates to transportation and logistics at border crossings—has not yet been fully measured. With so much at stake, understanding the potential impacts of this new agreement is crucial to both countries’ economies.
[Read more…] about Anticipating USMCA Impacts on Energy Trade and Border Crossing Logistics
Cross-border travel across the U.S.-Mexican border often experiences delays due to international security and customs concerns. However, medical emergencies require expedited travel through land ports of entry to save patients. Researchers examined potential strategies to expedite patient transfers and held a workshop to solicit input from stakeholders on the strategies.
by Okan Gurbuz
In the past year, the world has undergone an immense transformation in an attempt to slow the spread of COVID-19. Complete lockdowns and curfews have been enacted and then lifted to balance mitigating the spread of the disease with keeping economies working. Although a lot is still unknown about COVID-19, one thing is certain: transportation is one way the disease is spread from place to place.
[Read more…] about Understanding Transportation as a Disease Vector at the U.S.-Mexico Border
Understanding the relationship between cross-border transportation and the spread of infectious diseases is vitally important to mitigating the spread of future waves of COVID-19 or other pandemics. This study clearly shows the significant effect border crossings have regarding the spread of infectious diseases in their surrounding communities.
TTI Associate Research Engineer Alfredo Sanchez.
Associate Research Engineer Alfredo Sanchez with TTI’s Center for International Intelligent Transportation Research talks about the value of collecting private and commercial data at the border to better estimate border wait times. Knowing how long it takes people and goods to cross the border can impact tourism and how much consumers pay in stores. | View the Video
If you’ve ever visited the Texas-Mexico border during peak crossing times, you know a lot of time is spent waiting to cross. And, as the old saying goes, time is money. That’s particularly true for shippers moving goods and manufacturing materials from point A in Mexico to point B in the United States. [Read more…] about A New, Web-Based Platform to Alleviate Cross-Border Traffic Congestion
Currently, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) publishes the number of lanes open at the land ports of entry (LPOEs) on their website. This information is updated once every hour in most cases. However, it has been observed that in some cases this information is not updated for several hours, and in other cases, the information has proven unreliable.
In a reliable transportation system, motorists know with a high degree of certainty when they will arrive to their destination. Numerous factors directly affect reliability such as signal timing, work zones, incidents, unusually high demand, special events, weather, and the performance of complementary and competing modes). The purpose of a travel-time reliability monitoring system (TTRMS) is to collect travel-time data from various sources and to monitor travel-time reliability. Such a system allows transportation agencies to quantify travel-time reliability of their transportation networks and evaluate the impact of transportation network improvements on reliability. Moreover, freight carriers can make more informed decisions to minimize their travel times and possibly reducing transportation costs.
In the transportation research business, we use the term “performance measurement” when we measure how a certain aspect of our transportation system is operating. For example, through crash reporting we can tell you with certainty how safe a road is operating, or, through commute times, how well traffic is flowing. Safety and mobility of a roadway are fairly easy to determine. [Read more…] about Taking Border Performance to the Next Level
Like motorists, pedestrians crossing the border at all four El Paso international bridges are experiencing longer crossing times. For example, 550,000 people crossed the border by foot just in the first quarter of 2014.
[Read more…] about Making Pedestrians, Bicyclists a Priority at the Border
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