Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act (MAP-21), enacted in July 2012, has created a surface transportation program with additional emphasis on performance-based measures. MAP-21 calls for U.S. states to establish performance goals and then report to the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) on progress towards meeting these performance measures. The United States Department of Transportation (USDOT) has issued several notices of proposed rulemaking that will eventually lead to specific requirements for agencies to measure and report on their performance in the national goals areas of safety, infrastructure condition, congestion reduction, system reliability, freight movement and economic vitality, environmental sustainability, and project delivery.
Although notices of proposed rulemaking have not yet been issued as of April 2016 for system performance and freight movement, these national goal areas may have implications for performance at international border crossings. In addition to security and safety interests, border crossing wait times are a strong focal point for commercial, passenger, and pedestrian traffic.
There are several international borders shared among the ENTERPRISE members (Washington State Department of Transportation, Minnesota Department of Transportation, Michigan Department of Transportation, Ministry of Transportation Ontario, and Texas Department of Transportation). These agencies had a shared interest in learning the roles, practices, and technologies for managing traffic in relation to performance measures at international border crossings.
The objectives of this project were to:
- Identify the current aspects of the transportation performance that are monitored at border crossings;
- Determine what and how wait time measurement technologies are used to support performance management at border crossings; and
- Investigate opportunities for ENTERPRISE to share information about this project’s findings with other entities to enhance future interactions.