01627884

Component

Land borders connecting Canada and the U.S are vital transportation facilities for the two countries. Truck delays at these facilities can have a significant impact on the performance of the economy. To date, the knowledge about border delays has been limited due to lack of detailed data on the Canadian border. This paper explores and models the patterns of delays at the three major land crossings connecting Canada to the U.S: Ambassador Bridge, Blue Water Bridge and Peace Bridge. The analysis is based on 387,775 border crossing truck trips that were generated between Canada and the U.S over a course of 12 months. Seemingly Unrelated Regression (SUR) models are estimated to evaluate the seasonal and hourly delays of Canada and U.S bound trips on each crossing, while controlling for traffic intensity in the models. The SUR modeling approach is chosen to control for potential cross-model correlations. The results suggest that delays at the border vary by season and hour of the day. Delays also vary by direction of traffic and by type of the day (i.e. weekday versus weekend). Traffic intensity has a significant influence on delays at two of the crossings but not the Blue Water Bridge. Finally, delays are more variable during the summer season and tend to be higher during the late evening hours and past midnight.

This paper was sponsored by TRB committee AT015 Standing Committee on Freight Transportation Planning and Logistics.

01618707

17-03388

English

19p

2017

Transportation Research Board 96th Annual Meeting

Digital/other

Figures; Maps; References; Tables

Days; International borders; Periods of the day; Regression analysis; Seasons; Traffic delays; Travel time; Truck traffic

United States-Canada Border

Freight Transportation; Operations and Traffic Management; Planning and Forecasting

Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting 2017 Paper #17-03388

TRIS, TRB, ATRI

Dec 8 2016 11:16AM