Office of Operations Freight Management and Operations

Border-Wide Assessment of Intelligent Transportation System (ITS) Technology—Current and Future Concepts

Final Report


CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION

Background

Cross-border transportation is an important element of the nation’s transportation system. In 2010, more than 90 million personal vehicles entered the United States – 28.8 million from Canada and 64 million from Mexico. Canada and Mexico are the first and third largest U.S. trading partners, respectively. In 2010, more than 10.2 million commercial vehicles crossed into the United States at both the northern and southern borders, handling trade valued at more than 556 billion dollars. U.S. merchandise trade with Canada and Mexico by all land modes rose by 37.4 percent in the 10 years between 2000 and 2010 (1), and it is expected that the growth rate will increase once the North American economies recover.

Increasing trends in cross-border traffic present challenges in infrastructure improvements at land ports of entry (POEs). Adding transportation infrastructure at land border crossings is even more challenging than building transportation infrastructure elsewhere because of the international dimension and the different stakeholders that interact at an international border crossing. Federal, State, and local agencies as well as private-sector stakeholders intervene in the process on both sides of the border. Dissimilar funding cycles, environmental regulations, and other rules in each country make the process of building additional capacity at international crossings lengthy and difficult.

Each international crossing is different in terms of traffic patterns, geography, configuration, and physical characteristics. This makes the planning process even more difficult as it requires accommodating stakeholders’ needs and objectives at each POE.

There is a whole range of activities that take place at land border crossing, such as electronic filing of import and export declarations, agricultural inspections, drug interdiction, immigration check on the driver and passengers, vehicle safety checks, etc. All of these activities involve a certain level of technology and data systems; however, this study focuses only on the use of technology for traffic management.

The use of intelligent transportation systems (ITS) and other technologies is one way in which capacity at POEs could be increased and also enhance and improve the coordination among stakeholders on both sides of the border.  However, one of the lessons learned from the 2001 ITS at International Borders study (2) is that “as with many domestic ITS/CVO [commercial vehicle operations] initiatives, institutional issues represent the most significant hurdle in deploying and using technology as a tool for improving processes at international borders.”

Objectives of the Study

The purpose of this work effort was to conduct a border-wide assessment of the use of current and future ITS technologies and operational concepts at and near U.S. land border crossings. Researchers focused on tolling, traffic management, and operations and safety. The specific objectives of this project were to research, assess, and document how ITS technologies can be used in the following areas:

  • Toll collection and management in border regions and identification of technology used, system components, and any special data-sharing arrangements between the two countries.
  • Transportation operations and traffic management in the U.S.-Mexico border regions.
  • Transportation safety policy and operations.
  • Traffic management, traffic operation, and traffic enforcement on tolled roads and tolled border-crossing roads.
  • Toll and traffic management data archival.

Other objectives included:

  • Identifying the usage of ITS and other technologies by Federal, State, and local governments and other entities in border regions, as well as any coordination between agencies and cross-border.
  • Documenting how updates to technology or its obsolescence can be handled.
  • Documenting how appropriate agencies/entities operate and maintain operations on both sides of the border, and identifying potential funding sources and models.
  • Researching, assessing, and documenting barriers to technology adoption in border regions.

Assessment Methodology

The initial task was to conduct a scanning assessment of ITS technologies with a primary focus on the U.S.-Mexico border, substituting ITS experience on the U.S.-Canada border when experience with equivalent technology on the U.S.-Mexico border does not yet exist.

Figure 1 illustrates the overall framework for conducting the border-wide assessment of technologies used. The approach to document the state-of-the-practice and future developments and concepts of ITSs at the border included two main components: a thorough literature review of documentation from the United States as well as other countries, and communication with key stakeholders that participate in the border-crossing process. Researchers analyzed findings from these two sources to prepare this document, which reports the state-of-the-practice and future ITS concepts that have potential to be implemented at the U.S.-Mexico border.

Two workshops were organized during the project. The objective of the workshops was to further document the state-of-the-practice, stakeholders’ short- and long-term needs, and present and future technology solutions. In the initial workshop, the research team presented a summary and facilitated discussion of the ITS technologies that are being implemented at border regions. During the second workshop, participants identified policy, legal, and institutional barriers to implementing ITS technologies along the United States’ northern and southern borders. ITS solution providers and technology vendors presented their experiences in the implementation of innovative ITS projects at the borders.

Figure 1. Flowchart describing overall framework for conducting the border-wide assessment. Box 1: Perform a comprehensive literature review. Box 1 leads to Box 2, Box 3, and Box 4. Box 2: Obtain stakeholder input, which includes: Verify information obtained from the literature review; obtain additional information using survey questionnaires, telephone interviews, and face-to-face meetings. Box 2 leads to Box 3: Develop current state of the practice. Box 3 leads to Box 4: Develop and document future concepts, which includes: Interview industry experts including technology providers and vendors. Box 4 leads to Box 5: Develop workshop agendas—Workshop I: ITS and Cross-Border Operation; Workshop II: Private Sector ITS Providers. In the process between Box 5 and Box 6 is: Allow for Federal Highway Administration and stakeholder review of the workshop agendas. Box 5 leads to Box 6: Conduct workshops. Box 6 leads to Box 7: Fine-tune current state of the practice, current and future needs, and application of current and future technology. Box 7 leads to Box 8: Prepare final report.
Figure 1. Flowchart describing overall framework for conducting the border-wide assessment.

The scan included the following topics pertaining to deployment of ITSs at border crossings on the U.S.-Mexico border:

  • Planning and cross-border coordination.
  • Tolling in border regions.
    • Transaction processing (e.g., interoperability, charging, collections).
    • Electronic tolling operations (e.g., account management, customer service).
    • Technology.
  • Border transportation operations and traffic management and enforcement.
    • Operations.
    • Traffic management.
    • Commercial vehicle safety.
    • Enforcement.
  • Traveler information.
  • Archived data management.

The study identified and prepared case examples of ITS pre-deployment strategies and/or concepts of operations at border regions, identifying the geographic coverage as well as the operational scope that was covered in that particular example.

The study also assessed whether existing and planned systems were based on any existing ITS architecture and identified whether ITS deployments influenced one or more subsystems in the architecture. Any aspects of a regional ITS architecture need to be considered in project implementation and updated as user needs and services change. Understanding that the application of ITS architecture and standards is important to maximizing the benefits of ITS projects, the study also assessed the effect of the technology implementation on ITS architectures.

Organization of the Report

Chapter 1 (this chapter) is the introduction. Chapters 2 through 6 present a discussion of the state-of-the-practice and future plans for each chapter’s topic area.

Chapter 2 presents a brief description of the border-crossing process. The objective is to inform the reader of the various processes that take place at the border for private and commercial vehicles and introduce general concepts of ITS and other technologies being used.

Chapter 3 describes tolling and includes ITS transaction processing (e.g., interoperability, charging, and collections) and electronic tolling operations (e.g., account management and customer service). The final topic under tolling is ITS technologies being used and planned.

Chapter 4 describes transportation operations, traffic management and enforcement, operations, and traveler information at and around border crossings. These are divided into traffic management, commercial vehicle safety, and enforcement.

Chapter 5 includes a description of the state-of-the-practice of managing archived border crossing-related data.

Chapter 6 includes an inventory of ITS projects that are under either construction, procurement, or consideration in U.S.-Mexico border regions.

Chapter 7 includes key findings from the two workshops that were organized as part of the project.

Chapter 8 presents a series of conclusions for the overall project.

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