草榴社区

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草榴社区's Border Policy Research Institute Receives Grant to Research Cross-Border Traffic

Contact: David Davidson, associate director, Western Washington University鈥檚 Border Policy Research Institute, (360) 650-2642 or David.Davidson@wwu.edu

BELLINGHAM 鈥 The Border Policy Research Institute (BPRI) at Western Washington University has received $19,160 in funding from the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) to construct a model of northbound traffic and wait times at the Pacific Highway border crossing in Blaine.

In collaboration with U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Canada Border Services Agency, the B.C. Ministry of Transportation, Washington State Department of Transportation, and Whatcom Council of Governments, the BPRI has collected detailed information concerning the elapsed time of trucks as they travel across the border northbound.聽

For this project, six Western students were employed to monitor and time-stamp approximately 1,300 trucks that traversed the border on Aug. 14 and 15.聽

The BPRI performed similar field research in 2008, 2009, and 2011.聽 Information collected was then given to Western Professor of Decision Sciences, Mark Springer.聽 From this research, Springer was able to develop a computer simulation model of traffic moving through the crossing that will be used in 2013 to analyze 鈥渨hat if鈥 scenarios.聽 Findings of this research will be of particular interest to the Canada Border Services Agency and WSDOT.聽

The U.S. Customs plaza at Pacific Highway experienced a nearly identical 2011 BPRI project monitoring southbound truck flow that resulted in a reconfiguration of highway lanes and booth usage producing huge reductions in delays.聽

草榴社区鈥檚 Border Policy Research Institute is a multi-disciplinary research institute focused on policy research dealing with transportation, mobility and security issues affecting the Canada-U.S. border. Western established the BPRI to further its mission of promoting research, academic programs and public programming on critical policy issues affecting the Pacific Northwest region and Canada. For more information on the BPRI see: