Examining the Variability of Crossing Times for Canadian Trucks at the Three Major Canada–U.S. Border Crossings

Abstract

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

连结加拿大与美国的陆路边境, 是两国重要的运输设施。货车在这些设施中的跨境次数, 对于经济表现可以产生显着的影响。至今, 由于缺乏加拿大边境的详细数据, 导致有关跨境数的知识相当有限。本文探讨并模式化连接加拿大与美国的三大主要陆路跨境次数的形态: 大使桥、蓝水大桥, 以及和平桥。本分析根据为期十二个月中, 加拿大与美国之间产生的三十八万七千七百七十五趟货车的跨境旅次。本研究控制模型中的交通密集度, 评估看似不相关的迴归 (SUR) 模型, 用以评价各季节与每小时中分别驶向两国的跨境旅次数。本研究选择 SUR 模式化方法, 用来控制潜在的跨模型相关性。研究结果指出, 边境的跨境次数在各季节与一日中的各小时中互异。跨境次数同时在交通方向和该日属性 (例如週间相对于週末) 上有所不同。交通密集度对于两个通关处的跨境次数有显着的影响, 但在蓝水大桥中却非如此。最后, 夏季的跨境次数差异较大, 并在晚间和过午夜的时段倾向更高。

Los límites terrestres que conectan a Canadá y los Estados Unidos son facilidades vitales de transporte para los dos países. Los tiempos de travesía o viaje de camiones a través de estos lugares pueden tener un impacto significativo en el desempeño de la economía. Hasta ahora, el conocimiento sobre tiempos de viaje en la frontera ha sido limitado debido a la falta de datos detallados del lado canadiense de la frontera. Este artículo explora y modela los patrones de los tiempos de viaje por los tres principales cruces terrestres que conectan estos dos países: el Puente Ambassador, el Puente Blue Water y el Puente Peace. El análisis se basó en 387.775 recorridos transfronterizos de camión que se generaron entre Canadá y los Estados Unidos en el curso de doce meses. Los modelos de regresión aparentemente no relacionada (SUR) se calcularon para evaluar los tiempos de viaje estacionales y horarios a través de la frontera, desde y hacia uno y otro país, en cada uno de los cruces del límite, registrando el control de la intensidad del tráfico en los modelos. El enfoque de modelado SUR es seleccionado para asumir el control de potenciales correlaciones en el modelo del cruce. Los resultados sugieren que los tiempos de cruce en la frontera varían por estación y por hora del día. Estos tiempos de viaje también varían según la dirección del tráfico y según el tipo de día (esto es, días corrientes vs. días de fin de semana). La intensidad del tráfico tiene una influencia significativa en estos tiempos de cruce en dos de los puntos de cruce, mas no en el del Puente Blue Water. Por último, los tiempos de cruce son más variables durante la estación de verano y tienden a ser de mayor duración durante las horas nocturnas avanzadas y pasada la medianoche.

Key Words:

• border crossing time
• Canada–U.S. trade
• GPS data
• regression
• trucks

关键词:

• 跨境次数
• 美加贸易
• 地理定位系统数据
• 迴归
• 货车。

Palabras clave:

• tiempo de cruce fronterizo
• comercio de Canadá y Estados Unidos
• datos de GPS
• regresión
• camiones

Acknowledgment

We are thankful to Transport Canada for providing access to the GPS truck data used in the analysis.

Note

Notes

1 The mean of crossing time was favored over the median to account for large outliers. These outliers are important for understanding the nature of crossing times at the border because they correspond to costly events. Consider two cases each with three crossing times: Case 1 = {10, 14, 15} and Case 2 = {10, 14, 30}. Both cases have medians of fourteen minutes but averages of thirteen and eighteen minutes, respectively. Clearly, the average does a better job accounting for the variation in crossing time in each of the two cases because, unlike the median, it accounts for the impact of the outlier (i.e., 30 in Case 2).

Additional information

Funding

The authors thank the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) for funding this research through an Undergraduate Student Research Award and a discovery grant (Grant #RGPIN/386255-2011). Thanks also go to FedDev Ontario (Prosperity Initiative Project #802390) for their financial support.

Notes on contributors

Hanna Maoh

HANNA MAOH is an Associate Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and the Associate Director of the Cross Border Institute at the University of Windsor, Windsor, ON N9B 3P4, Canada. E-mail: [email protected]. His research interests include freight and passenger transportation, land use and transportation interactions, cross-border transportation, and geographic information systems (GIS) and simulation modeling.

Kevin Gingerich

KEVIN GINGERICH is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Civil Engineering at York University, Toronto, ON M3J 1P3, Canada. E-mail: [email protected]. His research interests include freight transportation modeling, GIS and big data analysis, land use, and transportation modeling.

Rahaf Husein

RAHAF HUSEIN is a recent MASc graduate from the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Windsor, Windsor, ON N9B 3P4. Canada. E-mail: [email protected]. Her research interests include travel demand analysis, discrete choice modeling, and GIS data analysis.

William Anderson

WILLIAM ANDERSON is a Professor in the Department of Political Science and the Director of the Cross Border Institute at the University of Windsor, Windsor, ON N9B 3P4, Canada. E-mail: [email protected]. He is also Ontario Research Chair in Cross Border Transportation Policy. His research interests include border operations, technology and policy, freight transportation and supply chain, international trade and business, Canada–U.S. economic integration, and regional economic development.