General Fact Sheet

Promoting Trade and Mobility Along Our Nation's Borders

What is border planning?

Border planning facilitates the development and maintenance of the surface transportation system along our Nation's borders with Canada and Mexico. The border transportation system includes:

Land ports of entry (LPOEs)
Roadways and railways leading to LPOEs
Transit, pedestrian, and bicycle facilities at LPOEs

An effective and effcient border transportation system is important for economic competitiveness, mobility, accessibility, sustainability, and quality of life.

flags of united states, canada and mexico

Image credit: Volpe (Robert Slack) and 123rf.com (mg7 and gibson)

FHWA Border Planning Team

The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) Border Planning Team provides guidance for a reliable and effcient border transportation system along the border between the United States and our neighbors, Mexico and Canada. The Border Planning Team supports:

Projects that reduce congestion and improve the flow of people and goods across the border. FHWA provides stewardship and oversight to ensure that border transportation projects are properly planned, designed, constructed, operated, and maintained.
Policy, plans, and programs that reflect the border transportation needs of the United States and promote sustainable, multimodal solutions for moving people and freight.
Research on technologies for improving border wait times, future transportation demand and infrastructure needs, strategies for reducing greenhouse gas emissions at the borders, and other focus areas.
Coordination and communication between Federal, State, local, private, and international stakeholders about border transportation priorities and issues.

Projects

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Projects that reduce congestion and improve the flow of people and goods across the border. FHWA provides stewardship and oversight to ensure that border transportation projects are properly planned, designed, constructed, operated, and maintained.

Policy, Plans, and Programs

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Policy, Plans, and Programs that reflect the border transportation needs of the United States and promote sustainable, multimodal solutions for moving people and freight.

Research

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Research on technologies for improving border wait times, future transportation demand and infrastructure needs, strategies for reducing greenhouse gas emissions at the borders, and other focus areas.

Coordination

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Coordination and communication between Federal, State, local, private, and international stakeholders about border transportation priorities and issues.

FHWA Project Spotlight:

Scenario Planning of Future Freight and Passenger Flows Across U.S. Borders

Planning for future border transportation flows helps ensure U.S. economic competitiveness and promote quality of life in border communities. FHWA is developing U.S.-Mexico and U.S.-Canada regional projections of future freight and passenger volumes over the next 30 years. The study will identify and document multimodal corridor and gateway needs, trends, and opportunities to assist in the development of future infrastructure plans.

FHWA Project Spotlight:

U.S.-Mexico-Canada Peer Exchange on Border Wait Times

In 2014, FHWA sponsored a tri-national workshop on border wait times in order to promote new approaches and tools for reducing traveler delays and congestion, improving management of border resources, and supporting economic development. This exchange helped stakeholders prioritize next steps to advance border wait time tools, information sharing, and holistic approaches to managing and reducing border wait times.

For more information, contact:

Tricia Harr, Federal Highway Administration Border and Interstate Planning Team (202) 366-9214, tricia.harr@dot.gov

Border Planning Facts and Figures

Did you know?

Including rail and ferry crossings, there are 179 active land border crossings:

54 along the U.S.-Mexican border, in 4 U.S. states and 6 Mexican states.
125 along the U.S.-Canadian border, in 11 U.S. states and 8 Canadian provinces.

In 2014 more than 113 million vehicles crossed into the U.S. from Mexico and Canada, including:¹

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101 million personal vehicles, carrying 189 million people

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11 million trucks, carrying 100 million tons of freight.

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317,000 buses, carrying 5 million people

Approximately 42 million pedestrians crossed into the U.S. in 2014-41.2 million from Mexico and 425,000 from Canada.¹

Border Planning in the FAST Act

The Fixing America's Surface Transportation (FAST) Act allows border states to set aside funding specifically for border transportation projects. Under Sec on 1437 of the FAST Act, the governor of any state that shares a land border with Canada or Mexico can designate up to 5% of Surface Transporta on Block Grant Program funds in each fiscal year for border infrastructure projects that were eligible under the former Coordinated Border Infrastructure Program (Section 1303 of SAFETEA-LU).

Importance of border transportation systems to the U.S. economy

Canada and Mexico are the U.S.'s largest export markets.² In 2014, trade with Mexico and Canada totaled $1.2 trillion.¹

Stacks of money representing Mexico 534 billion and Canada 658 billion

By value, 83% of trade with Canada and Mexico in 2014 moved across the border by surface transportation modes-trucks, rail, or pipelines.¹

This object displays a pie chart that is divided into three sections demonstrating how trade moves across the U.S.-Mexican and U.S. Canadian borders. 60% moves across by truck, 8% moves across by pipeline, 15% moves across by rail, snf 17% by other means.

Trade is not limited to the border States: In 2014, 44 states exported more than $1 billion in goods to Canada and Mexico, and 45 States imported more than $1 billion in goods from those countries.¹

This picture shows a map of the United States. States that have exported more than $1 billion to Mexico and Canada are highlighted. All states except Alaska, Arkansas, Delaware, Hawaii, Montana, n, Rhode and Wyoming are highlighted.

Sources:

1) Bureau of Transportation Statistics. http://transborder.bts.gov.

2) U.S. Census. census.gov/foreign-trade/statistics/highlights/toppartners.html