Focus on the U.S. Borders
Coordination
Coordination and communication between Federal, state, regional, and local agencies, international transportation partners in Canada and Mexico, the private sector, and other various stakeholders about border transportation priorities and issues.
Policy, Plans, and Programs
Policy, plans, and programs that reflect the border transportation needs of the United States and promote multimodal solutions for moving people and freight.
Projects
Projects that reduce congestion and improve the flow of people and goods across the border. FHWA provides stewardship and oversight to ensure that border related transportation projects are properly planned, designed, constructed, operated, and maintained.
Research
Research on technologies for improving border wait times, encouraging border master planning, strategies for reducing emissions, ways to collect border transportation data, and other focus areas.
Figure 1. Areas of Focus for FHWA’s Border Transportation Planning Discipline
Border transportation planning involves the development of goals, objectives, and strategies for moving people and goods across the U.S.-Canada and U.S.-Mexico borders. Within FHWA, the Office of Planning Environment, and Realty undertakes a variety of activities to facilitate safe and effective cross-border transportation. The FHWA does this while working with Federal, State, regional, and local agencies; international partners; the private sector; and various stakeholders. FHWA has two primary working groups through which staff coordinate with stakeholders on border transportation planning: the U.S.-Canada Transportation Working Group (TBWG), led in conjunction with Transport Canada and the U.S.-Mexico Joint Working Committee on Transportation Planning (JWC), led in conjunction with the Mexico Secretariat of Communications and Transportation. The support that FHWA provides for cross-border transportation can be categorized as coordination, policy, planning, projects, and research (Figure 1). FHWA also leads outreach events such as workshops and peer exchanges to further advance the agency's efforts in each of these areas.
FHWA also facilitates the development and maintenance of the surface transportation systems along the U.S.-Canada and U.S.-Mexico borders to address existing and anticipated demand for cross-border travel and trade. The border transportation systems includes Land Ports of Entry (LPOEs); highway, interstates, roads, bridges, and the railroads leading up and at the LPOEs; and transit, pedestrian, and bicycle facilities leading to and at the LPOEs.
Border transportation planning is an important component of the U.S. transportation system and how people and goods travel into, across, and out of the country. The United States conducts roughly $1.1 trillion in total annual trade with Canada and Mexico, and these two countries are the two largest export markets for U.S. goods. In 2016, trade with those two countries accounted for almost 30 percent of the value of U.S.-international merchandise trade.[1] A great deal of this trade occurs using the surface transportation networks of the three countries: in fact, nearly 86 percent of U.S. trade with Canada and Mexico (as measured by value) is delivered by surface modes of transportation: truck, rail, and pipeline.[2] Trucks carried 26.8 percent of the tonnage and 65.5 percent of the value of U.S. merchandise trade with Canada and Mexico, while rail carried 18.2 percent of the tonnage and 15.5 percent of the value in 2016.[3] It is vital for the mobility, quality of life, and economic competitiveness for all three countries that the border transportation system be effective and efficient in meeting the demands of today and the anticipated growth of tomorrow.
[1] Bureau of Transportation Statistics, 2017 Transportation Statistics Annual Report, https://www.bts.gov/TSAR.
[2] Ibid.
[3] Ibid.
