Radio Frequency Identification System to Measure Crossing and Wait Times of Commercial Vehicles at U.S. Border Crossings

Abstract

The design and deployment processes described in this study were used for deployment of a system based on radio frequency identification technology at the Pharr–Reynosa International Bridge in Pharr, Texas. The overall goal of this deployment was to implement a system that would automatically and reliably collect, archive, and disseminate wait times and crossing times of U.S.-bound commercial vehicles at international land border crossings and thereby monitor the performance of these crossings. Such performance measures provide stakeholder agencies and users with information to assist in various travel-related decisions, establish a common denominator to estimate the effect of improvements and modifications in operation, and establish indices that can be easily communicated to a nontechnical audience and still remain relevant. Results are also described from the initial analysis of wait and crossing times of U.S.-bound commercial vehicles at the border crossing. Researchers believe that the study will greatly benefit stakeholder agencies at the border that want to implement similar systems to measure border crossing performance. At the same time, the research community can benefit from the real-time and archived data, and it is expected that new research opportunities focused on performance measurement and monitoring of international border crossings will be generated.

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