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Data: Cross-border Trade and Traffic Flows

The TBWG Border Data Subcommittee

Data on cross-border trade and traffic flows can: help to assess travel demand; inform policy and infrastructure planning activities; provide insights about routing and the origin and destination of vehicles and cross-border freight movements; and, help to assess border transit times and performance measures. In recognition of the importance of trade and traffic data to bi-national transportation planning, the Transportation Border Working Group has established a data subcommittee to address data needs, identify data gaps and assess tools for the gathering and analysis of data, and finally, to identify trade and traffic data initiatives of collective interest to TBWG members. This Data Subcommittee is co-chaired by the Ontario Ministry of Transportation and the U.S. Federal Highway Administration, on behalf of the TBWG.

The genesis of the TBWG Data Subcommittee was an October 2003 conference in Port Huron, Michigan, which was organized by the Ontario Ministry of Transportation and the Michigan Department of Transportation on behalf of the TBWG, with support from the U.S. Federal Highway Administration and Transport Canada. At this conference, TBWG members identified a number of common “data needs”. These include: Vehicle Counts: frequent shared information of vehicle flows; Origin and Destination information: consistent tracking and reporting on driver, vehicle and commodity information; Routing information i.e. developing a “big picture” of vehicle routes and movements; Commodity attributes including weight and value data; and, Border Congestion/Delays (Performance Measures). The TBWG is currently assessing tools for the data gathering and analysis and it will be identifying initiatives for further collaboration based on these data needs. The activities of the TBWG data subcommittee fall under the TBWG Action Plan.

Subsequent to the TBWG meeting in Montreal in December 2003, it was decided that the first task of the data subcommittee would be to identify effective tools and approaches for data gathering and analysis to address data needs, particularly in the areas of:

1. Vehicle Counts/Classification;
2. Border Origin and Destination Surveys/Studies;
3. Border Delay/Congestion;
4. Customs/Trade Data sources i.e. drawing on possible data sources such as the U.S. International Trade Data System/Advance Commercial Environment.

For further information on the TBWG Data Subcommittee, please contact Alicia Nolan at Alicia.Nolan@fhwa.dot.gov.

Canada-U.S. Mexico Data Interchange

There are also other groups dealing with cross-border trade and traffic data such as the Canada-U.S.-Mexico Data Interchange. This Group is a forum established in 1991 for the exchange of information and the initiation of collaborative activities amongst the transportation and statistical federal agencies in Canada, Mexico and the United States. Its mission is to raise the general awareness and improve the quality, relevance, and comparability of transportation data and information in North America. The overarching goal of the Interchange is to promote and develop high quality, relevant, comparable data and analysis that provide information necessary for an efficient and fully integrated transportation system for North America.

One of the key results of the Interchange was the trilateral development and release of the North American Transportation in Figures report in 2000. Canada, Mexico and the United States are updating this information as inputs to the North American Online Database that will supply public access to relevant, timely and comparable transportation indicators for North America due for a Phase I release in the coming year.

The lead agencies for the Interchange are the U.S. Census Bureau, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, U.S. DOT/Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS), Statistics Canada and Transport Canada, Mexico's Ministry of Communications and Transport, the Mexican Institute of Transportation, and Mexico's National Institute of Statistics, Geography and Informatics.

There are four working groups as part of the Interchange:

• the North American Transportation Statistics working group - developing a core set of comparable and timely transportation performance measures for North America and the inclusion of these in an online database developed by Mexico.
   
• the Maritime and Trade working group - vessel and port classification issues and consistency in these for North America, customs issues, trade data reconciliation and support of maritime data needed for the online database.
   
• the Environment and Energy working group - developing a comparable set of indicators in environment and energy as they relate to transportation across North America and the exchange of best practice and program updates.
   
• the Surface Transport working group - freight surveys and collection approaches in North America and the expansion of these across all three countries, measurement of border delays and efficiencies, hazmat freight issues, North American geospatial data and North American passenger travel data.

The 18th North American Transportation Statistics Interchange is scheduled for late June 2004 in Ottawa, Canada. BTS is the lead U.S. Department of Transportation agency for North American transportation and statistics data coordination and partners at the U.S. federal level with the U.S. Census Bureau and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. BTS is the only agency within the U.S. Department of Transportation that addresses transportation data on a trilateral basis filling data gaps associated with North American trade and travel. The Interchange and its related activities provide major contributions to BTS products and other U.S. Department of Transportation projects.

For more information on BTS products and services relating to border issues, visit www.bts.gov/itt.