If I cross the border, do you have pictures of me?

No, absolutely not! Out of respect for everyone’s privacy, we’ve implemented measures to ensure that we never take, store, or transmit images which are clear enough to identify any individual or automobile. While there is no law against taking images in public, we feel very strongly that we should not capture any identifying images. Additionally, we do not record any continuous live video. Instead, we record 10 seconds of each shot every 10 minutes. Our clips take a few minutes to process and post to the web site, so there is no “live” video file. Once processed, the clips are deleted.

You have text updates for my border crossing but no video. When will my crossing have video?

We’ve worked very hard to develop the technology which allows us to capture, transmit, process, and display the border crossing images. While it appears simple, it is actually quite complex. Now that the system has been developed, we’re working as quickly as possible to bring more ports and border crossings on line with video.

You mention that you are a “Green” project. How is that so?

Conservative calculations show that we might save each member 15 to 20 minutes every time s/he crosses the border; multiply that by the number of border crossings per year, and you get a very substantial amount of time! According to government data, 200 million people cross per year. If just 10% use our website to save time, that equals 20 million crossings per year. 20 million crossings multiplied by 15 minutes saved per crossing is equal to 300 million minutes saved, or 5,000,000 hours. The average car burns .25 gallons or more of gas per hour while idling in traffic. So, 5,000,000 hours multiplied by .25 gallons per hour is equal to 1,250,000 gallons of gasoline that won’t be burned in the border line. Every gallon of burned gasoline emits 20 pounds of carbon dioxide into the air. By not burning that extra 1,250,000 gallons of gasoline, 25,000,000 pounds of carbon monoxide is NOT emitted into the earth’s atmosphere! That spells “Green” to us!!

How does your site help the economy?

Based on 200 million crossings per year, if our site saves travelers an average of 15 minutes per crossing, that would equal a savings of 50 million hours annually. If you consider that the average worker makes $10 to $20 per hour, that totals $500,000,000 to $1,000,000,000 in lost productivity. Even if a person crosses the border for leisure, there is a real price paid for time lost.

Additionally, a tremendous amount of commerce takes place around the border. The more time it takes to move goods and personnel, the less efficient the process is. This means less productivity, higher prices, less industry at the border, or all of the above.

Tourism also suffers due to long border waits. When deciding where to spend a long weekend or holiday, people factor the border into their decision. “Do I really want to sit in a long border line on my vacation?” If a tourist decides not to cross the border due to long waits, this definitely can have a negative impact on tourism.

There are more border crossings than you currently show on your map. Why is that?

In order to provide this service, we had to select the crossings with the most volume and delays. If your crossing isn’t listed and you experience delays, please contact us and we’ll make an effort to add it to the site.