The Detroit-Windsor and Port
Huron-Sarnia land border crossings of Southeast Michigan/Southwest Ontario
are the busiest international crossings in the North American continent
and represent nearly 50% of the traffic volume crossing the U.S./ Canada
border. More than 75,000 vehicles use the Southeast Michigan/Southwest
Ontario border crossings each day. Traffic at these Michigan/Canada ports
of entry has grown 44% from 19.7 million vehicles in 1990 to 28.4 million
vehicles in 2000. Truck traffic at these ports of entry has more than
doubled from 2.5 million vehicles in 1990 to 5.1 million in 2000.
Over the last decade, Canada and
the U.S. have developed the largest bilateral trade relationship in the
world. U.S. Commerce Department figures show that U.S. merchandise trade
with Canada totaled $US330 billion in 1999, up 20% from 1995. Forty-two
percent, $US140 billion in 1999, of the total merchandise trade volume
crosses at the Detroit-Windsor and Port Huron-Sarnia border crossings.
Trucks carry 75% of the total trade through the Southwestern Ontario Gateway.
Empowered by the North American Free
Trade Agreement (NAFTA), trade between the U.S. and Canada will continue
to grow, and so will traffic at the border crossings between Southeast
Michigan and the Southwest Ontario. According to the Ontario Ministry
of Transportation's Southwest Ontario Frontier International Gateway Study
(1998), daily traffic at these crossings will grow to 104,000 vehicles
by 2021. Truck traffic is expected to grow more quickly than passenger
vehicles at these crossings. As a result, the proportion of trucks to
passenger vehicles is expected to increase from the current 18% to 22%
by 2021, resulting in 8.3 million truck crossings each year.
The Ontario study has further concluded
the two-lane Detroit-Windsor tunnel which connects to urban streets in
downtown Detroit and Windsor is close to capacity today, and that the
four-lane Ambassador Bridge and its connecting link - Huron Church Road/Highway
3 in Windsor will reach capacity around 2010.
The planning agencies on both sides
of the border have recognized the need to develop a coordinated, long
term transportation strategy in this area and have launched a number of
initiatives including:
(a) The Southeast Michigan/Southwest
Ontario binational planning effort, whose purpose is to expedite cross-border
vehicle and cargo movements through binational coordination of planning
and project implementation;
(b) The Canadian National Truck
Survey, which is being conducted in collaboration with SEMCOG, the Eastern
Border Transportation Coalition (EBTC), MDOT and other agencies to study
truck movements at U.S./Canadian border crossings;
(c) The Detroit-Windsor Corridor
Traffic Study, which is a joint effort of MTO, MDOT, Transport Canada,
SEMCOG, and the City of Windsor, currently underway, to collect travel
survey data and carry out an analysis of vehicular flow patterns and
characteristics of cross border traffic between Ontario and Michigan;
and
(d) The Ambassador Bridge Gateway
Project, which is a $120 million commitment to renovate the U.S freeway
connection to the bridge.
In December 2000, an Ontario-Michigan
Border Transportation Partnership was formed among the United States Federal
Highway Administration, Transport Canada, Michigan State Department of
Transportation and Ontario Ministry of Transportation. The purpose of
the Partnership is to improve the movement of people, goods and services
across the United States and Canadian border within the region of Southeast
Michigan and Southwest Ontario. The overall objectives of the Partnership
in support of this purpose are the following:
(a) To improve the movement of
people, goods and services in a safe and efficient manner across the
U.S./Canadian border at the Detroit and St. Clair Rivers to connect
with existing national, provincial and regional transportation systems,
such as I-75 and Highway 401;
(b) To enhance the regional economic
vitality and Canadian/U.S. trade;
(c) To meet the long term needs
of U.S. and Canadian border inspection agencies;
(d) To expedite the planning and
environmental study process to ensure that future travel demands in
this corridor can be accommodated in a timely manner;
(e) To ensure that all modes of
surface transportation including road, rail and marine will be considered;
(f) To use a single integrated
planning and environmental study process, resulting in a single product,
which will meet the requirements of all members of the Partnership;
(g) To ensure that any solutions
which are developed as a result of the above integrated planning and
environmental study process comply with all relevant and applicable
federal, provincial, state and/or municipal laws, regulations, bylaws,
ordinances or other binding enactments validly created by bodies with
legislative or rule-making authority;
(h) To ensure that the process
is conducted in a financially responsible and prudent manner; and
(i) To ensure that intelligent
transportation systems/state-of-the-art facilities be provided to enhance
border crossing efficiency.
[Back to top]
|