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Ambassador Bridge Border Crossing System Booz·Allen & Hamilton Ambassador Bridge Final Evaluation Report CONTENTS EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 1 PROJECT BACKGROUND 9 FINDINGS 25 CONCLUSIONS 65 RECOMMENDATIONS 70 APPENDIX A-1 Booz·Allen & Hamilton i Ambassador Bridge Final Evaluation Report EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The US-Canada International Border Crossings (IBC) Project is a joint effort between the United States and Canada to provide a transparent, seamless border for expeditious crossing of people and goods through the application of Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) technologies at selected border crossing sites. Field operational tests were independently conducted at selected border crossing sites. This report details the evaluation of the field operational tests conducted at the Ambassador Bridge international border crossing site between Detroit, Michigan, USA and Windsor, Ontario, Canada. The purpose of the Ambassador Bridge Border Crossing System (ABBCS) field operational test (FOT) was to demonstrate the ability of ITS technology to expedite safe and legal international border crossings for both commercial and commuter vehicles in an operational environment. The ABBCS project objective was to develop and demonstrate an integrated system that would allow pre-processed vehicles, trade goods, and commuters to pass through international border checkpoints with expedited customs, immigration, and toll collection processing. Through the application of new and emerging technologies, the ABBCS was intended to facilitate the positive identification of commercial vehicles, crews and cargo, and commuter vehicles, drivers and passengers, as well as to facilitate the electronic payment of bridge tolls. The system operating concept was centered around the use of a system of in-vehicle transponders and roadside positive identification and classification equipment to gather pre-processed information for use in assessing the crossing status of a vehicle, its contents, and its occupants, and to collect tolls. This system provided the Detroit International Bridge Company (DIBC) with the ability to electronically collect tolls, and the US Customs Service (USCS), and Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) to screen registered vehicles, cargo, and occupants upon entry into the US, utilizing a single vehicle-mounted transponder for both programs. This report details the results of an independent evaluation of the ABBCS implementation. This evaluation was designed to address four goals: 1. Assess the technical performance capabilities of the technologies being used Booz·Allen & Hamilton 1 Ambassador Bridge Final Evaluation Report 2. Assess the user acceptance of the services and technologies being provided 3. Evaluate the potential impacts of the services and technologies to the transportation processes and interfaces at the international, federal, state and local levels 4. Document transportation institutional and technical lessons learned Findings These goals were developed to answer several questions, each of which is addressed here: 1) Will the level of functionality of the ABBCS components be sufficient to support the electronic processing and exchange of information necessary to conduct cross-border operations? a) The systems installed as part of the operational test demonstrated that the provision of expedited border processing was technically feasible, but that much is yet to be learned regarding the ability to efficiently process large numbers of participants, specifically: i) Dedicated short-range communications (DSRC) systems that rely on radio-frequency (RF) transmissions between roadside readers and vehicle-mounted transponders are capable of supporting trade processing decision support systems, such as the North American Trade Automation Prototype (NATAP) ii) The electronic card readers used for DCL processing suffered performance problems stemming, at least in part, from environmental effects. Minor modifications appeared to rectify these problems, but no long term data was available as of the completion of this report. Provided that no additional system modification is necessary, such readers, when used in conjunction with DSRC systems, may be an acceptable means to identify individual commuters for screening by the Secure Electronic Network for Travelers' Electronic Inspection/Dedicated Commuter Lane (SENTRI/DCL) deployed by the INS. 2) In what ways can the Detroit International Bridge Company, MDOT, Canada, shippers, carriers, receivers, brokers and commuters benefit from an ITS-based border crossing system? Booz·Allen & Hamilton 2 Ambassador Bridge Final Evaluation Report a) According to the results of a detailed simulation conducted by Mitretek Systems, the implementation of a system like the ABBCS, in combination with a carefully selected lane assignment scheme, has the potential to significantly reduce the length of vehicle queues during peak arrival periods: i) The time required for a participating commercial vehicle to progress from the point just before trucks enter the lane heading into the USCS compound, to the compound exit, can be reduced by 50 percent using ABBCS in a four-lane configuration where all lanes are mixed-use (a mixed-use lane is equipped with ABBCS technologies, and is open to all truck traffic) ii) However, a configuration in which all lanes are designated for mixed use is likely to negate some of the incentive for participation in the program, since any differential time savings for doing so would be eliminated iii) Benefits are more pronounced as the level of participation in the program increases. 3) What are the potential impacts of the implementation of ABBCS services and technologies on the transportation and traffic characteristics on and around the US side of the bridge? a) According to the simulation results, the SENTRI/DCL system also has the potential to positively effect traffic on the bridge: i) As with the ABBCS commercial vehicle processing, the combination of DCL and an all mixed-use lane configuration has the potential to measurably reduce queuing. ii) However, as was also the case with the commercial vehicle system, the elimination of lanes dedicated for participant use may serve as a disincentive to participation. 4) What are the challenges associated with operating an automated vehicle identification (AVI) system within the geographic context of an international border crossing? a) During the FOT, the DSRC AVI system exhibited no unique performance or reliability characteristics resulting from the environment at the bridge. None of the issues regarding antennae footprint overlap or transmission interference experienced at other border sites were evident. b) However, the transponder batteries did experience abnormally rapid discharging, apparently stemming from prolonged exposure to readers while in queue. Booz·Allen & Hamilton 3 Ambassador Bridge Final Evaluation Report Due to the limited duration of the test, it is not known whether the replacement of batteries with longer-life units fully rectified this problem. 5) What technical and institutional lessons can be learned regarding the implementation and use of such systems? a) The most significant technical lessons pertained to transponder battery life, and DCL card reader environmental sensitivity b) Perhaps more significant was the finding from the simulation that reconfiguring the compound entry to accommodate two lanes of truck traffic would be likely to have a much more profound effect on traffic than the implementation of the ABBCS c) The most significant institutional issues can be characterized in one of three major categories: information management, inter-jurisdictional coordination, and sustainability i) Information management: the primary issue here stems from concern on the part of the carrier community regarding the collection, use, and protection of information not specifically required by law, and liability regarding inaccurate data. This issue is not unique to the border environment, and receives regular attention in most ITS for CVO forums. ii) Inter-jurisdictional coordination: the significant issues here involve the adoption and use of standards that promote interoperability, particularly with regard to DSRC, and the issues of sharing information across jurisdictions. These issues are significant, but they also enjoy considerable visibility among the stakeholders, and work to resolve them is well underway iii) Sustainability: this refers to the ability of the ABBCS and similar systems to provide incentives significant enough to attract users, and thus become a worthwhile investment of public and private funds. This continues to be a significant challenge. 6) What potential value can this system provide in the future improvement in the level of safety and regulatory compliance of international trade and commercial vehicles crossing into the US? a) At the most basic level, the program demonstrated that it is possible for law enforcement officials at or near the border to access information regarding specific vehicle, carrier, operator, and cargo data that was not previously available. As is typically the case with Booz·Allen & Hamilton 4 Ambassador Bridge Final Evaluation Report regard to law enforcement, the more that is known about each of the components of an international shipment, the better equipped responsible enforcement officials are to make accurate decisions. b) What remains to be demonstrated is the degree to which this information can be accessed and used without inducing additional delays for bridge users, or increasing the complexity
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