摘要: |
Commercial vehicle congestion at international ports of entry on the Texas - Mexico border has increased significantly, partly as a result of reduced trade barriers between the U.S. and Mexico. The environmental and economic impacts of this congestion is of great concern to residents and public officials. As there is limited opportunity to expand existing border crossing infrastructure at most of these border crossing sites, ITS technologies are being recommended as solutions for expediting commercial vehicles through these ports of entry. Significant institutional barriers exist, however, that are impeding the implementation of technology at the border, including the large number of federal, state, and local agencies involved with conflicting objectives. This paper will outline these institutions and the resulting conflicts that have created this situation. International conflicts in the implementation of NAFTA trucking rules are also seen as creating impediments to international institutional cooperation. Research conducted by the Intelligent Transportation Systems Research Center of Excellence at the Texas Transportation Institute, and the development of an ITS Border Plan, suggests two interrelated solutions: the diverse actors in the trade and transportation industry must be included in both the problem identification and planning stages for ITS applications in this complex environment, and increased education of the potential of ITS for border-specific and other transportation problems must be made a priority. |