SAN DIEGO (Border Report) — The city of Tijuana has announced a plan to redesign northbound traffic lanes at the San Ysidro Port of Entry as a way to ease congestion around the border crossing.
Pedro Montejo Peterson, Tijuana’s Secretary of Economic Development, says the plan calls for shifting SENTRI lanes to the main roadway that provides access to the crossing.
Right now, they use separate lanes on the east side of the port of entry.
Since drivers with SENTRI clearance experience much shorter wait times to get into the U.S., Montijo Peterson believes they don’t require as many dedicated lanes of traffic.
His idea is to move all others to the lanes now used by SENTRI travelers.
One concern shared by Montijo Peterson and others are drivers with READY Lane clearance, who also have their own segregated lanes once they arrive at the crossing.
But according to him, the pathways leading to the “Ready Lanes” are often congested because these cars are funneled into the port of entry on same roadway used by all other regular border commuters.
“In spite of the fact that this roadway is wider, it still gets jammed, would we be shifting the problem from one side of the crossing to the other?”
According to Montijo Peterson, they have time to figure things out since U.S. Customs and Border Protection has yet to sign off on the idea.
He says there is no timetable for the plan, but in the meantime, the city will work on putting up more traffic signals and better signage as a way to avoid confusion while improving flow around the port of entry.
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