The days of our seemingly open border with Canada are gone following the 9/11 attacks. But a study released jointly by four partners finds that Buffalo-Niagara's crossings are the busiest along the entire Canadian border - while Detroit Windsor gets more truck traffic, more overall traffic crosses both ways in this region.
A newly released report summarizes a study of trends at the crossings over the past few years, seeks to find out why people are crossing or not crossing, and offers recommendations for maximizing the crossings for economic growth.
Arlene White is Executive Director of the Binational Economic and Tourism Alliance, one of the partners that is releasing the report.
"We found that things have changed dramatically in the past ten years, that the global economy has impacted us a lot more than people recognize, and that it's up to stakeholders to make the positive changes at the border happen," said White. "So it's not going to be one quick-fix solution."
More than 350 U.S. citizens and more than 350 Canadians were surveyed about why they are not crossing the border. Most Americans answering said it's because of border identification requirements... this, in spite of the fact more than half answering have the adequate documents. The second most popular reason why Americans weren't crossing was also the top answer given by Canadians responding ... they're simply not interested in any tourism on the other side.
The report is available online at www.betapartners.com.
