U-S federal officials say an experiment at the Otay Mesa border crossing cut wait times nearly in half for passenger vehicles Sunday. In fact, they say the test worked so well they may do it again Labor Day weekend. KPBS Reporter Amy Isackson has the story.
Customs and Border Protection officials opened six lanes at Otay Mesa's commercial crossing to passenger cars on Sunday afternoon.
The commercial port closes early on Sundays.
Customs and Border Protection officials wanted to see if using some of those lanes for passenger cars would help relieve traffic.
Vince Bond, who's a spokesperson for Customs and Border Protection, says it did.
Vince Bond: I can't draw major conclusions here. But we saw a reduction from about 70 minutes at the Otay Mesa Passenger Port down to about 35 minutes and then it started going back up again after we concluded the test.
Bond says cars in the extra commercial lanes waited about 20 minutes to cross.
Federal officials will analyze the results of this test. Then they'll decide if they'll open extra lanes every Sunday.
Amy Isackson, KPBS news.
