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Border & Immigration

Students Build App To Determine The Best Time To Cross Border

Credit: The Best Time to Cross the Border
Credit: The Best Time to Cross the Border

A team of students from UC San Diego's Computer Science and Engineering Department has built an app to determine traffic patterns along the U.S. border.

โ€œThe Best Time to Cross the Borderโ€ mixes updates from the U.S. Customs and Border Protection with real-time reports from commuters. If a traveler is physically close to a port of entry, the app will collect his data, and use the crowd sourced information along with the official updates to create a more accurate time.

In addition to providing current wait times to enter the US from Canada and Mexico, it also tells you what is the best time to cross the border, via historical graphs. We average the wait times for the past three months and provide you with historical trends.

The hope for this application is that it might allow commuters the ability to avoid the excessively long wait times that have plagued border-crossers since security was tightened after 9/11.

A big decision awaits some voters this July as the race for San Diego Countyโ€™s Supervisor District 1 seat heats up. Are you ready to vote? Check out the KPBS Voter Hub to learn about the candidates, the key issues the board is facing and how you can make your voice heard.