Border Manners

We had a couple of ‘incident’ days at the border this past week. Ed was coming back in the evening from Bellingham, thus crossing two borders (Peace Arch and Point Roberts), and they were doing much longer question interviews, and were opening car trunks, etc. The Nexus lane was closed at this time, so this was happening in the regular lanes.

The next day, I crossed the Point Roberts border around noon and noticed, as I went through the Canadian side that there was a very extended car line-up to get into Point Roberts. I didn’t have a lot of business in Tsawwassen, and thus offered up a request to the skies that the CBP get this mess cleared up within the next half hour, say.

Alas, within a half hour I was back, and the lines had gotten only longer. There were two lines, one leading to the Nexus entry, the other to the regular lane (or lanes). I was too far away to be able to tell whether there were two regular lanes open. If I had known there were two, it might have been worthwhile going into the regular lane. On occasion, the Nexus lane computers get bollixed and people in the regular lane move quickly through (since they’re looking at passports there), whereas people in the Nexus lane wait and wait because some problem has arisen with reading the Nexus cards.

Anyway, I just stayed in the Nexus lane and hoped for the best. I waited, but lots of cars came up, saw the line and made amazing u-turns or drove up over the curb and over the park grass to turn the corner ahead thus avoiding going to the border. It was like dodgem cars there for awhile; at least until I advanced well beyond the end of the line, but still far from the border.

My general policy while waiting in line in a car if it is a slow-moving line is to turn the motor off until there are at least three car lengths in front of me. Saves on gas, saves on emissions. And it seems only right to do it while waiting in line in B.C. which advertises itself as an ‘idle-free Province’ (or words to that effect). So, I’m sitting and waiting and then after awhile, starting the car and advancing 50 or so feet, then turning the motor off again.

This line is truly moving slowly. Hard to imagine what they’re doing up front. The regular car lane doesn’t seem to be moving any faster, so maybe it’s leading up to only one lane instead of two. And then, a car from the regular lane suddenly pulls over in front of me in my (at the moment) 2-car length empty space. And then, five minutes later, it happens again.

At this point, I realize that no good deed comes without a downside. The fact that Nexus card holders can now go in any lane means that they can car hop from lane to lane opportunistically. When I get to that stop light intersection--a long block before the border--the light turns red and now there are additional spaces to jump into. At this rate, the regular lane will soon be faster. At this rate, I will be in this lane forever. At this rate, I will go back to letting the car idle throughout the experience, creeping ahead inch by inch constantly, giving no opportunity to the lane jumpers. Emissions, gas, all irrelevant, as I am experiencing fully my irritation at these drivers who can't stay put, even though they have no real information about what lane is going to get them through faster.

Almost 40 minutes after I got into this line, I get out the other side. There were, indeed two regular lanes, although those lanes weren't moving any faster than the Nexus lane individually, but perhaps (a thinly-held judgment drawn after the fact) were a little faster as a single choice in the range of say 2-3 minutes. The CPB folks are indeed inspecting cars, opening trunks, lifting up interior compartment lids, although I must not look like a dope runner because they just pass me through.

Maybe there’s some other way to think about this lane changing stuff, but I do remember how people took to very aggressive behaviors back in L.A. during the 1970’s gas shortage when cars cut into lines at gas stations. Probably not a good idea right at the border where all the CBP folks are armed. But still. Isn’t it bad enough that we have Goldman-Sachs and their like grabbing every opportunity to fleece us without our doing it to one another?