Huerto Urbano Tijuanense 2016

[Gerardo]

Originally Posted by Cole_Robbie

What's it like crossing the border back and forth often? How long does it take by car?

It's like going across a toll road, just on a larger scale. From TJ to SD the typical layout is 1-2 lanes for buses, 6 for Sentri, about 8 for Ready Lane, and 6-8 for the category "all traffic." Practically all the inspection booths have the capability to take two cars at a time. There is no commercial traffic here.

Sentri means thoroughly vetted and screened, the Trusted Traveler Program. It's really cool 'cause you get to skip the awful lines at customs when you enter through air and land, don't know about sea. Biometrics, the works. Ready-Lane means your documents are relatively new and have a RF chip that transmits your info to the CBP officers' screen, thereby speeding up the process. "All traffic" means you break out the scrolls to prove your identity and therefore it takes more time.

The queues can be in the 3-5 car range, to as long as 900 cars. So yes, it can be awful at times, in either direction. The border wait is hard to predict.

In the other direction there's about 20 lanes, with bottlenecks going in and coming out. At peak times it can be as long as 2 hrs to cross from SD to TJ at this crossing.

Both the MX and the US side were completely redone in the last few years. Right now they are pristine and pretty, and the architectural choices seem like they might age well.

There is a 2nd one called Otay Port of Entry, more or less at the edge of the first rooftop pic. Smaller. Typical layout 1 buses, 2 Sentri, 3 "all traffic"' and 4-6 "ready lane." Can be hellish and is best avoided.

A 3rd one is exclusively commercial and that one is the real beast. Hell on earth for the truckers, with wait times in the 4-6 hour range into SD, and variable coming back.

A 4th one is almost "shovel ready" and it'll be called Otay II.

The 5th crossing is exclusively via the airport.

There is a 6th one that's best described as a mystery door. Very official business only. Cars stop there and are evaluated remotely, and then voila, the door opens into a secure area. It's near the transnational sewage treatment facility that tries to keep Imperial Beach's coliform counts reasonable.

And then there are the tunnels, and the catapults, and the light aircraft, and the drones, and the ....+...

Here's a few of the very end or beginning, whatever your choice may be. A tour of the southwest corner of mainland USA/northwest corner of MX.

The tip of Point Loma, where Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery is located, can be seen way in the back.

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