THE UNECONOMIC CONSUMPTION OF AUTOMOBILE FUEL--ONE EXAMPLE

This paper deals with private automobiles and the fuel that is consumed in the process of moving across a political boundary. For this study, the Blaine/Douglas (Washington/British Columbia) border crossing was selected, and observations were taken to determine queue lengths, queueing time, and processing time on Friday, July 6, 1980 and Sunday, July 8, 1980. Data was gathered for vehicles crossing in both directions, on both days. The study indicates that during the two three-hour periods, some 500 U.S. gallons of gas were consumed by private automobiles while they waited to be cleared by customs and immigration services. The paper concludes by suggesting that some of the procedures which have been adopted by the European Common Market to facilitate the movement of persons and vehicles might well be adopted for crossing the U.S.-Canadian border and by thus doing, an enormous amount of fuel, which is currently wasted, could be saved.