gglave

Depending on where you are going in Burnaby, and what time of the day you arrive, it's about 20-45 minutes driving to Burnaby from YVR.

I'd say 2:12 from SEA to Burnaby is optimistic in the extreme.

If traffic is good, it's about 2 hours from SEA to Lynden, Washington. Allow another 5-20 minutes to cross the border, then allow about 60 - 90 minutes from Aldergrove on the Canadian side to Burnaby. Again, all depending on what time you're travelling and whether you'll hit rush hour.

Cheers,
Geoff Glave
Vancouver

YVR Cockroach

Must be some algorithm assuming you can do the speed limit without stops of any kind between the two.

kathiel

We just crossed there, Peace Arch this summer and moved quite well, less than 30 minutes. Did you drive the Chuckanut Drive route?

Fredd

Crossing the border in this region won't be getting any easier in the next year, all part of the push to get ready for the 2010 Olympics.

The weekly newspaper in border town Blaine Washington presented a bleak picture in last week's edition:

Feds anticipate ‘painful’ border waits in 2008

By Meg Olson

Federal officials are still unclear about what will happen when, but they are sure about one thing: when construction of a new Peace Arch U.S. port of entry starts in several weeks.

It will signal the beginning of up to two years of a strangled border.
“It’s going to be painful for everybody,” acknowledged James Rector, assistant port director for the Blaine area.

http://tinyurl.com/2hg4my

gglave

>all part of the push to get ready for the 2010 Olympics.

Add to the mix many more Canadians crossing to take advantage of the depressed greenback.

Fredd

Indeed! 90-minute southbound waits Saturday morning and northbound Sunday nights (just two examples) have recently been the norm even at the smaller Aldergrove and Sumas crossings. There are radio border reports every ten minutes on A.M. 730 (all-traffic station) and A.M 1130 (all-news station). They are useful but not infallible. It'll certainly give an idea as to whether it's worth driving all the way out to the Aldergrove crossing, for example.

Right now the truck crossing is under reconstruction too, so it's quite the mess.

LeSabre74

If you can, avoid any of the border crossings on a weekend (and southbound Friday night). As the loonie has climbed to parity, all the Lower Mainland border crossings are experiencing long waits on the weekend.

YVR Cockroach

Just an addendum to this. It seems regular non-holiday weekend waits can stretch 4 hours or more now.

YVR Cockroach

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=743397

YVR Cockroach

I drove up from Seattle last night, and approaching the truck crossing, I could see that the line up started way before the last exit off I-5. Took the truck crossing and saw that the line was past the first set of lights so it wouldn't take too many cars to plug up the exit off I-5.

Managed to drive around Blaine to get back to D street and the on ramp back to the crossing. Took me 2 minutes to get across while others in the line took 2 hours + probably.

My advice: Don't think of driving across the border on weekends unless you have Nexus or are doing it in the wee hours.


Link to another similar thread
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showt...ghlight=blaine

fairviewroad

Sorry to drag up an old thread, but I'm driving between SEA and Abbotsford, BC on Saturday. Crossing N/B around 12 noon and S/B around 3 p.m. It seems as though my options are crossing at Lynden or Sumas. Any suggestions or ideas about how long the wait will be?

Also, if I do end up crossing at Sumas, is it better to take Hwy 539 north from Bellingham, then head east on Hwy 546? There are several other state highways that go between Bellingham and Sumas that may be more direct but look as though they go through numerous small towns.

Fredd

We cross there quite regularly. The Canadian $ is again very high against the US $ and I'd estimate there will be more Canadian shoppers heading south Saturday. It's pretty hard to estimate but I'd hope your wait wouldn't be too long going north, i.e. 0-10 minutes. It could be longer heading south, hopefully no more than, say, 30 minutes but who knows?

#539 and then 546 is a good route. Yes, there are other ways, more scenic, less crowded, and maybe even quicker, but also easier to get lost.

The other thing to keep in mind is that you actually have one more option if your Canadian destination is Abbotsford. You don't have to decide that until you take Exit 456, after noting the Electronic sign south of Bellingham. You can enter at the Truck Crossing, immediately turn right, and travel along "O" (Zero) Avenue on the BC side. Usually the Peace Arch and Truck Crossing have longer waits but sometimes the big crossings can actually be quicker.

By going up 539 you can wait until the last moment (listening to AM stations #730 and #1130) to decide whether to cross at Lynden-Aldergrove or Huntingdon-Sumas. Again, if you cross at Aldergrove you turn right immediately and drive along 0 Avenue to Abbotsford. Some locals consider that route quicker.

I hope this is of some assistance rather than adding confusion for you.

Cheers,
Fredd

YVR Cockroach

Those times for N/B and S/B shouldn't be prime (it'd be later and earlier, respectively) and it isn't a holiday weekend on either side so I would say your waits should be minimal (as in up to 15 minutes).

fairviewroad

Excellent suggestion. Thanks both of you for the input.

Arthurrs

If you have an iPhone, I find this app to be invaluable to monitor border crossing times between US and Canada:
http://www.rbjzpostindustries.com/borderwait/

Just be wary of exorbitant data roaming fees when you're in a foreign country!