B.C. travel across U.S. border plunges for 12th straight month

Travel to U.S. stays down

Photo: Chung Chow, BIV

The Peace Arch is one of B.C.'s busiest border crossings with the U.S.

British Columbians ushered in 2026 by following the same habits practised through the last 11 months of 2025.

They continued to reduce travel across the U.S. border, according to new data from the Cascade Gateway Border Data Warehouse and Whatcom Council of Governments.

Their actions may have been influenced by the Buy Canadian movement, which grew as a response to U.S. President Donald Trump putting a range of tariffs on Canadian goods and saying the country should become the 51st state. Reluctance to travel south may also reflect anxiety over border-related issues, and fears about personal security.

Only 108,289 B.C.-plated passenger vehicles made trips south at the Peace Arch, Pacific Highway, Lynden and Sumas points of entry in January, according to the data. That compares with 158,766 such crossings in January 2025 and 144,066 such crossings in January 2024, the data showed. The result was a 31.8 per cent drop in traffic in January, compared with January 2025, and a 24.8 per cent drop in traffic compared with January 2024.

"January 2025 not only had regular volumes of traffic but it was on trend for the year for there to be an increase," said Melissa Fanucci, principal planner at the Whatcom Council of Governments. "It wasn't until after that month that traffic really started to fall off."

The year-over-year monthly declines in B.C.-plated passenger vehicle crossings of the four border crossings before January were:

• 36 per cent in December;


• 38 per cent in November;


• 37 per cent in October;


• 40 per cent in September;


• 39 per cent in August;


• 28 per cent in July;


• 43 per cent in June;


• 47 per cent in May;


• 51 per cent in April;


• 43 per cent in March; and


• 29 per cent in February, according to the Cascade Gateway Border Data Warehouse and Whatcom Council of Governments.

 

The Cascade Gateway Border Data Warehouse gets the data from the B.C. Ministry of Transportation and the Washington State Department of Transportation, while the Whatcom Council of Governments manages the database, Fanucci said.

When all passenger vehicles are counted, there were 205,792 southbound trips in January at the four major border crossings near Vancouver, down 19.3 per cent compared with January 2025.

Other data backs up that there have been fewer border crossings in the past year.

The Vancouver Airport Authority on Monday released data showing that despite Vancouver International Airport seeing a record 26,913,561 travellers in 2025, travel on flights between the airport and U.S. destinations was down 7.1 per cent.