BajaNomad

carpool lanes and trailer....border....

surfer jim - 5-16-2006 at 02:03 PM

I will be returning from my next trip saturday night and wondering if I can use the carpool lanes at Tijuana with my trailer..( open trailer w/dune buggy).......anybody know?

Debra - 5-16-2006 at 02:19 PM

I don't remember the sign saying anything about trailers, but, remember that carpool lane requires 3 riders.

comitan - 5-16-2006 at 02:45 PM

Jim

This is something that we don't want a lot of people to know, but the carpool lanes are no more only the signs are left the people that live in Tijuana know!!!!

surfer jim - 5-16-2006 at 03:41 PM

I have seen the 3 people sign and wondered what they do when there are only 2 and you show up ...can't really make you turn around....

Who put up the "carpool" signs....U.S. or Mexico? ....and when did they stop using them?......seems if a U.S. sign we would have removed them.

comitan - 5-16-2006 at 04:00 PM

Jim

Further in the carpool lane merges into the others!!!!!!!!

Does'nt exist

fdt - 5-16-2006 at 05:06 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by surfer jim


Who put up the "carpool" signs....U.S. or Mexico? ....and when did they stop using them?......seems if a U.S. sign we would have removed them.

The US started this and it was the center lanes at the SYS border crossing, yu clould acces them from anywere. This was late 80's early 90's. It was enforced and you would get a ticket if you did'nt have 3 persons, the highway patrol would be waiting for you, but then the word spread amongst some of us that one mexican man was sited and the judge dismissed his case. Turns out he showed up in court with his lawyer and theire argument was that the mexican police officer was directing traffic in that direction and all he did was obey the law (in M?xico). other arguments were that because the signs were only in english so if you did not read english and had mexican plates you would not get a ticket, because you were in M?xico when you entered the lanes, Finaly I guess authorities from both sides got together to try to make it work and mexico put up those barriers and made Carril para automoviles colectivos (the car pool lane) and added the car pool to the reglamento de transito, and that seemed to work for some time because the mexican police were enforcing it, but you could still acces it from the right side and you would not get ticketed in the US. Recently the US moved the signs that say carpool to the far right next to Sentri so there is again no car pool lane. It does not exist, has never worked. Out of curiosity next time someone goes across, just ask the CBP officer and he or she will verify.
NOW PLEEEEEEASE DON'T RUIN THIS for us try to keep it a secret.
saludos

bajaandy - 5-16-2006 at 05:10 PM

Jim,

When I came home last Sunday night, we used the carpool lanes and easily bypased 30 minutes of traffic. Upon approach to the checkpoint, the signs clearly state CARPOOL MON. - FRI. 3 OR MORE. If you're comming back on Sat., shouldn't be a problem. I have pulled my buggy trailer thru in the carpool lanes and I've never been re-directed or even spoken to about it.

Bob and Susan - 5-16-2006 at 05:12 PM

when you get there...where whould they send you???

End of the line????:lol:

BornFisher - 5-16-2006 at 05:17 PM

But I have seen many times a TJ Policia making all without three people go back and re-enter the line. Trying to remember the last time I saw that, may have been several months ago??

David K - 5-16-2006 at 05:19 PM

Per the sign:

The carpool lane (for 3 or more) is active Mon. through Fri. to 10 pm (if you want to follow the rules).

Debra - 5-16-2006 at 05:21 PM

What it does is puts you behind the main lanes......other side of the vendors, then it empties into all the gates. Saves HUGE TIME! Now please, do as "fdt" asks, "Don't ruin it"

Thanks, Ferna

Dave - 5-16-2006 at 05:39 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by fdt
NOW PLEEEEEEASE DON'T RUIN THIS for us try to keep it a secret.
saludos


During the Xmas holidays there was a TJ cop stationed at the entrance and was screening cars. I've also heard of cops using the lanes to extort money. But:

FDT's right and it ain't no big secret anymore. Most of the time there isn't any advantage in using them. They are as crowded as the reg lanes.

There are only two ways to beat the border. SENTRI and a motorcycle.

fdt - 5-16-2006 at 05:43 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by bajaandy
Jim,

When I came home last Sunday night, we used the carpool lanes and easily bypased 30 minutes of traffic. Upon approach to the checkpoint, the signs clearly state CARPOOL MON. - FRI. 3 OR MORE.

Imposible, I cross almost every day, crossed Sunday and the signs are not there as I posted earlier, they have been moved to the far right lanes by the sentri and it used to be 4 lanes for car pool now it's 3.

fdt - 5-16-2006 at 05:44 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by BornFisher
But I have seen many times a TJ Policia making all without three people go back and re-enter the line. Trying to remember the last time I saw that, may have been several months ago??

Not anymore because there are no more car pool lanes there, they moved them to the right

fdt - 5-16-2006 at 05:45 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by David K
Per the sign:

The carpool lane (for 3 or more) is active Mon. through Fri. to 10 pm (if you want to follow the rules).

But ow do you access the carpool lanes from M?xico?

David K - 5-16-2006 at 06:27 PM

I get in the far right lane where the border fence route meets the overpass where the wait usually begins... Use it a lot...

bajaandy - 5-17-2006 at 07:51 AM

fdt,
Impossible that I came home on Sunday Night? Or Impossible that the signs are there? (They're still clearly posted over the lanes that are identified as Carpool lanes, and yes, they are towards the right side of the entry, near the Sentri lanes.) Or are you refering to something else being impossible?:bounce:
Quote:
Originally posted by fdt
Quote:
Originally posted by bajaandy
Jim,

When I came home last Sunday night, we used the carpool lanes and easily bypased 30 minutes of traffic. Upon approach to the checkpoint, the signs clearly state CARPOOL MON. - FRI. 3 OR MORE.

Imposible, I cross almost every day, crossed Sunday and the signs are not there as I posted earlier, they have been moved to the far right lanes by the sentri and it used to be 4 lanes for car pool now it's 3.

David K - 5-17-2006 at 04:14 PM

Somehow I think Ferna is thinking of something else... specially with this question he asked me, above: "But ow do you access the carpool lanes from M?xico?"?

The signs are in the same place for a few years now... When I had both kids in the truck with me we always used it (one lane marked carpool).

fdt - 5-17-2006 at 09:26 PM

Maybe I should have said practicaly imposible, unless there is no border wait. Because if both bajaandy and David K think they are accesing the car pool lanes following the signs in M?xico on Calle Segunda (second street comming from Playas or downtown) on a day when the wait is long there is no way you will get to the car pool lanes in the US. It used to be posible, but not anymore as I posted before, not if you use the barricated lane in M?xico, because those lanes go to US entry lanes 9, 10, 11 and 12 that used to be carpool, now lanes 6, 7 and 8 say car pool and the mexican carpool lanes do not lead to them. It's almost like when you enter into M?xico from the US in San Ysidro, if you are on hwy 5 on the fast lane, there are no signs that say that that is a U-Turn only lane and you find out until you have to make the U-Turn.

surfer jim - 5-17-2006 at 10:01 PM

Now I am cornfused ....:lol:......yes...no...maybe.....Please, I am just a surfer and not able to follow directions very well......:yes:

David K - 5-17-2006 at 10:45 PM

We used the carpool lane (in Mexico near the border northbound), because it is the far right lane and moved faster (slightly). Otherwise the next most righthand lane is used...

Keeping to the right has been the wisest position in my experience... both in politics and border lines!

surfer jim - 5-18-2006 at 07:08 AM

I may hire a COYOTE to help me get across.....;D

Dave - 5-18-2006 at 06:28 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by David K
We used the carpool lane (in Mexico near the border northbound), because it is the far right lane and moved faster (slightly).


David, Ferna has been trying to tell you that what you call the "carpool" lane is no longer the far right lane.

The "3 or more" lanes have been moved further right and adjacent to the SENTRI lanes. Now they can only be accessed from the 'via rapida' Westbound. You have to cross the river then head back West.

[Edited on 5-19-2006 by Dave]

David K - 5-19-2006 at 08:45 AM

Dave, thanks... so this is since the Pyramid event (because the same carpool lane was there that night)?

Ferna, when you say "U.S. carpool lanes" you are speaking about the lanes leading to the gates marked for carpools approaching from Mexico (before officially entering the USA, but after crossing the raised bumps which are the physical border line...

Once we are that close to the border, it really doesn't matter... It's the faster lane we want to get to the border when the wait has you backed up on the bridge over the river, and that has typically been the FAR RIGHT LANE (which happens to have been the one designated for carpools of 3 or more Mon.-Fri. to 10 pm). If you were not a carpool, the the next closest RIGHT lane was best.

Debra - 5-19-2006 at 09:15 AM

I'm confused also, in March there was a sign "car pool" 3 riders , as David said, on the far right, it was barricated, I go in and soared past hundreds of cars, as I said before, it took me into a lane behind all the vendor shops, once clearing that it opens up to all the gates, including some called "car pool" Is that no longer the case? When did it change?

woody with a view - 5-19-2006 at 09:35 AM

jim-

forget you know anything (about the signs, that is!) and just pick a lane. but make sure you pick a GOOD one or you'll be cursing up a storm when all the others are moving whilst you sit.....:lol:

we use to get into the first lane on the round-about ramp that turn right up hill and drops into the border lines. there is a sign that says "colonia something or other" and while you think you're going to get lost in the colonia it allows for access to the "car pool lanes".

most days it doesn't really matter because that lane is a single lane for a long way, where the rest of the ramp is opening up into multiple lanes often.

[Edited on 5-19-2006 by woody in ob]

No carpool lanes

fdt - 6-15-2006 at 11:45 PM

As of today, do not take the carpool lanes because they have moved the barricades and the lane now only leads to Colonia Federal it does not go to the US