If you cross on foot, forget what you know about the car line
By Alan Scott · Who makes this · Tijuana, Baja California ·
Every piece of border advice going around is about the car line. The pedestrian line behaves differently — sometimes in the opposite direction.
We measured all four lanes separately, three and a half years each.
The worst day isn't the same
| Day | By car (General) | On foot |
|---|---|---|
| Friday | 71 min 🟢 the best | 22 min |
| Thursday | 77 min | 18 min 🟢 the best |
| Wednesday | 79 min | 19 min |
| Tuesday | 86 min | 18 min |
| Monday | 98 min | 19 min |
| Saturday | 100 min | 26 min 🔴 the worst |
| Sunday | 102 min 🔴 the worst | 19 min |
By car the worst day is Sunday. On foot it's Saturday — and Sunday on foot is no worse than an ordinary Monday.
And Friday, which is the best day by car by a clear margin, is above average on foot.
If you cross walking and you've been going by what the drivers say, you've been getting the wrong advice.
How long each lane actually takes
| Lane | Typical | A good day | A bad day | Worst we've seen |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| General (car) | 85 min | 66 min | 105 min | 195 min |
| On foot | 19 min | 13 min | 25 min | 76 min |
| SENTRI | 14 min | 12 min | 15 min | 44 min |
| On foot with Ready Lane | 3 min | 3 min | 4 min | 37 min |
"A good day" and "a bad day" are the quartiles: one in four days comes out better than the "good" column, and one in four comes out worse than the "bad" one.
On foot takes about a fifth of the time it takes in a car. And with Ready Lane on foot, the normal wait is three minutes.
What that means if you live here
For an errand on the U.S. side, with no car waiting on the other side, the math changes completely: 19 minutes on foot against 85 in a car is more than an hour of difference. Often it's faster to leave the car in Tijuana, walk across and take the trolley.
And pedestrian Ready Lane is the worst-kept secret at the port: a three-minute normal wait. The gap between that and the general pedestrian line is 16 minutes, every single day.
What this data does NOT tell you
It doesn't tell you the hour — and on foot that matters even more than in a car, because work shifts concentrate people into two or three hours of the day.
It doesn't include PedWest. San Ysidro has a second pedestrian crossing on the west side, open 6 a.m. to 2 p.m., reported separately. These numbers are the main crossing.
And it says nothing about how far anything is. Nineteen minutes of line on foot doesn't include the walk, the trolley, or finding somewhere to leave the car in Tijuana. The wait is one part of the trip, not the trip.
You might also want:
- Friday is the best day to cross
- July is the worst month and January is the best
- What time is the border shortest?
Sources
Data: San Ysidro, all four lane types SANDAG publishes, northbound: General passenger vehicle, SENTRI, pedestrian general and pedestrian Ready Lane. SANDAG, from U.S. Customs and Border Protection records. Period: January 29, 2023 to August 8, 2026 · 1,266 days for each lane. Method: medians and quartiles for each lane separately. No lane is compared against another to judge whether it's good or bad — each is measured against itself. Note: SANDAG does not publish Ready Lane for passenger vehicles, so that lane isn't here. Retrieved: August 11, 2026.
We are not affiliated with CBP or SANDAG.
CHART · build spec
Same two stacked charts as the Spanish version — see 6_CONTENIDO/articulos/07_cruzar_a_pie_es_distinto.md. 🔴 Do not re-derive the values.
🔴 The rule that stays: two separate stacked charts, each with its own labeled axis — car 0 to 110 min, foot 0 to 30. On one shared axis the pedestrian line flattens to the floor and can't be read; on two hidden axes it reads as though walking were just as bad. Two charts is the honest option.