Where is Tijuana?" Luz Maria Davila asks her audience while holding up a poster-sized aerial photograph of the San Diego-Tijuana region. The high-altitude image shows a huge homogeneous metropolitan area that, when missing the familiar international borderline on maps, makes San Diego and Tijuana appear as one.

Luz Maria Davila is the Tijuana mayor's director of international relations. She has offices in San Diego. The photograph and question was by way of introducing Oscar Escobedo, director of Tijuana's City Economic Development Department and Border Transportation Department. Escobedo also is one of Tijuana's representatives on the Bilateral Planning Commission.

Mayor Susan Golding and then-Tijuana Mayor Hector Osuna Jaime entered into an agreement on April 14, 1993, which created the Bilateral Planning and Coordinating Committee, calling for joint planning and cooperation on a host of common issues between the two cities.

The San Diego-Tijuana economy, which amounts to several billion dollars annually, is largely dependent on border crossings. Escobedo's topic before the First Wednesday Breakfast sponsored by the U.S.-Mexico Chamber of Commerce was, aptly, border crossings.

The San Diego region has two points of entry with Tijuana and one with Tecate. The San Ysidro point of entry is the most used in the world. Last year it registered more than 65 million legal crossings — about 30 times the population of San Diego County.

Northbound automobile border crossings, depending on the time of day, can experience delays of a few minutes to an hour. Much depends on how many of the 26 northbound available gates are open, which varies from all to less than half at any one time.

Southbound into Tijuana, seven lanes flow rapidly except during afternoons. That is because Mexico is less restrictive on entry and the presence of the red and green light system. A green light means proceed without inspection, and the red is to proceed to secondary inspection. But the seven lanes narrow to three lanes almost immediately on entry, which at peak hours creates traffic chaos on both sides of the border.

Escobedo laid out Tijuana's proposal to remedy much of the traffic problem. He recommends moving all southbound traffic west to the old commercial entry zone known as the Virginia Street entry in the United States and El Chaparral in Mexico. The present seven lanes and related inspection buildings would be turned over to the Unites States to add to the existing 26 northbound lanes, thus providing 33 northbound lanes. Southbound Interstate 5 would be diverted to the new crossing.

An added suggestion is that in each of the 33 lanes at approximately 50 feet in front of the inspector's station, another station be placed so that two cars can be processed simultaneously, effectively providing 66 stations available for peak hours and peak seasons.

The new southbound entry point would place cars directly into downtown Tijuana, and travelers to Rosarito or further south, directly onto the international highway toll road, avoiding the chaos of the present situation where all traffic is funneled through Tijuana.

The Otay Mesa entry point is open from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. The hours it is closed further strains San Ysidro, which is open 24 hours a day. But even Otay is fast running out of space to handle the load. Already the crossing handles more than 3,000 trucks a day.

The Bilateral Planning and Coordinating Committee proposes the construction of Otay Mesa II, about 1.5 miles east of the present facility, which would also relieve pressure at the San Ysidro and Otay Mesa crossings while providing for projected future border crossings.

In Tijuana, Otay Mesa II would have connecting boulevards into its downtown, and a direct road to Rosarito, as well as connecting to both the toll and free roads to Tecate. The further importance of this new crossing is to meet the growth of Tijuana, which is extending east and will soon be homogeneous with Tecate. As the population continues to grow, those residents qualifying for temporary entry visas will use the nearest entry point.

In San Diego, Otay Mesa II will connect to Highway 905 and the proposed State Highway 111. Highway 905 would then connect to Interstates 805 and 5, and to State Highway 125, the newly approved toll road through the South Bay.

Affected by all of these plans is San Diego-based LandGrant Development's proposed Gateway of the Americas pedestrian border crossing and shopping center. The project must move farther east than originally planned. It will not be allowed to charge pedestrians a bridge crossing toll, and the commercial and business center contemplated on the San Diego side must have an equal center on the Tijuana side. The effects of these conditions on the viability of the development is not known at this time, but Sam Marasco of LandGrant Development is not one to give up easily.

Border crossings are but one major issue facing the region. Others are public safety, water and wastewater, the environment, planning and land use, civil emergency and economic development. Each issue has corresponding city officials working on finding solutions.

Of the two founders of the Bilateral Planning and Coordinating Committee, Susan Golding leaves office this year, having held the two terms allowed by city law. Hector Osuna Jaime already ended his mayoral term, took other state government positions and is now guaranteed a Senate seat representing Baja California in this month's elections.

Patrick Osio, Jr. can be reached at posiojr@aol.com. He is also a columnist with HispanicVista.com.