Tijuana Airport Parking, Just Over the Border | Hacker News Reader

Tijuana Airport Parking, Just Over the Border

nytimes.com

67 pointsnikunjk28 comments

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The Swiss-French airports mentioned in the article are Basel-Mulhouse and Geneva:

http://www.euroairport.com/en/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EuroAirport_Basel%E2%80%93Mulh...

http://www.gva.ch/en/desktopdefault.aspx

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geneva_International_Airport

Unlike the Tijuana project, which is an airport in Mexico with a bridge to the US, in both BSL and GVA you could use either the French or Swiss side of the airport without crossing over to the other side. (Both are now in the Schengen zone, meaning French visas are valid in Switzerland and vice versa, so the distinction is no longer necessary.)

In the Schengen Zone, you can just drive across the border, there might be a flag at the border to tell you when you've crossed (or more importantly) a sign telling you the new road traffic laws.

And of course citizens of both countries can live and work in each other for as long as they like. Can't see the USA & Mexico doing that.

"And of course citizens of both countries can live and work in each other for as long as they like. Can't see the USA & Mexico doing that."

We already do that, although its only one direction and technically not legal. Its actually pretty hard for a US dude to work illegally in .mx, like if you wanted to be a web dev in Mex City. Don't confuse a militarized photo op area thats about 500 feet wide with the rest of the thousands of miles of border.

I guess it's cool that San Diego will get another accessible airport out of the deal, but it seems like this will otherwise just kill off another good thing.

I bet that guy saving $1,000 on his flights doesn't mind the hour of extra work it takes him to do so, and that the people taking advantage of this little arbitrage are all fine with it too. But it's plain to see that on Day One of the new bridge thing, airfares will adjust so that now it costs exactly $12-$19 less to fly out of Tijuana vs San Diego (adjusted based on whatever silly fee they put in place to walk across that bridge). No more $1,000 savings. No particular reason to use this airport in favor of the old one if it worked for you.

It reminds me a bit of the big push in the late 70's to put as many Diesel cars on the road as possible because "Look at how cheap Diesel is!!! It's like half the price of Regular!!!". Which was indeed the case, until four days after all those diesels hit the road.

Diesel is still cheaper both absolutely and by distance driven in most European countries even if the penetration of Diesel vehicles is much higher than in the US.

Diesel in the UK and France, in my own experience, is more expensive per litre than petrol. Diesel is more expensive partly because all the tight regulations on emissions, low sulfur and all nonsense.

I've been living in France (and driving a diesel Peugeot 206) since 2006; diesel (gazole) is always cheaper than standard petrol (and that's part of why I bought this car). See: http://www.prix-carburants.gouv.fr/

You do seem to be correct about the UK, though -- diesel is a bit more expensive than basic unleaded petrol.

But you also get more energy per litre than petrol, so it actually works out cheaper.

But it's plain to see that on Day One of the new bridge thing, airfares will adjust so that now it costs exactly $12-$19 less to fly out of Tijuana vs San Diego (adjusted based on whatever silly fee they put in place to walk across that bridge). No more $1,000 savings.

This is true, there will likely not be $1000 savings for Tijuana relative to San Diego. But that's not the relevant counterfactual.

What is likely to happen is prices in San Diego will be $500 cheaper than they would be without the bridge and in Tijuana they will be $500 more. (The $500 number is taken from oversimplifying and assuming the airports are of equal size, and it might be more or less. The point is price will drop in SD since supply increased and will rise in Tijuana since demand increased.)

Having just spent a couple of weeks in Mexico the amount of paranoia and ignorance that their northern border mates tend to exhibit towards them is just completely ridiculous.

The wall between the United States and Mexico is a make-work project that will be dismantled in two hundred years once humanity grows out of its nationalistic tendencies.

The North American countries should loosen borders, not tighten them, paving an open road to unification. Building a border barrier feels like erecting another Berlin Wall.

Last I checked, we all live on the same planet, and are all tied to its fate for the foreseeable future.

1. Not defending the concept or execution of that wall, but the list of reasons behind its existence includes many more things than just nationalistic tendencies. If and when it's dismantled, it'll say far more about the relative functioning of the two nations' respective institutions and economies than it will about any decrease in nationalistic tendencies.

The original signatories to the Schengen Agreement were some of the most nationalistic countries on the planet, and still are, 29 years later.

2. It only feels like the Berlin Wall if you ignore the fact that the Berlin Wall was built to prevent emigration and defection.

3. You and I live on the same planet; mind if I enter and leave your home without restriction? Mind if everyone else is free to, also?

I agree with what you're saying in principal, but the application of ideals is where things become far more complex.

Also, it's worth reflecting on the fact that the federal republic of the United States has totally open borders between its 50 states, which is too often taken for granted, and basically provided the model the EU is struggling to imitate.

Schengen doesn't only include rich Western European countries, though, but quite a bit of economic differences. Bulgaria and Romania are both poorer than Mexico, and yet there's no wall keeping them out of Germany or Scandinavia. Poland was also quite poor when it joined, though it's now slightly wealthier than Mexico.

This is only true for tourism, not true for the job market inside the EU.

If you are a French national and want to come work in Italy: no problem, you are treated exactly like an Italian (except for maybe a couple of national security jobs). If you are Romanian you still have to get a work permit.

Work permit for Romanians: Not anymore since 01.01.2014. Since Romania joined the EU in 2007, its citizens had to wait till this year to be allowed to freely work everywhere in the EU.

This led to a lot of polemic and propaganda here in Germany, especially from the right-wing.

Yeah, there's a giant table here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_of_movement_for_worker...

After a country joins the EU, its citizens gain full freedom of movement after 7 years maximum. Countries can impose a 2-year transitional period, followed by a 3-year extension, and another 2-year extension, with escalating requirements for what claims need to be made to justify an extension.

For example here in Denmark there was only a 2-year transitional period, so Romanians and Bulgarians are free to work here without a permit since 1/1/2009. But a few EU countries, such as Germany and the UK, exercised an extraordinary right to delay implementation for a full 7 years, by asserting "serious labor-market disruption". Italy was in between, applying the 2+3 but not the full 2+3+2 transitional period, so Romanians/Bulgarians may work there without a permit since 1/1/2012. Since 1/1/2014 all transitional periods for Romania and Bulgaria have expired (a transitional period for Croatia is still in effect in some countries).

However I was imprecise on the terminology: Romania and Bulgaria are actually not in Schengen yet, so EU states may impose border checks. What they are part of is the free-movement-of-labor zone, which is not quite identical to Schengen.

That's great to hear. I'm very happy to stand corrected!

That's why I specifically referred to the original signatories.

And it's far more complex than that. Germany faces severe demographic trends that have caused a labor shortage, and also has an economy that's highly dependent on manufacturing exports. Having an open door policy at that point makes an awful lot of sense.

The US is headed towards a similar situation, but will have a better labor pool in Mexico, and–Internet wisdom notwithstanding–the US is much better at integrating immigrant labor than Europe is.

I think the existence of this wall is justified by economical reasons. The affluence of the western world is based on the fact that we can buy products built with the cheapest labour, say in China; but the cheapest labour can't come and compete with us for jobs they would do at a fraction of the cost.

I know I'm oversimplifying, but I think it's abhorrent that strict immigration policies go hand in hand with free trade. If you allow goods to move freely you have to allow the workforce to move as well.

But we have different agendas on the same planet.

For example, some want to live in the middle ages and kill everyone who doesn't.

US-Mexico border is an easier border: remove war on drugs and half its reason is gone.

In two hundred years, hopefully the Mexican economy will become much stronger and we won't need it. There is no wall to the north to Cananda. It's more likely that Americans would want to flee to Cananda than vice versa.

Btw, the Berlin Wall was built to keep people in, not keep them out. Understand the difference?

Agree 100%.

I spent 4 months driving South through Mexico and had a fantastic time. I know of at least 50 people that have done the same thing in recent years and they all had the same experience.

Mexico is nothing like the American media portrays it to be. Hell, most of the world is nothing like the American media portrays it to be.

As a side note, if you live in San Diego, and like traveling to Mexico, get a Sentri Card. [1] It's worth it. With it you can drive from San Diego to TJ and back in 40 minutes. The wait at the border is cut from 3 hours to 5-10 minutes. Me and my wife got the cards so we can go to doctors and mechanics in TJ and to watch movies. Cinepolis tickets in TJ are $7, vs $20 in US :) Just a quick tip.

[1] http://www.cbp.gov/xp/cgov/travel/trusted_traveler/sentri/se...

I just flew out of Tijuana Airport from San Diego. Took public transport with no problems at all.

We'll see what the project brings to the surrounding area, I hope it's a positive benefit for everyone.

So how does this annoying paywall work? I clicked the link 5 times. At the 6th time it showed me the full article without the url-tail. Can someone confirm that?

They show the page and then block it from you afterwards, so if you load the page then keep spamming the escape key to stop anything else from running the content will stay there. Therefore my guess is that your 6th time it just happened to not work (maybe you accidentally hit escape, maybe your browser decided not to execute a script, or your internet timed preventing it from doing so, or....) - but I could be wrong.

You go to this page[0], where they give you three options ranging from $3.75 to $8.75 each week. But they're running a sale right now, you can get the first 4 weeks for 99 cents.

[0]http://www.nytimes.com/subscriptions/Multiproduct/lp5558.htm...

Also, if you google the title and click on the nytimes links from there, there is no paywall. It has always worked for me.

Probably they look at the referrer, but I don't know why they do it.

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