BELLINGHAM, WA (MyBellinghamNow.com) – Researchers at Western Washington University (WWU) are teaming up across the border to analyze COVID-19’s impact on travel.

WWU’s Border Policy Research Institute postdoctoral fellow Andréanne Bissonnette says that their next project will be done in conjunction with Simon Fraser University’s Pandemics and Borders Team.

“We’re focusing on equity and travel measures,” said Bissonnette. “The aim of [this] specific project with Simon Fraser University is to give decision makers real data and a real understanding of what’s been going on along the US/Canada border. There’s an absence in either country of a willingness to do a ‘lessons learned from’ this issue.”

The two universities will be organizing in-person and virtual focus groups to discuss the impact of COVID-19 on cross-border travel.

Those groups will meet sometime in late April. Bissonnette says that the in-person meetings will be held in Blaine, Point Roberts, Abbotsford and Vancouver. Participation in those groups is limited to adults aged 18 or older.

Last fall, BPRI gathered anecdotes from residents who lived near the US/Canadian border between March 2020 and March 2023. Bissonnette said the response to that study was greater than they expected, especially when it came to Point Roberts residents.

“Point Roberts is one of three communities that were, at one point in the pandemic, exempted from certain measures. So what we learn from Point Roberts can also inform decision making for those other communities that are in similar situations.”

The stories will be added to an interactive map set to launch later this year.