A spokesman with the Federal Bridge Corporation says the return of non-essential traffic crossing the Blue Water Bridge into Michigan has gone smoothly.
Director of Communications Todd Kealey said they were prepared for the increased traffic.
"We had planned for an uptick and anticipated some degree of traffic," said Kealey. "More at point though, is the U.S. Customs and Border Protection folks did the same. The U.S. CBP folks manned all their lanes to make sure that there were no undue delays and tie-ups and things actually went very smoothly."
Canadians waiting to cross the international span filled up parking lots in Sarnia and Point Edward November 7, waiting for midnight.
Kealey said nearly 2,000 passenger vehicles crossed when the United States reopened its border on November 8.
"Last Monday, 1,927 cars went across into the U.S., which is the highest number since the pandemic began and roughly all the days last week followed the same pattern. Roughly about twice the number that went across in the weeks leading up to the change on the U.S. side."
But, Kealey said the passenger traffic was nowhere near pre-pandemic levels.
"To put that in context, a typical Monday [before the pandemic] is closer to 5,000 [passenger] vehicles. So, while 1,927 is a really nice number, compared to 4,500 or the maximum in the last three years of 6,357 for a Monday, it's still a bit low."
Kealey said they don't keep track of travellers' destinations or intentions to determine how many were snowbirds, but he suspects many of them were.
"I think it will be that way probably until January 2, when people stay at home with their families over Christmas and then once their holidays are over they head down south. It will normalize after that, I would think."
The Canadian Snowbird Association estimates that 90 per cent of snowbirds are planning to travel south this winter.
Kealey said even truckers appeared to be prepared for the initial passenger vehicle rush last week.
"They held back compared to their normal numbers and they started arriving just a little bit later in the day. That was a bit of a surprise."
Kealey said commercial vehicle traffic is really good right now and the numbers are at seasonal normal levels.
"Trade across the border has been good and we haven't really suffered, except for maybe the first couple of months of the pandemic, after that it kind of re-normalized."