Best time to cross · New York
Best time to cross the Rainbow Bridge border
The lowest-wait and busiest windows at Rainbow Bridge, by weekday and hour, from ten years of CBSA readings (pre-2020).
Pre-2020 pattern. Based on the CBSA’s 2010–2020 hourly readings for Canada-bound passenger vehicles at Niagara Falls Rainbow Bridge(Travellers only). Use it to compare days and hours, not to expect a specific wait today. Check the live wait before you leave.
Lowest-wait windows
Ranked by the 90th percentile (one reading in ten was this long or longer), then the median. Hours are local time at the crossing.
- Saturday 03:00: median 0 min, 90th percentile 0 min (595 readings)
- Wednesday 08:00: median 0 min, 90th percentile 0 min (594 readings)
- Monday 09:00: median 0 min, 90th percentile 0 min (592 readings)
- Wednesday 00:00: median 0 min, 90th percentile 0 min (590 readings)
- Monday 00:00: median 0 min, 90th percentile 0 min (587 readings)
Busiest windows
- Saturday 18:00: median 2 min, 90th percentile 30 min (628 readings)
- Saturday 17:00: median 1 min, 90th percentile 30 min (603 readings)
- Saturday 19:00: median 1 min, 90th percentile 30 min (629 readings)
- Sunday 19:00: median 0 min, 90th percentile 30 min (589 readings)
- Saturday 20:00: median 0 min, 90th percentile 30 min (603 readings)
Over April 2010 to March 2020, Sunday 00:00 had the lowest median passenger-vehicle wait (0 min, 606 readings); Saturday 18:00 the highest (2 min, 628 readings).
Weekday by hour
| Day | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sun | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 7 | 13 | 10 | 12 | 15 | 20 | 30 | 30 | 30 | 30 | 20 | 2 | 0 |
| Mon | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 5 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 15 | 20 | 20 | 25 | 25 | 17 | 13 | 5 | 1 |
| Tue | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 10 | 9 | 9 | 10 | 10 | 9 | 7 | 7 | 6 | 3 | 1 | 1 |
| Wed | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 6 | 10 | 11 | 10 | 10 | 11 | 20 | 13 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 2 | 1 |
| Thu | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 6 | 11 | 10 | 12 | 15 | 20 | 16 | 19 | 15 | 17 | 10 | 4 | 2 |
| Fri | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 8 | 16 | 20 | 13 | 20 | 20 | 20 | 15 | 13 | 15 | 9 | 2 | 2 |
| Sat | 2 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 10 | 20 | 27 | 20 | 20 | 20 | 25 | 30 | 30 | 30 | 30 | 20 | 11 | 7 |
| Day | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sun | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Mon | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Tue | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Wed | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Thu | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Fri | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Sat | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Darker cells are longer waits; a dot means too few readings. See the history page for the weekday summary and the period covered.
Holidays and events
This series is not broken out by holiday, so we do not state holiday waits. Long weekends and summer Fridays are the periods when the busiest windows above typically last longer; compare against the live figure on the day.