OTTAWA — Early traffic volumes on the Gordie Howe International Bridge suggest motorists on both sides of the border were eager to test out the new crossing in the first few days after it opened to traffic.

The long-anticipated bridge connecting Windsor and Detroit opened to traffic on July 27 after weeks of delay and months of political acrimony.

Statistics Canada released preliminary inbound traffic figures on Tuesday showing 18,900 Canadian resident return trips from the United States over the Gordie Howe bridge during its first five days of operation.

Over the same period, 18,100 U.S. residents crossed the bridge to enter Canada.

The agency said 4,100 commercial transport trucks entered Canada over the Gordie Howe bridge in the final days of the month.

StatCan’s data only tracks inbound trips, while motorists heading across the bridge to Detroit would be captured in U.S. customs records.

The Ambassador Bridge and the Windsor-Detroit Tunnel — normally Canada’s two busiest land crossings — recorded 52,700 inbound trips over the same period, StatCan said. The agency didn’t offer a breakdown between the two crossings.

Taken together, the Gordie Howe bridge accounted for roughly 44 per cent of total land crossings from Detroit to Windsor over its first five days of operation.

Marwa Abdou, senior research director at the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, said it’s too early to tell from the first five days what the steady state traffic volume on the Gordie Howe bridge will look like. Drivers of passenger vehicles may have been drawn by the novelty, she said, while exporters likely were testing out the route.

“Some may be genuine diversion from the Ambassador Bridge or tunnel, but it’s also what this additional infrastructure is supposed to allow — the element of choice,” Abdou said.

The economic impact of the new border crossing won’t be found only in the number of trucks crossing the Gordie Howe bridge, Abdou argued, but in how it affects overall trade volumes and the cost of doing business between Canada and Michigan.

An auto part exporter in Windsor might find the new bridge reduces congestion on an established route, or opens up a more direct line to an existing Detroit customer.

If business can find more predictable or cost-effective routes because of changing traffic patterns across the two bridges, that’s a marker of success no matter which crossing a particular truck takes, Abdou said.

“Economic value is not just another place to cross the river. It’s actually having another route through a production corridor where reliability matters enormously,” she said.

The Canadian Chamber of Commerce shared a new analysis with The Canadian Press on Tuesday showing exports from Michigan to Canada took a sharp hit as tariffs took hold last year.

Total export values fell from US$24.4 billion in 2024 to US$20.9 billion in 2025, Abdou’s analysis showed. Michigan saw employment fall by 15,600 jobs in sectors reliant on exports to Canada; the automotive sector accounted for the bulk of declines.

Canadian exports to Michigan — primarily from Ontario — also fell from $41.2 billion in 2024 to $39.6 billion last year. Again, the downturn was concentrated in the auto sector but the drop-off extended to base metals, plastics and metal and pulp and paper.

“The declines between 2024 and 2025 expose the fragility of production systems built around the assumption of seamless continental integration. And that reality makes the strategic significance of the Gordie Howe International Bridge even more obvious,” the chamber’s report reads.

Canada paid for the bridge’s construction but its opening was delayed until Ottawa struck a deal to split net toll revenues with Washington over the first 15 years of its operation.

Canada’s trade team is again in Washington this week as trade talks ramp up ahead of an Aug. 19 deadline from the Trump administration that would see a new set of 50 per cent tariffs placed on a range of Canadian goods.

While the Gordie Howe bridge may reduce the physical burden of transporting goods across the border, Abdou argued that economic advantage is eroded by the higher costs imposed by a tariff dispute.

Despite current political tensions and efforts to diversify Canadian supply chains, Abdou said the Gordie Howe bridge represents the enduring economic benefits of Canada-U.S. integration.

“Infrastructure like this is built for decades. It’s not for an opening week target for traffic,” she said.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 11, 2026.