Travelers in Southern California know all about waiting. We wait what feels like forever in long lines at the airport. We eagerly await exiting the freeway as we crawl through traffic.

For those drivers looking to head south of the U.S.-Mexico border this holiday, there is a new app from U.S. Customs and Border Protection that can help you deal with all of this waiting.

Dan Tanciar, director of travel and tourism with U.S. Customs and Border Protection in Washington D.C., says the CBP Border Wait Times app is free and can be downloaded from Apple's iTunes Store or Google Play. No registration is required, so Tanciar assures that no information is being tracked. 

In addition to wait times, the app allows you to find the nearest port of entry and compare wait times to help you spend the least time at the border. The wait times are updated hour-by-hour and are reliable, Tanciar says.

Tanciar says this continues a trend toward digital efficiency at the border. One example includes active lane management that utilizes RFID technology. Tanciar says those travelers spend half the time waiting than travelers without non-facilitative technologies. There’s also mobile passport control.

“[These] are all ways in which we’re looking at strengthening security but getting people through the process faster and more efficient,” he said. “Let’s face it, these border crossers are critical to our local economies and our national economy, so we recognize that and we’re looking at any way we can to innovate, to  keep people safe, but keep people moving.”