18th Street missing a sense of focus

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 25/05/2024 (679 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

There’s a certain satisfaction when Brandon gets its due on the provincial stage. Too bad it happened most recently thanks to 18th Street’s ignominious showing as the worst road in the province.

Thankfully, the roughest sections of pavement are getting a complete rebuilding and repaving this year. As Friday’s editorial notes, the “winner” of the annual Worst Road campaign typically does get some attention.

Unfortunately, even with asphalt that’s as smooth as butter, 18th Street will remain one of Manitoba’s worst roads.

You see, no matter how well it’s paved, 18th Street is missing a sense of focus. In many ways, it is Brandon’s true Main Street — a commercial and retail powerhouse with destinations for miles.

But it’s also trying to be Highway 10, an arterial that whizzes you from end to end through the city, ideally without stopping. It can’t be both, and like any compromise, it’s doing a poor job at being either.

Commendably, CAA, which runs the Worst Roads campaign, doesn’t try to limit their contest to potholes and broken pavement.

The campaign is explicitly framed around making roads safer, in all ways, and they specifically invite cyclists and pedestrians to weigh in as well.

As a cyclist, and pedestrian (we’re all pedestrians, sometimes), as well as a driver, I can see that what makes 18th Street one of Manitoba’s worst roads won’t be fixed by replacing the awful asphalt.

There will still be too much traffic, too many frustrated drivers, and too much conflict between those who are speeding through to their destination and those who are poking in or out of one of the parking lots all along the street. There will be too many crashes, from fender-benders to those more serious, with far too many more heart-stopping close calls.

And if you think it’s a bad road to drive on, just try walking or biking it. Heck, just try walking or biking across it.

One of the most dangerous things I do each day is crossing 18th Street at Lorne Avenue. It’s better now than during the backups through the new bridge construction, but even at that marked crosswalk, drivers typically fail to stop — or they pretend to fail to see me (I get a lot of “oops, sorry” waves while I wait for my right-of-way).

Ever tried window-shopping along the commercial stretch between, say, Richmond Avenue and Park Avenue? Of course not. It’s unpleasant. Lonely pedestrians must balance on a thin strip of concrete — caught between an acre of parking lot on one side, six lanes of buzzing traffic on the other.

You could try the path alongside the Keystone, which at least puts some bushes between you and the parking lot, but if you’re on your bike, good luck getting to the path. It doesn’t connect to anything at either end! And what are you to do when you cross the tracks near Park Avenue and the path abruptly stops?

Eighteenth Street isn’t any better further south (with the service roads, it’s actually three full streets without a single sidewalk) although it’s improving to the north (that nice new bridge finally connects a path from the North Hill and the Riverbank almost-but-not-quite to downtown).

Anchored by major shopping districts at both ends, and with huge attractions along the way in the Riverbank, the Keystone and Brandon University, 18th Street is Brandon’s spine for good reason. It has the potential to be a point of pride for our city.

Instead, too much of 18th Street is drab, anonymous and annoying. Too much of it is unwelcoming and unsafe. It is a street that is risky to exist on outside of a vehicle, but a terrible highway even if you’re in one. Fixing the potholes can’t fix 18th Street’s lack of priorities.

This year, we’re getting a rebuild and a repave. How about a rethink?

With nothing but parking lots most of the way down, a turning-and-bus lane that hardly anyone understands (even fewer use properly) and jackhammers hitting the road anyway, there’s plenty of space and tremendous opportunity to reconfigure 18th Street.

Some quick wins might be a wider, more pleasant and protected sidewalk, a bike lane, or a multi-use path that links the orphaned Keystone stretch with the City Loop trail to the north and south. None of these would take much room away from vehicles, but they’d all encourage folks to use options other than driving, which improves traffic for everyone else. And of course, studies show that walkers and bikers spend more money in more local stores. It would be one small step towards prioritizing 18th Street as a place to live, to move and to shop, rather than just to drive.

We must think bigger than merely patching up what hasn’t worked well before. Otherwise, next year 18th Street may sport a smooth coat of gleaming-fresh black asphalt, but it will still be one of Manitoba’s worst roads. With a street that has so much potential, Brandon deserves better.

Grant Hamilton

Brandon