Discussions

I've always been curious about this and just had a thought - maybe someone on ebrandon knows.  
This is about city planners and bridge builders of late.  
Why, with a prevailing wnw wind in Brandon, would anyone design roads and a bridge and an overpass with bicycle/pedestrian paths on the east or south side?  
34th, Richmond West, 18th in Keystone area along a 4 lane highway and if you really want your lungs poisoned, try our 18th street overpass and bridge-sickening!  
It's ironic that the health conscious citizens of Brandon, often pushing baby strollers, are actually injesting far more toxins than those who create them.  
I liked the old walkway on the 8th street bridge - fresh wnw air!

This is a very good read that has to do with my post:  
 
https://www.universal-sci.com/headlines/2018/12/21/air-pollution-may-be-making-us-less-intelligent

What’s poisonous about it?  
 
Being that there is a physical barrier and the given distance away from the exhaust tip, any suspected poison would be so mixed with the regular air that your point is not concerning to what I would consider the rational general public.

A comment like that doesn't warrant a response.  
To the writer of the following article, I would suggest you change your first sentence - there is one! Lol  
https://www.healthguidance.org/entry/14639/1/dangers-of-exhaust-fumes.html

There is some level of danger, but I think the other person's point is that most rational people wouldn't be hung up on the level of danger that exists - because there are so many other more significant risks in our lives.  
 
It is also known that people who spend significant amounts of time, in their vehicles, in heavy traffic are exposed to higher than normal levels of polluted air.  
 
But as the other person pointed out - air pollution generally diffuses quickly. Further, air pollution can actually travel huge distances - so the pollution from the exhaust beside you as you walk down the sidewalk may not even be the worst air pollution you're being exposed to. Burning wood (in fireplaces or campfires or fire pits) is a known and significant cause of air pollution. Quebec has had smog advisories in winter because of the number of people who use wood burning fireplaces there, and occasional atmospheric conditions that trap the smoke lower to the ground.  
 
There are also studies that show that agricultural air pollution outweighs all other human sources of fine-particulate air pollution. So with all the farmland around, maybe that's a greater concern.  
 
Finally, you probably breathed in more air pollution during the smoke from wildfires this summer than you would from walking down the street all year.  
 
Point is, a lot of us have other things to worry about than where a bike path or sidewalk gets built in a city with comparatively little traffic. If you're genuinely concerned about air pollution, moving paths and sidewalks isn't the answer.

I don't know why one would belittle a topic by pointing out that there are worse things around. How is that relevant?  
I think people know that.  
Perhaps we can try to confine this discussion to people who have actually walked or ridden a bicycle over the 18th street overpass or bridge and then we won't get silly comments like.....  
But as the other person pointed out - air pollution generally diffuses quickly.  
I think some of you read people's thoughts or observations or concerns with a view to argue or somehow attempt to make yourselves look smarter than the poster. Unfortunately for you, it can backfire(more emissions)  
My post in not about how bad the exhaust fumes are on the leeward side of roads: it is about it making more sense to place walkways on the windward side which will almost always smell better and therefore be healthier.  
Planners have a choice.  
PS for previous posters - windward side is west on those structures and 18th street and north on Richmond west!

Disagreeing is not belittling. I'm getting the sense that the other posters are not as passionate about this topic as you.  
 
To address the specific areas you mention:  
 
34th Street - When were the paths put in (it was before we moved here so IDK)? It makes sense that it's on the older side. It also makes sense that it's on that side as there's more room and you're adjacent to a backlane and more greenspace, vs. the other side where you'd be trapped between fencing and the road. From a planning standpoint, it seems logial.  
 
Richmond West - Again, the side with more room? It seems the path is in fact following the unused road allowance. If the road is ever twinned, perhaps they would revisit that. There's also a significant green space between the roadway and the path, if we're talking the section between 26th and 34th. I'm unfamiliar with the path west of 34th.  
 
18th Street - either side is bad. You're hemmed in by commercial space or traffic. I'm not sure what you're suggesting for that stretch. I try to avoid it, or walk in the Keystone parking lot if I need to walk on the east side. I feel safer over there too.  
 
18th Street bridge - actually, from a safety standpoint, it's better to have it where it is. If you were to put it on the other side, with the way traffic flows on and off on Pacific on the west side and the way the road rises just before it, it would be actually quite dangerous for pedestrians to be crossing there as driver's wouldn't see pedestrians until the last second. Merging into traffic there can be challenging for this reason.  
 
I liked the 8th Street bridge too, but alas it's no more. Hopefully something will take it's place in the relative near future.

Actually, Abbysmum, Richmond and 34th were bald prairie long before past city planners decided what was going where, which invalidates your argument! My simple observation about diesel and gas fumes has absolutely nothing to do with present day city planners. I am writing about city planners of long ago. Take 34th for example. In my opinion, the city planners of the day, who are generally in the 99 percentile group on Mensa tests, not only put the walkway on the wrong side, but planted fibrous root trees instead of tap root trees which has ruined the walkway and made it dangerous.  
I am tired of arguing when I simply wanted to make an observation that no one could argue.  
Argue this - black is white!  
I quit!

in these types of forums many people have many different opinions and quite often the discussion does go off topic. If you are an avid reader of these pages, then you would know that.  
 
Your opinion is yours, but it is not the only one that is right, wrong or matters.  
 
Perhaps if you cannot look at other comments with an open mind, while still valuing your op ion, this is not the place to post or discuss.  
 
You must know, everyone will point there point across, which is not arguing - it is their opinion, like you have an opinion. But it seems that you will not listen or even think about what others opinions are. Yours seems to be the only right one.  
 
Edited by Brenda..., 2019-01-05 17:29:51

You only wanted replies from people who agree with you? Because you believe you are inarguably right? Sorry, the truth is most people don't care as much as you seem to. It is fortunate you live in Brandon and not in a big city where pollution is worse; where it wouldnt matter which side of the street (any street) you walked.

There is about 20 km of walking / biking trails in Brandon. I think we are lucky that we have them, and beyond that, lucky that we have had access to such trails (not all that we have today) for such a long time.  
 
When they were first put in place many years ago there was far less traffic than there is today, and perhaps a planner from the future could have chosen some better routes in some cases, but if you look closely at the route, some of the newer sections of trail have been placed in the manner you suggest. I don't know the reasons why this was done but I have to suspect at least in some cases it was done because of available land rather than for your reasons.  
 
Route Map: http://www.brandon.ca/images/pdf/Recreation/CityTrailLoop.pdf  
 
Smoothie, your original concerns have some merit.I have a strong dislike for diesel exhaust fumes and do smell them when using the 34th St. walking path. Your last post also says that the tree roots have ruined and made the path unsafe. I use that path multiple times a week and it is neither ruined or dangerous (the tree roots have humped it up in a few spots north of Willowdale). I believe the city planners have done a pretty good job with what was made available to them.

Kettle calling the pot black.. LOL

show me where I have ever said something like this:  
 
I am tired of arguing when I simply wanted to make an observation that no one could argue.  
Argue this - black is white!  
I quit! "  
 
 
 
never, I have opinions as do others and I have respected it. I may not agree with it and post why, but never have I acted like that.  
 
 
and....post now off topic - lol  
 
Edited by Brenda..., 2019-01-05 20:45:29

My understanding of 34th Street north of Victoria was that it was originally planned to be twinned similar to 26th and 34th south of Victoria. Was also plans for a crossing of the river at 34th - was going to be something like a west arterial out of the city to the TCH. Plans from the late 1950s when Rosser east of 34th was developed.  
 
So, walking path along 34th (at least north of Victoria) is an afterthought.