Discussions

 
why is it every time I want to leave Brandon and go down 18th street there's a line up between Victoria & Rosser , are the lights at 18th and Rosser in need of adjustment that 18th street should be green a little bit longer and make the green light at Rosser a bit shorter ?

the traffic lights need looking at and changing. I thought the city hired a guy that was supposed to get the lights changed? Another hire at a generous wage, where are the results?

I also see this on Vic. Ave between 10th st. and 8th st. , mainly during lunch hour. I can't believe whoever change the light sync, made things a lot worse. The only other possible solution to what I mentioned is turning 10th st. and 8th st. into 1 way streets. Debate over which directions should traffic go on 8th st. and 10th st. if they become 1 way streets.  
 
I don't think anything will change on 18th st. until they ever fix the Daily Bridge!  

The "fix" will be the new 18th Street Overpass (bridge). I really hope that the powers that be make that bridge project their first priority. Having the 8th Street Bridge open to traffic is nice, but we can live without it for awhile. The 18th Street Bridge is far more important.  
 
As for the 1st Street Bridge, other than a few potholes, I don't have a problem with it. It should be able to wait a few more years.  
 
No, we do not need 10th Street to be made into a One-Way Street. 10th Street is the major north-south route connecting south central Brandon to downtown. We don't need 8th Street to become a One-Way street either. The problem is the lights on Victoria Ave.  
 
The City already tried making 10th Street a One-Way street downtown. It was a bloody nightmare. They eventually came to their senses and changed it back to a two-way street.  
 
 
 
Edited by Triplethreat, 2015-07-24 19:26:45

The lights in Brandon anywhere are timed to go from red to red unless u speed - whoever does the synchronizing ( I believe it's the province as far as 1st and 18th and the avenues go ) does a terrible job. The jam at 18th is imo worse now that 8th street bridge is closed - even tough some people here say 8th street bridge is not needed. I do agree with other poster that 18th street bridge expansion to 4 lanes will help but that won't happen in the near future since first street bridge is priority on province's list .

I also thought that was to be adjusted to ease the traffic flow. I have not noticed a change at all, who was hired to do this job? must be someone who doesn't live here, because you can't go more than 3 blocks without getting a red light. I drove the same route every morning this week and hit every red light.

It's the Province of Manitoba that maintains and synchronizes both 18th, Victoria Avenue (and a few other major Brandon arteries). Contact your local Member of Parliament for any changes. I agree - change is needed.

Tarry said "It's the Province of Manitoba that maintains and synchronizes both 18th, Victoria Avenue (and a few other major Brandon arteries). Contact your local Member of Parliament for any changes. I agree - change is needed. "

or department of transportation, if there is such a dept. thanks!  
 
The lights on Victoria bother me!

there are other routes out of Brandon. If you're so unhappy with having to wait 5 minutes to cross the bridge, go through Kemnay or take 1st street , or take the bypass. You have other options

shouldn't have to go trough Kemney to get across the tracks and river if a bit common sense in timing some or all lights could help. Another prime example of disrupting the traffic flow is the 8th street bridge - it is closed but the stop signs are still up - what purpose does that serve ?

Johnbisonbear said "the traffic lights need looking at and changing. I thought the city hired a guy that was supposed to get the lights changed? Another hire at a generous wage, where are the results? "

The light at 18th and Queens east bound only serves to halt the flow. When there is an event, it's needed, otherwise it just adds to the problem. Also, the lights at 1st and McTavish. Same thing. Solution? Traffic loop. Yes, it would cost a bit of money and take a day to install. It's a wire that runs under the pavement cut in with a saw. When a vehicle sits on top of it, it triggers the light to change. We have some already. Why not do something to help the flow? With only 2 routes North/South being 18th and 1st, it's already a problem. Taking 20 minutes from the movie theatre to the Corral Centre on a Friday afternoon just isn't reasonable. Ok. Rant over. I've said my piece.

I honestly think this is a lot harder than most people think, except in the case of one-way streets. You have to consider the movement of the traffic in both directions. Say for example I'm travelling south on 18th and the lights are timed so that I can do 50km/h and hit all the greens. How well do you think that would work out for a person travelling north? Likely not very well. Its like alot of things, fairly simple to the casual observer but once you get right down to it its not as easy as folks think.  

is A bottle neck anyway the lights wont make a difference

The amount of time that the light is green for traffic coming off Rosser and onto 18th is to long.  
Next time you are sitting at the lights or close to Rosser count the seconds were no traffic comes off Rosser.  
I've gotten has high as 20 doing the thousand 1, thousand 2 thing.  
A lot of cars would move down 18th in that amount of time over a period of say a hundred light cycles, which translates into way less cars waiting.

Dark man says about all the extra time that the light favours those turning off of Rosser or maybe those who are getting on from Pacific. For myself and a few others we do not look at it as wasted time but plan our routes accordingly. Please people, sometimes moving forward involves thinking outside the box. Traffic congestion usually happens in this area at certain times, so plan accordingly.  
 
Edited by don brown, 2015-07-26 06:29:10

It used to be on Rosser Avenue that one could travel from 11th street to 6th street without having to stop for a red light. The lights were well timed. This was true whether you had initially stopped at 11th or had driven through. So long as you kept your speed at about 40-45kmh there was no problem.  
 
Then someone decided that the timing should be changed. I would love to hear why this decision was made.  
 
On 18th, it should not be too big a task to time the lights better. At Princess and Rosser, the east-west lights could be shortened considerably, allowing for more traffic flow north-south.

Reston said "shouldn't have to go trough Kemney to get across the tracks and river if a bit common sense in timing some or all lights could help. Another prime example of disrupting the traffic flow is the 8th street bridge - it is closed but the stop signs are still up - what purpose does that serve ? "

This is the only stop sign along Pacific between 1st and 18th, it slows some of those speeders from using Pacific as a race track. Also there is a cross walk on 9th and Pacific....some people don't stop for pedestrians there or elsewhere. The article about the closure of the bridge in the Brandon Sun said the city is not removing the stop signs. I think it's a good thing they are not removing them.

I have to disagree it's a stop sign to nowhere... Remove them.... City planning at its finest

The long lineups on 18th are more due to the fact that there is simply more traffic using 18th than the current configuration of the street / bridge can handle at peak times. Altering the timing of the lights may get more cars through from south to north, but when the traffic on Rosser ave west is backed up to 20th St. at peak times, making a shorter light for Rosser crossing 18th just moves the problem, it doesn't solve it.  
 
Edited by fargobob, 2015-07-26 10:38:12

Kinda like Minot . When they built the truck bypass on west side it took a lot of traffic away from the downtown route . As the city grows ,adding one more lane to 18th seems like another very short term answer . But that's what we seem to do! Last week when a section of I10 overpass washed away in California flood , the hwys dept. said it could be days before they had it rebuilt and open, not months or years like we have grown accustomed too.