The Basics of Calgary's Grid System

To get around in Calgary, it helps to understand a few basics of how the city is laid out.

Calgary's Grid System and Numbered Streets

Calgary is divided into four quadrants: NE, NW, SE and SW. These are pronounced as full words ("North-east, North-west, South-east, South-west") but written as abbreviations.

For most of the city, the dividing line between North and South is the Bow River. However, the Bow River makes a turn and goes south beside Deerfoot Trail. After that, Memorial Drive is roughly the dividing line. Between Deerfoot Trail and 30th Street East, there are some SE addresses in Mayland Heights and the Meridian Industrial Park, that are actually north of Memorial Drive.

The dividing line between East and West is Centre Street. In the far North, Centre Street turns into Harvest Hills Boulevard for a while, and then back into Centre Street. In the South, Centre Street is not a very conspicuous street, but Macleod Trail is, and in some places it's the actual dividing line. (Downtown, Centre Street is a major street and it's very easy to find – the Calgary Tower is at one end of it, and the Centre Street Bridge is at the other.)

In the SE and SW, for addresses close to the East-West dividing line, it's worth finding out exactly which side of Macleod Trail the place is.

Streets vs. Avenues in Calgary

Streets run north-south. Avenues run east-west.

Generally, for the grid system, house numbers are odd on the west side of a street and on the south side of an avenue. Even numbers are on the east and north sides of numbered streets and avenues.

Downtown and in the older suburbs with numbered streets and avenues, this is really easy. In the "named" areas, there is a hierarchy of street names, which I'll talk about later.