McLeod Trail

If you move to Calgary, stay away from a road called McLeod Trail.

It's a major artery in Calgary that runs north south. It's 3 lanes wide and is a traffic nightmare even early in the morning on weekends. There are alot of lights on the street and it becomes a REAL headache around Chinook Centre, a large mall in the south. There are times when it's a solid wall of cars & given people's impatience with driving, find a way around it. In fact, find a way around the Chinook Centre area at all costs. It just SUCKS

On the flip side, McLeod trail is full of strip plazas and shops that are often interesting and cheap. It's a low rent district, so if you look carefully, you'll find some great places to eat & shop for a reasonably low price (rare out here). As you near downtown, it becomes more low rent & is home to everything from a donair shop to a Christian radio station. On the north side of the city, it's Centre Street & heavily ethnic. Also pretty cool.

There is a bottleneck around Chinook centre....so seriously stay away. If you're from Toronto, you'll be fine with the traffic but if you're from elsewhere, it's going to be pure hell. Elbow Drive isn't much of an option, but Blackfoot Trail is.