Can someone explain the "weird" house numbering system in Calgary, AB?

Question

No, I'm NOT wondering about the quadrant system, I know about that. Instead, I noticed something odd about the house numbers when I visited some relatives there a few months ago. On their street, the addresses go like this: 700, 702, etc. up to 716 and 718, but for the VERY NEXT house the number jumps to the 800s instead of continuing with 720, etc. I noticed this on many other suburban streets in Calgary. None of my relatives there seem to know why either! My guess is the city planners want to keep the 100-block, 200-block etc. smaller so emergency vehicles can locate addresses faster. So does anyone have a better explanation? And does this happen in any other city?

Answer 1

In Calgary, streets run north/south and avenues run east/west.

If your house is on 10th Avenue between say 5th and 6th Streets, your address is for example 550 10th Ave.  If you cross 6th street, you're now between 6th and 7th streets so your house number would be 650 10th Ave.  Cross 7th and your now between 7th and 8th so your address is 750 10th Ave.  etc, etc, etc.  If you live on a Street instead of an avenue the system follows the same principle.  It's really a very simple and easy to follow system if you understand it.   If I was looking for  750 8th Ave SW in Calgary I'd find it a lot quicker than trying to find 750 Jackson Blvd.  in Toronto, especially if I wasn't familiar with the city.

Answer 2

That type of address numbering is typical of a planned city.

Each street will start with low numbers at the bottom end of the street, then go to high numbers at the far end. Each block will be assigned a set of numbers to use, so that if you are trying to find a house in the 800s you always know roughly how far down the street it is, even when you are not on that street.

For example, let's say I am on Elbow Drive SW. Haddon Road runs parallel to Elbow. The address I am looking for is 1605 Haddon, so I know that when I am travelling up the 1500 block on Elbow, I should turn east to Haddon at the next side street and 1605 should be near the corner.

A better example might be 11th and 12th Avenues. In Calgary SW, 11th is one way west, 12th is one way eastbound. So if you wanted to find 718 - 12th Avenue, you can go past 700 block on 11th Avenue, then turn left on the next southbound cross street (perhaps 17th Street?) and then left again onto 12th.

This definitely helps emergency vehicles pinpoint where they have to go, taxi drivers can take the most direct route to get you there, and people trying to find a street address are less likely to get lost.

Of course, the street addresses are often wider apart than a value of two. In many cities, the street address will go 700, 708, 716, etc...so that the jump from 700 to 800 block does not look so big (772 might be last house then starts at 800 for example) or if they plan on adding more houses later. But perhaps they feel there would simply be no room to "squeeze" in any other homes later.