I watch this channel on city planning and design. The creator grew up in London, Ontario and has pretty strong views on modern car-centric city planning (he really hates Houston). I remember seeing a clip of Macleod Trail in a video he has about the dreaded "stroad" (a road too wide and fast to be safe for pedestrian safety while also being too narrow and slow for efficient movement of cars).
I can definitely see the attraction of living in a neighborhood where the kids can walk everywhere without having to be driven, unfortunately those types of places in Canada are usually inner-city and very expensive.