I live in a small town outside of the city, it's nice, but so small no grocery store. So I travel to Kalamazoo often, for everything really. Downtown Kalamazoo has allot of 1 way 4 lane streets, so I would strongly just looking a at map first.

Out by Stadium Drive there are allot of dealers. Everything is spread out, we live only 5 min from work, but to do anything you must travel, for us sometimes 20 miles, a lease would never work. Our little car gets great gas mileage, but the downfall is the winters are rough. They don't use allot of salt here, so mostly driving on compacted snow. We are looking for a used truck for winter use, on Craig's list.

I live outside of the city, in the country, I love that it's set up on a grid, so can almost never get lost. Most of the streets are numbered not named (28th St., they go East or West), or in ABC order (going North or South, N. O Rd.), it's awesome! I've relocated here from a larger city east and it was a mess there. I grew up there and still got lost all the time, even with my gps, here it's not even needed! I love just going for a drive looking at nature instead of my phone! Sometimes the road ends, there will be a farmer's field, but then the same name road will just pick up on the other side of the field, it's fool proof driving!

M-89.. I've been on this route in different sections, it has different names depending on where you are. It was the first road that I had my ahh ha moment on and realized, that if I just stayed on it I could get to point A to B to C, because it connected all 3 places. I didn't realize it, it has some curves, and doesn't follow the normal grid. Mostly reminded me of home.

Do not use I94 or US131 if you can help it, there is always construction and in the winter, it is horrible, it seems there are always large pileups. Learn the way around these roads, Kalamazoo is a beautiful city, enjoy it.

Many of the car dealerships are on Stadium drive, both east and west of 131 if you are looking for a new car. It is better to buy a car on craigslist or from an individual than from a used car dealer since it is a university town and a lot of the used car dealers charge pretty exorbitant prices so beware!! They finance anyone but you pay dearly for it and well it is not a financially wise decision to deal with a lot of those places. There are good ones but be careful.

Driving to downtown from Western Michigan University on Stadium Drive. I would go to the mall downtown. It was always pleasant to get downtown where there was a lot of activities restaurants and things to do. I liked to visit Bronson park by the courthouse, I would park there and walk to the South Kalamazoo mall or one of the museums. It was a short drive but it was nice to get away from campus.

River Road. Fort Custer drive - It is a quiet country road that's a back way to get to the VA medical center, away from the traffic on I94. It's a nice to just enjoy the scenery, woodland and the farms. One of the nicest places to enjoy the fall foliage near Kalamazoo since much of it is wooded and it is quiet and peaceful.