Learn Spanish (Latin America): El semáforo está a dos cuadras hacia el centro. - The traffic light is two blocks towards downtown.

Hacia means 'towards' a general direction. The traffic light is in the direction of downtown, but not necessarily all the way there. If the sentence used hasta, it would mean the traffic light is located 'as far as' or 'all the way up to' downtown, which changes the meaning completely.

Why is there an a before dos cuadras?

In Spanish, when you want to say how far away something is, you use the formula estar a plus the distance. So, está a dos cuadras means 'it is two blocks away'.

I've seen a different word for city blocks before. Is cuadras only used in certain places?

Yes, cuadras is the standard word for city blocks in Latin America. If you ever travel to Spain, you will hear people use the word manzanas instead!

Why does this sentence use está instead of es?

We use the verb estar because we are talking about the physical location of the traffic light. A good rule of thumb is to always use estar when answering the question 'where is it?'.