Nothing short of a miracle

Starting yesterday, Durham Transit introduced new schedules and routes into Courtice. Before May 4th and for thousands of years, we had two buses (technically one, but you could say two if you count Townline, which to me is really Oshawa) that ran empty at rush hour (because they really only served students and didn't connect at times to meet up with the Highway #2 GO bus coming home) and once an hour service throughout the day on one route.

In Courtice, everybody owns not only one car, but two cars, sometimes up to four cars. On the weekend, my little subdivision looks like a used car sales lot. This is the "norm" of the 905, but does it need to be?

In 2011, at the end of the year, I walked away from my CUV when the lease was up at the end of December. I made a commitment to prove that I could make local transit work for me in my semi-rural town and I could be car-less. In the past three years, Courtice has seen incredible growth and a massive increase in house prices. I don't know what's driving it, but the people moving in, I'm told by my local councilor, are people used to having access to transit. The people moving in are people who can't afford Toronto houses, and are people who are questioning the ridiculously high property taxes we pay in Clarington and what they get in return.

I only care about one thing - a bus (apparently so do a lot of other people). And I finally got one.

I got one home last night and one (well, two, since we had to transfer) to the GO station this morning.

I tweeted about the experience. Tweets are presented newest first, so start at the bottom if you want context.

Last night's experience ...