There are some buses in the suburbs but they're not a very practical means of getting around as there's no single system, a Mississauaga Transit bus can't you to Toronto, only to the border where you have to get a Toronto Transit bus. This is what makes the lakeshore corridor from Oakville to Pickering the more attractive location, it has GO trains all evening and on weekends; not just a commuter service.

Teenagers in the suburbs would not be likely to shop in Toronto, they'll shop, and hang out, at the mall; Square One in Mississauga, the Scarborough Town Centre, all of Vaughan.

Unfit areas to live in Mississauga (soQEW) are the Talka Village and 55 Park Street in Port Credit. It would take a keener eye than mine to sort the better and worse areas north of the QEW.

I see why living in Toronto would make more sense now If taking the bus means three or four !

I will add those area to my list of less desirables thanks !

Oh - I had a read of your blog yesterday. Started at the very first post and made it quite far. Is your new pup a springer spaniel? She is very cute!

The Blairs

There are normal inner city bus services in all of the cities that you have listed. Some are alright and some are not so frequent. York Region recently launched a seperate bus service called Viva that runs through Vaughan, Markham, Richmond Hill, Aurora, and Newmarket constantly. It runs east west as well as north south with satellite updates that track when the next bus will be coming at each station.

Go bus is another option, but it is more for commuters going in and out of downtown Toronto. Although depending on the serice and the route it will make stops between one city and the next than you can choose to get off of.

Not a spaniel, she's a red and white setter. That's the type of dog that was selectively inbred to create the red setter more commonly seen today. I hope the blog conveys the idea that I, at least, have lived in and around Toronto for yonks but until recently in urban settings. I was a bit gobsmacked by the country.

One would try and take a bus to the lakeshore GO train or the subway rather than an Oakville Transit bus to a Mississauga Transit one and so on.

Thanks for that info I'll take a look online and see what I can find out about the service.

We have a Springer and your dog looks very like ours when she was a pup. Very beautiful !

Yeh I had a laugh at you moving snow with your new Tractor !!

I'm sure if I had thought about it properly I would eventually have figured that one out !! sensible idea that getting one bus and a train instead of half a dozen buses

The Blairs

That's woefully misleading to anybody who has been used to a public transit system in a British city. You had said previously that you grew up here - with all respect, that gives you a pretty poor frame of reference for questions on public transit, as - and I know this is a gross generalization and there are exceptions - all of Europe is by and large better than any of North America in this regard.

TTC (the Toronto Transit Commission) network of buses, streetcars (trams) and subway trains is reasonable both in terms of frequency and network. Mississauga Transit isn't too bad; I had heard that York's is improving, but it's improving from a pretty low base. In other areas buses are not helpful for getting around town, least of all in the evenings. I don't have direct experience of any save Mississauga and Oakville, but have heard anecdotes of other regions.

In Oakville, for example, almost all the bus routes work on a hub-and-spoke system into the GO train stations, and is designed primarily for feeding commuters to the trains. For that, it's great, but for anything else it sucks. To get from uptown to downtown requires at least one change. Frequencies of most services outside of the morning and evening peak are at best hourly, so if you just miss one you have a long wait for the next. Weekends, the service shuts down altogether at 8pm.

My OH didn't drive when we arrived here. It took less than a year for frustration to overcome fear and for her to take to the minivan in earnest.

Older teens usually drive themselves. Standing around waiting for buses isn't much fun in the winter.

There's a good point there, I know several people who don't drive and more who can drive but who don't own cars. All live within the bounds of the TTC and could not be convinced to move farther out.

I will agree that I dont have the perspective from living in both countries so if im misleading compared to what your used to back home it is not on purpose. I have however been for months to South Africa and Australia and were definately on par to their systems.

Your right that some of the bus systems (ie. Go Bus) especially on off peak times only come every hour or so, which is a joke although even at those infrequent times the buses still wont be packed.

The system I was referring to VIVA though never has a 1 hour wait between times, about 5 minutes or so during peak periods(rush hour) and 15 or so minutes I would say on off times. They are also building a seperate bus only lane on the Yonge Street corrider running from northern York Region to Finch Station (connects to the Toronto subway).

That beign said most teens dont seem to take public transit as it really doesnt run enough routes frequently enough.

I got an email today. It relates to this thread:

"is all you do is sit on the computer waiting for someone to type something so you can knock it down within minutes? Stick to your cow tipping you and your 5 buddies in the town your from and quit the negativity."

I feel that it's worth addressing the central issue publicly. The idea of cow tipping is a suburban myth, as best I can tell no one goes out and tries to push cows over. It seems improbable to me that cows would actually fall but, since no one tries, that doesn't really matter. Enough with the cow tipping already.

20 or 30 yard run and build up a good head of steam.I think it could be possible,as long as you lead with the shoulder.
We have some cows in the field behind.I think I will give it a try tomorrow.

There are cows directly across the road. I suppose I could try it but there's no one here to take a picture. Do you suppose it matters if they're dairy or beef cows?

I would go for a dairy if you have the choice.They don't carry as much weight.
If you go down the Beef route,may be a good idea to check it isn't the field where the bulls are kept.

I have no idea what the cows are behind us, would ask but it would be rude after i have just pushed them over.

The ones across the road are spotted with dangling udders. Milk, I reckon. There are some brown ones down the road, I think they're beef, I could walk to them. If only Sean McCrea were here with his local expertise, he'd know which to try.