I lived in Orleans, Kanata, and Nepean. Nepean was almost worth it. (Almost because although there was a massive shopping centre a road-crossing away from me, it was a road you couldn’t conveniently cross and it took 20 minutes+ to get to it if you didn’t want to take your life in your own hands.) Orleans and Kanata were suburban wastelands.

The Transitway was great if you lived in the suburbs and worked downtown. Feeder route to Transitway to downtown in the morning. Transitway to feeder route to home in the evening. If you had any other movement pattern OC Transpo was a nightmare of missed connections and half-hour buses that came once every hour. Basically if you weren’t a civil servant working downtown or someone servicing the same, a car was obligatory if you were in Orleans or Kanata. (May God have mercy on your mortal soul if you needed to take THREE buses!)

When my friends (who live in Bells Corners) visited me here they were amazed at buses that came every five minutes except very late in the day (where that became ever 15), even on the weird distant routes. They were amazed at a subway system that got you 80% of the way there most of the time. And they were amazed at how little they had to use it when they weren’t visiting specific places (like a museum or other such touristy tat).