It wasn’t so long ago that we could find ourselves trapped while taking the TTC. Not in a subway tunnel but rather when transferring from one vehicle to another. The transfer point, if it was above a subway station or at an intersection, was where we had to remain until the next vehicle came along, no matter how long it took.

We could not start walking and catch it farther down the line. If we left the subway station to go out and get a bus or streetcar on the sidewalk we could not go back in and try a different route without paying another fare. We could not reverse our direction either.

We were trapped where we stood, at the mercy of the frequency and schedule fidelity of the TTC, but we’re free now, or at least freer, thanks to the two-hour transfer that allows unlimited use on a single Presto fare.

While we’re still at the mercy of TTC service, good or bad, the two-hour transfer has been one of the best changes to riding transit in decades. Introduced last August, and sometimes called “hop on hop off,” the initiative is expected to add five million more transit trips a year, three million of those taken by new customers, according to a 2017 TTC report.

The TTC also estimates this will cost $20.9 million annually by 2020. It’s a cost that’s worth it given the increase in ridership, and the fact it helps more people afford the TTC and allows us to get more done on one fare.

Though there is still lots to complain about regarding transit and transit politics in Toronto, this has been wonderful and welcome good news. I’ve found in the last six months I’ve taken transit more often. In the past if I had multiple stops I might have just walked but now I can pay a fare knowing I can get off, take care of something or pick something up, then get back on.

Previously paying for a short journey would seem like a waste. But now one fare lets me mimic what a motorist might do when running errands to a few places, yet I’m not adding another car to traffic.

Sometimes I’ve walked out of the subway and only then discovered there is a very long wait for the next streetcar or bus, so I’ll re-enter it and take a different route home. Obviously it would be better if there were no delays, but now there are options. Metropass holders always had this ability, but now everyone who pays the ever-rising standard single fare has this freedom. Sometimes I’ll just start walking when there’s no vehicle, because it’s better to move than stand still, knowing I can get on later.

These kinds of decisions are also possible because of GPS technology. Using the Rocket Man app, created by a private developer, I can check when the next vehicles are coming.

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What the two-hour transfer does is fundamentally change how we can treat the TTC. Before it was linear, a way to get from A to B, and only A to B as you could not leave the system, and just one forward direction per fare was allowed. Now riding the TTC means entering a multidirectional system that we can access at any point, opening up the whole city.

When I was kid visiting Toronto, the streetcar and subway seemed like an electric nervous system that ran through the city. It had all kinds of possibility and freedom, especially for a kid who couldn’t yet drive. The two-hour pass helps the TTC nearly live up to that fantastic childhood vision.

Now I find I see transit more as an arc through this city rather than straight lines. Sometimes I can even pull off a kind of “circle route” that gets me back to my starting point via unique and useful routes that would not have been possible on a standard fare previously.

The two-hour window has also become a real measure of “city time.” Like knowing, through experience, how long it takes to drive across the city at a particular time of day or how long it takes to walk to school or work, I’m just beginning to understand how much I can do and where I can go within the two hours.

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Taking an informal survey of friends, one said the new transfer period, along with the program allowing children 12 and under to ride free, has changed his family’s life as it means they leave the car at home much more and use transit together.

Another says he can “pop all over town like a gopher” on transit now, and another loves the spontaneity it affords: he might see a shop from the streetcar and be inspired to get off at the next stop, shop, then get back on. All of this sounds like it’s good for business too: more trips means more errands and more economic activity.

More choice and freedom when riding transit is a good thing and lets Torontonians shape transit to their needs, rather than being shaped by it.