Hubby and I are going to be in Boston for a few days in March, and are having a disagreement about how to get around.
We are busy with non-vacationy stuff during the day, but are free after about 3 or 4pm, and would like to see some sites, go to some restaurants, etc.
Whenever I go to cities, my preferred method of transportation is always the subway, if they have one. It’s fast, don’t have to worry about traffic, and cheaper.
Hubby is insisting on taxis. He thinks they’re safer and faster.
So assuming that the cost is not an issue (I know taxis are more expensive, that’s OK), here’s my questions:
is there a safety problem with the subway in Boston? We will probably be back in our hotel, in the Longwood Medical area, by 11pm at the latest.
Everything I remember about Boston is that the traffic is horrendous, and anything we can do to avoid it is best. True?
From where your hotel is, you are probably better off taking the Green Line T (what they call the subway system) if you are going anywhere downtown or in the Back Bay. It’s pretty safe, just slow. Traffic gets pretty bad during rush hour so you probably don’t want to sit in a cab ringing up the meter while moving 1 mph.
Later at night, you probably want to take a cab for convenience.
Well, it depends where you’re going, when, and why.
If you’re trying to, say, get to the MFA from your hotel during the day, it’s crazy not to just jump on the Green line. If you’re trying to get from the Theater District back to your hotel at the end of the night after a show and a few drinks, get a cab. But the reason to get a cab isn’t that the subway is dangerous, it’s just that it’s, well… the subway, with all the attendant discomfort and inconvenience. Sometimes it’s nice to just hail a taxi and relax for the ride.
I take the T everywhere. I live in the South End so I either take the Green or Orange lines–very easy and convenient. I’ve taken cabs a few times but honestly they aren’t all that convenient either especially if it’s rush hour.
I agree that the T is usually pretty good. So,m for that matter, is simply walking – Boston’s not all that big. But if you’re tired, or in a hurry, dressed up and want to stay neat, you might want to use a cab.
Also, I don’t think anyone’s mentioned this, but the T shuts down obscenely early in Boston – before 1 AM. I’ve been forced to take cabs to get home from clubs, back in my bachelor days. It was either that or walk.
Clean? I ride the T a lot. It’s a decent way to get around, and I like the history of it. (The T even has its own song, and it’s a good song, too.) But go to any large city in Europe and you’ll be amazed at how good a subway can be. Anecdotes available on request.
I don’t mean to scare you away, Athena. Take the T unless there’s some reason (clothes, weather, hours, location) not to.
I’ve never left the T dirtier than when I got on it, unlike at least two Boston taxis. I will grant you, that as far as subways go, it could be cleaner, it isn’t even up to DC’s standard.
When I was in college, 40 years ago, I had a brief job standing on the platform of the Washington Street station polling people about whether they’d ride the T if it stayed open later.
Progress, I love it.
Athena, I’m not providing an opinion since my information is out of date, but remember to take one more nickel.
No reason not to take the T, except late at night when the wait for the next train gets longer, so at 11:00 you might wait 15 minutes (and of course after 12:30 or so, you’ll wait all night). Getting back to Longwood by 11:00, safety is absolutely not an issue (I mean, compared to putting your life in the hands of a taxi driver in Boston traffic?).
And don’t you want to actually understand the place you’re in? No better way than people-watching on the subway.
I you’re going somewhere that it seems the subway doesn’t quite go to, you can check out buses on-line at mbta.com, which has a trip-planner, so you can put it start and destination and see what subway, bus and commuter rail options are.
Finally, one disagreement with the above advice: if I was going to the MFA from Longwood, I’d take a stroll along the Fenway over a taxi or the T.
Boston is a uniquely bad place to drive. Maybe it’s something in the water but it’s like a 3rd world country with no rules. When someone wants to pull into traffic from the curb they put on their turn signal. The first blink isn’t a request, it’s notification they are moving out. I would take the subway. It resembles the DC metro more than a city like New York. As far as touring the city goes, they have tour busses that let you get off and on at your leisure.
I think I ended up taking the T once and a taxi once (my preferred mode of transportation in new places is walking). The T was great, and especially reminiscent of SF’s MUNI Metro (simple, subway/surface hybrid, clean). The taxi took something like half an hour to go 1.4 miles (South Station to the Garden). So I’d recommend the T.
Depending on where you’re going, you really could walk most of Boston. I walked all over Chicago and NYC, but I realize I’m in the minority who would/could do that, but Boston struck me as a very, very walkable city, and it’s also pretty small. You can walk from downtown to Cambridge and MIT and beyond pretty easily.
I don’t know how it’ll be in March, but it’s not a pleasant place to walk as of a week ago. That’s a big part of the reason we came home a couple hours earlier than we planned.
As for the T… I have an extremely poor sense of direction, and I can navigate the T system with little trouble. It’s quick and it’s easy, so I recommend it. Just be aware that you might not always get a seat.
You might want to avoid North Station* if the Celtics are playing, but other than that the T should be fine.
*Just based on my experiences taking the Green Line back from Kenmore after a Sox game, where it felt like the walls were bulging from all the people stuffed inside. Of course, that was long before I experienced truly crowded subways.
