I read an article about a travel writer who rented a car in Mexico City & drove west to Guadalajara, passing through (some of) the old colonial cities. He loved the trip.
He’d been warned that driving in The City was Hell, so he picked up the rental car in a western suburb to begin the trip. He got mixed up in traffic & ended up doing considerable city driving until he made his escape. And he said that driving there was not nearly as bad as everybody had claimed.
The writer was from Boston.
Actually, there are rules - or perhaps I should say standard practices - and the drivers follow them. They don’t closely match the practices used elsewhere, so often give the impression of impending anarchy. I’ve done quite a bit of driving in Boston over the years and consider it reasonably car-friendly by big city standards.
But tourists should be warned that it’s not for the uninitiated. Use the T when your trip aligns with its routes; use cabs when you must.
I was in Cambridge for six weeks a long while back, and every week I had from 2 pm Thursday to 10 am Tuesday completely at my own discretion to do whatever I wanted. I saw all of the major attractions in the Boston area and many of the minor ones, went to movies, out to eat all over the city, etc. I got in a car only three times during the entire visit – cabs to and from Logan when I arrived and departed, and once when a group of us went out to Lexington, Concord, Walden Pond, the Alcott house, etc. And I’d have taken the T to the airport when I left if the Kendall Square station on the Red Line hadn’t flooded in the aftermath of a hurricane, closing the Red Line. I never even got on a bus. There literally was no place I wanted to go that I couldn’t use the T to get within walking distance of. Even when we went to Salem and Gloucester we took the T to North Station and then the train up.
Been back many times, sometimes for a week or more for trade shows and such. Never get a car (unless I’m staying/working someplace like Waltham), though I do sometimes get a cab from the airport to the hotel if it’s late and I have a lot of luggage. I may have taken a cab from time to time to get around town, but I can’t remember doing so. The T and my feet are all I need to get around – one of the things I love about Boston.
Oh, by the way – a bit of advce if you’re walking.
When you cross a one-way street, look both ways.
I’m not kidding.
Well, it’s been 5 years since we moved from the Boston area, so my information may be a little out of date. But here’s my opinion:
The only reason to take a taxi is if the T doesn’t have a stop near where you want to go. Otherwise, the T is cheap, clean, fast and convenient. Later at night (after rush hour) there is a considerable gap between trains, so a taxi might be more convenient then. Boston is a fairly safe city, and I always felt safe taking the T at night.
Traffic, especially downtown, can be very busy. During business hours, the T is probably faster. At least if you’re in a taxi you don’t have to worry about parking.
I would recommend reading up on the T system a bit if you plan to take it. The green line (which runs by the Longwood Medical area) is the most confusing of the T lines, and the Park street station can be a nightmare if you’re not familiar with it, especially going south (There are four different green lines going south: B,C, D and E).
I took the T all over the place when I lived there and loved it. I hardly ever used a car.
Eh, Boston driving isn’t bad, you just have to know where you’re going. If you drive like you know what you’re doing, and a bit on the aggressive side, you fit right in. If you’re trying to read a map in the middle of the Fresh Pond rotary, you’re gonna get people killed. Unfortunately, one of the only ways to know exactly where you’re going is to live there. I totally agree with Xema saying it’s car-friendly. Even in the worst rush hour there are almost always streets you can take to avoid the densest mass.[/hijack]
To the OP: if you’re probably only out 'til 11 or so, just use the T. One of the simplest subways that I’ve seen. Just don’t use it for reliable, to the minute timing of things. You probably won’t be disappointed, but if you need to get somewhere at a certain time, the cars have a strange way of knowing that and showing up late.
You also have to take note at street corners in the older section. while taking a bus ride in Boston I couldn’t figure out why the people waiting to cross the street were standing so far back. It’s because the buses have to cut the corner to make the turn. I actually got out of my seat because I thought the bus was going to hit the corner building.