Without a Car - Day 6 and 7 (weekend edition)

This weekend I took public transportation to a faraway (1500 miles south) city. I am still following the rules because I didn't bring my car with me! and I took public transportation to the airport. This trip involved a 20 minute walk to the Red Line train, a 20 minute train ride to the Silver Line Bus, a 20 minute bus ride to the airport, and finally a 250 minute plane ride. Saturday was for traveling, Sunday was for jetlag/workweek recovery.


I plan to go car free in Boston next weekend.

Without a Car - Day 5

TGIF. I made it through the work week without a car and I get to go on vacation next week.

Today was a normal commute (bus to and from work), plus a lot of walking in the evening (look at the map below).


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Without a Car - Day 4

Over 50% of the way through my car-free week.

My challenge today was to take a picture of something I usually would not see if I was driving. I made the collage below. Counter clockwise starting with the building: (1) one of the three tall apartment buildings overlooking Alewife and the Fresh Pond area, (2) road sign that I usually don't have time to read/understand, (3) the T symbol outside Alewife, and (4) a large bird which might be a turkey.

Without a Car - Day 3

Day 3 of not using a car went smoothly.

I walked to Kendall Square (mystery time + 20 minutes), hopped on the [insert workplace] Shuttle (45 minutes), went about my [insert] work (8 hours), walked over to the gym (15 minutes), played vball (60 minutes), walked to the bus stop (20 minutes), took the bus back to Cambridge (45 minutes), rode the Red Line to Harvard Square (20 minutes), ate a double peanut butter bacon cheese burger with salad at Charlie's Kitchen while watching the first 1/4 of the Celtics Game (1 hour), walked to the Hair Cuttery (1 minute), got my mullet removed (30 minutes), and walked back to my apartment (25 minutes).

Below is a picture of the empty bus that I rode home on, although if you look closely there might be a person sitting in one of the front seats. It's dark so I can't tell.

Without a Car - Day 2

I survived Day 2 of not using my car.

Last night I took the Purple line to Waltham so that I could vote in the morning. In the morning I realized that I had to find a way to work without using my car. I thought of 3 options: (option 1) Take the Purple Line from Brandeis to Porter Square (20 minutes), then the Red Line to Alewife (15 minutes), then the Bus from Alewife to Lexington (45 minutes) for a total of 1.75 hours according to Google and taking into account the time standing around for the public transportation, (option 2) walk from Brandeis to Lexington for a total of 2.75 hours according to Google, or (option 3) carpool with my Dad down 95 for a total of 20 minutes. I took the road more traveled with option 3.


Following my work day I took the Bus from Lexington back to Alewife in Cambridge. The walk back to Huron Village took 20 minutes and I was able to snap a photo of typical traffic that I am usually stuck in.

Without a Car - Day 1

Day 1 of not using my car.

My inbound work commute involved a cold walk from Huron Village to Alewife (20 minutes), waiting for the Bus (15 minutes), then taking the Bus out to Hanscom Field (30 minutes). This inbound commute usually takes me 30 minutes by car, 20 of which are for the 1.5 mile drive from Huron Village to Alewife. My outbound work commute involved taking the Bus back to Alewife (40 minutes), hopping on the Red Line and riding to Porter (15 minutes), then transferring to the Purple Line and taking it to Brandeis (25 minutes). I have to be in Waltham to VOTE tomorrow morning, so I decided to do that commute tonight instead of tomorrow morning. Usually, I would have done this commute by car, and it would probably cost me the same in Gas and Time.