It’s very doable in brookline. Dr office and dentist office are on beacon so walks to the pediatrician or dentist are easy. You want to get a decent stroller, there is a reason everyone has citi minis and uppa bay vista. The bigger wheels and suspensions make the ride a lot easier (also handle snow). Get a rain cover they are good for windy days too. Also get war muffs for your hands and something like a bundle me.

If you are still young enough for the baby bucket seat, you can get adapters for everything.

The second car on the green line are the lower ones so longer trips are a hop on the train. It’s usually filled with people with strollers in the flat well there

The car seat carrying caddy type strollers are basically shopping carts and can hold a few bags underneath for groceries . I actually miss that

Where there is a will, there is a way.

One thing you might consider is still buying a car seat in case you DO need a car to go somewhere. That way you can pop it into a rental/zip

Cargo bike!

You need a car seat to leave the hospital

Many young families do.

No one ever asked to see a car seat when I left the hospital.

This.

A longnose (or bakfiets as the Dutch call them), the kind with a cargo box in front of the rider, often has seats for children, complete with safety harnesses ... and absolutely can have an adapter put in so that a standard car seat can be mounted in the box.

The box also works for things like groceries or other shopping.

The main drawback to them is, they're big, mostly in their length, which can make them slightly more challenging to store at home.

Hell yeah, I live in Somerville with a baby and 2 preschoolers and 2 dogs and no car.

So do many other people. What do you want to know ?

How do you go on trips anywhere? You have three car seats / bases in your house for when you use a zip car?

We have 3 diono seats - they fit 3 in a row due to being narrow and are easy to get in and out of a Zipcar or rental car.

We take the bus and T a ton, too - every T stop has elevators thanks to an ADA lawsuit in the 90s. I have both a side by side and convertible double stroller.

FWIW, not every t station is wheelchair accessible/has elevators. Only about 2/3 of green line stops are accessible (all of the red and orange line, and all the blue line except bowdoin are accessible).

Which green line stations aren't accessible? I've never encountered that.

Compared to NYC, where only 1/4 of stations have elevators, Boston is really accessible.

(I’m currently in NYC and they have signage that 95% of the stations will be accessible by…2055!! Glad Boston is better than them in that aspect.)

Yes! Baby wearing.

It's awful right ? I have no idea how disabled people with mobility challenges are supposed to be able to live there.

It's really tough for parents of little kids, too, because most subway stations don't have elevators and you can't bring an open stroller on the bus. I have un coincidentally not been back to NYC since I had only one kid.

Yes

Boylston, Hynes, and Symphony are the only underground stations that aren't ♿ accessible. The rest are above ground stops that are basically just sidewalks. I'm not sure how to make the sidewalks compliant, it more depends on the trolleys themselves I'm guessing.

My sister lives in NYC and she met us for dinner yesterday- they took the subway there. After I told her about the sign I saw she mentioned that she and her husband had to carry the stroller up/down the stairs at least at one end of the trip. And obviously this is a huge accessibility issue for wheelchair users, people who use other mobility aids or even just struggle with stairs. (My sister is fortunate that most of the places she takes her kid are places she can easily walk to.)

I didn't realize those stops didn't have elevators - I guess because we would always use govt center, park st, Copley, Kenmore instead.

Right, you have to get on in the back generally - I reviewed a lot of the GLX plans on a citizen committee and most don't have elevators, they're just either flat or have ramps with low enough grade to meet ADA standards.

Yes, or anyone with a suitcase or cart. It's not friendly to the elderly either.

The thing with carrying a stroller is that you can really only safely do that with 2 adults and 1 kid or a very light stroller if you're alone.

My sister lives in NYC and had a baby in fall and when I warned her about this, she said they wouldn't take the subway much. It's incredible how much transit inaccessibility incentivizes people to drive in the most dense city in the US.

Only East Somerville doesn't have an elevator. Tufts, Magoun, Gilman and Lechemere all have elevators to get to the platforms. Union and Ball have elevators at their "high" entrances, but both also have lower entrances level with the platforms.

Didn't even notice Ball Square had an elevator, and I haven't been to union since the Medford tufts like opened and used the ramp. Never saw an elevator.

The East stop is definitely the worst though. The ramp is going to suck when CPX opens.

Ironically the state "owed" GLX because of 93's impact on East Somerville, not the city as a whole, and we have the worst stop with the least pedestrian improvements around it.

Eh, maybe we're better off without one: https://www.nbcboston.com/news/local/mbta-apologizes-after-person-gets-stuck-in-elevator-at-somerville-station/3000186/

For many of those Green Line stops, though, "not accessible" means you might have to lift the stroller half a foot to get it on the train. Not a dealbreaker here. (Though it would be, of course, for someone who uses a wheelchair, so we can still strive to improve.)

The only major problem stations I can think of off the top of my head now would be Bowdoin, Boylston, Hynes Convention Center, Symphony, and Valley Road out on the Mattapan line. Symphony has a project in the works now to add elevators, and Hynes will get them as part of the new developments going up around the station.

But they're still way smaller than a car.

Yes, but also way more stealable than even the smallest car, or even a motorcycle. Hence why you don't just park it unattended at the curb .... unlike what you can do with a car.

Pretty sure I read a couple years ago that a woman and her baby were both tragically killed when she fell down the stairs at a New York subway station while trying to carry a stroller up the stairs. MTA's response? A PSA about why you shouldn't try to carry a stroller up the stairs. No apology. No "renewed commitment" to accessibility. Not even an acknowledgement that this is a huge systematic issue for them.

The sidewalks need to be raised to the level of the low level floors to avoid a step up into the train.

There was a temporary ramp at Union for a while because the elevator wasn't ready.

I raised 2 kids in Cambridge without a car. They are 15 and 21 now and we're still living in Cambridge. Wear the baby, get a good sturdy walking stroller with plenty of storage for the neighborhood and a lightweight umbrella stroller for the subway.

They inspected mine at MGH. That said I'd imagine if I refused they wouldn't have done anything. What are they going to do, keep the baby?

Makes sense, I haven't been back since it was finished.

The original union plan had no elevator and a type of low grade ramp that was pretty far from the stop. It ended up being something like .4 or .5 miles to enter the station exposed to the elements if you were in a wheelchair, pushing a stroller, etc.

The temporary one wasn't bad. My pushback at the East station was that they combined the station entrance ramp for everyone (there are no stairs) with the CPX exit / entrance ramp.

It's pretty foreseeable that there will be collisions in the future.

They reviewed my infant bucket seat the baby was in at MGH and looked up how to tighten it because they didn't know the seat.

At Cambridge, they followed us to the car (borrowed from in laws) to watch us put the baby in a convertible seat.

I do know people who have been strongly warned against leaving by the T, which is a good call when you've just given birth.

Right, seems like there could also be some type of mini ramp for wheel chair users and a designated spot for the green line to stop to make the ground level stops truly accessible.

This doesn't matter for stroller users, as you said, but isn't fair for others with mobility challenges. And by not fair I mean not ..legal

Old stations are generally exempt from ADA regulation because they predate the rules. However, when stations receive significant upgrades, they become subject to accessibility laws.

MBTA has really gone above and beyond what the law requires in terms of supporting accessibility. Whether what they've done and continue to do is morally adequate is a debate I'm not going to wade into.

Two of my friends live in the Fenway area with an 18-month-old. His stroller is collapsible and has a car seat that comes out of it. They take the train nearly everywhere and only take Zipcars when visiting family out of town really. They also bike with him and walk with him to appointments and daycare. Hell, my friend walked to the hospital to have him last summer.

They often carry the stroller up and down stairs at stations without working elevators (I've helped before). They specifically have a stroller that is rather light. I believe they are planning to get an ebike eventually when he's big enough to sit in the back bike seat. It's super doable, but they are also very patient with a non-fussy baby. They are an active, healthy couple who are able to do things like carry the stroller up and down staircases and walk 20/30 minutes to daycare. I think it's doable if you are already used to commuting (neither of them have a car, nor want to own one in the city). The Fenway area is also well-connected, and everything they need is within a 30 minute walk. If they weren't so centrally located, it may be a different story.

I lived in Beacon Hill with a baby and no car, and this was before getting things delivered was much less of a thing. Overall, it was totally fine. I generally walked everywhere anyway, so it wasn't a big deal. We did have to plan things a little better, just so we weren't dealing with that T at rush hour. Shopping usually meant going more often and getting less stuff if I had the stroller with me. Bigger stuff would have to be delivered or picked up with a ZipCar.

We "invested" in a Bugaboo stroller, and it was totally worth it despite the cost. It was super maneuverable and easy to push around. It also folded and unfolded quickly and easily, so getting around in places with stairs wasn't too bad.