for all the questions to ponder. I never would have thought of a lot of that. Luckily, my answers come out right.

In the past month, I've gone to Lowell, Salem, and New Bedford without a car. I could also easily go to Concord, Worcester, Gloucester, Newburyport, Portsmouth, Providence, Hyannis, Provincetown, and a lot of other places by simply getting on the appropriate train, bus, or ferry.

All MBTA commuter train lines allow bicycles except in the peak direction at rush hour on weekdays. You can also take a bike on all ferries and on most if not all inter-city buses.

Sometimes on a train and sometimes on a plane ...

I get all over the area by multimodal cycling. I bike to a train station or bus stop and then load my bike. Then, near my destination, I offload it and pedal.

I used to commute from Medford to Lowell this way - about 1.5-2 miles to Wedgemere, train to Lowell, and then 1.7 miles to campus.

I went on a kayaking trip recently - bike to West Medford, train to North Station, train to Rockport, bike to outfitter. I biked home from North Station - or would have if I hadn't arranged for a car pick up. I also took the inner harbor ferry from work to Long wharf, biked to South Station and then went by train to Plymouth and biked onto the cape from there. I have also taken my Bike Friday to NYC for the day via bus.

Of course rush hour doesn't work unless you have a "reverse commute" or a folding bike. Bikes are permitted on subway trains at certain times with restrictions for certain stations. Otherwise, travelling where ever the T goes is usually quite effective with your own personal transportation aboard.

When people talk about how they can't fathom how friendoftheirs can possibly manage car-free, for whatever reason they seem to forget that there are plenty of people who never had a car and who manage just fine. Many people in this city have disabilities, are low-income, are students, are environmentalists, or just don't want a car. It's absolutely possible to live without a car. I've done it for years in various cities, and I can't ride a bike.

The issue isn't so much figuring out how to replicate your current car-based life without a car, but rather, figuring out how to shift things around so your life isn't based around driving. How would you get to the hospital if you're sick? How do you think all the students, blind people, et al get to the hospital? There are several of them right on the T; choose one of those for your care if you think you'll ever want to be car-free. Do the same for the places you shop, socialize, worship, work, etc. Obviously it's not too practical to just change everything overnight, but if you want the option of being car-free (or "car-light" as Swirlygrrl put it), start keeping this in mind and start choosing places you can walk or take the train to.

Different strokes for different folks.