My name is Karen Mai and I’m a sophomore at Boston Latin School and I live in the South End. My neighborhood is a relatively transit friendly area, there are several bus routes and walkable stations. Even if so, I still experience some struggles in my transportation. I carpool to school and I take the green line home. It is a real hassle for me to get to school. As I have a little brother and two cousins that go to Boston Latin Academy, so we need to travel all the way to BLA before getting to BLS. The traffic is not too terrible, but if we do not get to BLA by 7:10, the traffic to BLS gets more rough. That is due to more cars with kids trying to get to school as well. I remembered that when my brother was at the Josiah Quincy Middle School, where he would only walk 10 minutes to school, and I had the car all to myself. It is very luxurious to have this drive that my parents offer and I am very grateful. Though after two years and my brother is now at BLA, I have realized that if we both do not ask our parents then they could get an extra hour of sleep. We tried it on the first day of school and my parents enjoyed having to only prepare breakfast for us and getting to sleep back in, but then I disliked it so much. When I was catching the 9 bus and the 39 bus to get to school, I felt like I had several anxiety panics that I was going to be late. It did not work out and I had to ask my parents for the rides back. On the rides, I could get an extra 30 minute nap or typically I would study for upcoming test and quizzes.
When I go home, I have to take various transfers on the MBTA. I will either take the Green Line to Lechemere from Longwood Medical and get off to take the SL5 to Dudley, take the 39 bus from Longwood Medical and grab the 9 bus to City Point, or take the CT2/8 to Ruggles for a transfer of the 43. After those transfers, I still have to walk a good distance. The train is always very cramped with people because I go home during rush hour. It also takes a long time for the public transit to arrive, so sometimes I end up waiting in the cold or in the extreme heat. I remembered there was one time I had to wait for the silver line bus for over 30 minutes in the cold and got sick from it. It takes approximately 45 minutes for me to get to school and get back home. I wish I could drive home, so that I could get home quicker to do my homework. Driving would cost a lot of money because I will need to pay for gas and expenses of a car. With the M7, weekly student fare card, I do not need to pay for the trips on the public transit.
My best friend, Bella Berg, lives 1.9 miles walking distance away from school but 3.5 miles driving distance from school. Since she lives 1.9 miles away from school, she is not eligible for the free M7 card of unlimited transfers and entries. The minimum is to live 2 miles and she missed the cut-off by just 0.1 miles! She uses the public transit to get to places everyday from school to work. She uses a lot of money for her transits so now, she is going to contact the school transportation department. Hopefully she can get an M7.
Public transit is quite convenient, but sometimes it can cause a lot of stress that people may not think about.