Actually Ma France may be the best, but I haven't been there in a long time.

This is by far my favorite. Salt in Newton Center is pretty good too.

I'm going to chime in and say I have your medical reason - severe perfume allergy. I could not have bought that condo. It's basically impossible to get fragrance out of shared laundry machines and being in the same room with those products would cause an asthma attack for me (I'm one of those people who can't walk down the laundry aisle at the supermarket).

Now, please don't go fuck up any sense of legitimacy in my real issue by faking a perfume allergy and having it flame out and burn since no one cares or believes me or can really adapt anyway (it's extremely hard to find products without fragrances in them for every aspect of life consistently, so not blaming anyone but the companies who make this crap), but if you want to go whole hog and win a precedent-setting legal battle that makes it safe for people like me in the future, please do, as I'd love to move back into a city someday.

Camberville is definitely not the suburbs in the way that OP seems to mean it, and a red/orange stop here to me is the subway (rail to me means commuter rail). Camberville also isn't a place to save on rent in the greater Boston area. It's basically the best of all worlds - tons of public transit, lots of options, universities and zipcars and buses and walkable. To me, it's preferable to live there than downtown. And I would say you definitely don't need a car there. But it comes at a premium.

I did check on zipcar prices - they start at 83 from what I can tell, for a day. In Camberville, I'd totally still use one and ditch the car. But I think OP would be living further out since that area is not really cheaper.

I would love it if I didn't disagree with this comment. The world would be a better place.

I don't know where you're getting Zipcar for a day for 50 bucks. Has it gotten cheaper? Before I finally gave in and bought a car, it at least 80 if not more per day. If you live in an actual suburb, they are few and far between (my nearest one now is a 30 minute walk). If you have 7 around you, maybe you live in places like Somerville, JP, etc., in which case you have non-commuter rail public transport already.

Multi-modal commute in Boston? Biking to the commuter rail on presumably semi-suburban roads in the winter? Then, waiting for your too-late commuter rail in the cold?

OP likely won't last long doing this because we don't have the infrastructure, respect for biking, weather, and public transit infrastructure of the European cities you're probably thinking about.

I used to this as a reverse commute - a bus to a train to the commuter rail. I didn't work 9 - 5 hours so I'd have to get there an hour early, because if my on-time train was late I'd be late. How late was unpredictable until the disastrous winter that would make traveling by commuter rail impossible. I honestly gave up and started taking ubers (I didn't work every day, and it was expensive, but it was more reliable than zipcar).

OP, if you are on a subway line, even if you're far out, you're probably okay (though you'd likely appreciate having a car). If you live on the commuter rail, think carefully about your schedule, shut downs, access to groceries, costs, etc. And above all, don't plan to drive to the middle of downtown Boston for work every day - that's honestly the worst option. The car is for the rest of life and weekend trips here.