These are good questions. If you're a hiker/camper who needs access to a wide variety of remote locations, then that's a good reason to own a car. That said, fr

These are good questions. If you're a hiker/camper who needs access to a wide variety of remote locations, then that's a good reason to own a car. That said, from where I live there's plenty of green space that I can access without a car. At the end of the orange line (one of the local subway lines) is Forest Hills from which you can immediately access the Arnold Arboretum and Franklin Park (not to mention a huge quintet of adjacent cemeteries). If you want more wilderness rather than manicured greenery, then the green line terminates tantalizingly close to Middlesex Fells (not quite as close as I would like, admittedly, it's still a ten minute ride from there to the green line). If you want to range further afield, the commuter rail spiderwebs out for 30 miles in every direction. And if you don't want to ride either a subway or a train, I can ride all the way from Boston Common (in the heart of downtown) to Concord (where Walden Pond is) using nearly 20 miles of dedicated bike trails (mostly on the Minuteman bikeway), which hits up plenty of state parks along the way.