I am glad to hear that! I have whiplash from trying to figure out her best plan.
Do you think other parking lots on the green line are fine, too? Like Chestnut Hill?
Yes, that green line goes through very nice areas. I think Riverside is preferred because they seem to have a very large lot and is a shorter drive for her.
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Have you asked the folks with whom she’s staying if they or their friends/neighbors have any suggestions for the safest way to get back home to Dover late at night?
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Your daughter will be living and working in a city. It is a very safe city, but a city nonetheless. She will have to be alert and street smart all the time. My daughter, now 30, has been living in Boston since 2012. She will travel the T and walk until midnight or so with no concerns. She knows the places to avoid (downtown, chinatown, near BMC, and the common) late at night. Your daughter will be fine - good luck to her in this new chapter of her life!
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My in laws are recent transplants and don’t use public transit.
Thank you! This has been my outlet for perseverating about her move — and trying to not worry her. This was what I ultimately told her:
From all of my research — and I have tried SUPER hard — this is my recommendation for the easiest, fastest, and safest commute from XXX’s to Fenway. Easiest because there is ample parking at this station, fastest because it takes under an hour, and safest because it is a big station where there should be people around even late at night.
You’ll drive to RIVERSIDE STATION and take the GREEN LINE D eastbound towards Union Station and get off at either Kenmore or Fenway. This same commute should work and be reasonably safe both for your office days and your evening days.
You may also want to download the MBTA parking app. My understanding is that it is the only way to pay for parking in an MBTA lot. Another suggestion is to buy a Charlie card from a fare machine and load it with funds for the fare when you get to Riverside station. I’ll look to see if they also take ApplePay, like you did in NYC.
Parking will be $6 and the T will be $2.40 each way.
You may figure out a better plan. This is simply the perseveration of an anxious and loving mom!
As you can see, I utilized lots of the input here! I also learned that MBTA won’t implement ApplePay until this summer.
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“Union Station?” The in-bound (not called “eastbound,” though it is) destination for the Green Line is Park Street.
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Okay, I will revise. This is how it was stated in the MBTA Trip Planner or some similar app. I copied and pasted.
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The Green Line’s D branch extends from Riverside in Newton to Union Square in Somerville. That’s probably the source of confusion.
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Dover has a big commuter population…see if you can join the neighborhood WhatsApp group (or similar) and ask the question there. It might yield an existing vanpool which has room for one more, or a carpool to the station group, or whatever. My neighborhood WhatsApp regularly gets questions about "am I the only person who needs to get from point A to point B " and the answer is often “we each kick in ten dollars a week for gas, no eating in Marlene’s car but closed beverages are ok, we will pick you up on the corner at 7:30 am, wave when you see a blue Honda Odyssey”.
Then your d can do a quick Facebook search to find someone who knows Marlene and can say “she’s my daughter’s mother in law and is a safe driver” and problem solved. If she’s got a cheap carpool going, the occasional taxi home from the mbta station won’t be a big deal on her late nights.
Many of my neighbors carpool either to the train or to a convenient dropoff where folks work. Employees who get free parking drive the ones who’d be paying big bucks…they charge to cover gas and tolls. Someone in Dover is driving back and forth every day!!!
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Union Square. It’s the terminus at the other end as a result of the Green Line Extension
Right. Inbound/Outbound is the terminology used by the MBTA on signage
Oh, yes! I meant Union Square!
Thank you! She only has to do this for a week until she moves into her summer apartment, but may need to do it for a longer stretch in the fall. If that’s the case, I will tell her about Marlene’s van and similar options on the neighborhood WhatsApp!
Easiest plan for a week is to drive and park at Riverside (plenty of parking,$6/day) and take the D line into Fenway. Trains every 5-10 minutes, the ride is about 35 minutes.
Longer term there could be slightly shorter commutes utilizing other stations or MBTA but would depend on when during the day she needs to be to work, etc.
Thanks! She is going with the Riverside plan for the week. I’m hoping that by fall, when she could need to do it for a longer stretch, she will be familiar enough to know the different options.
Does Riverside parking ever fill? She doesn’t need to be to work until 9:30 and I am hoping that doesn’t mean she will encounter a full lot because she will be there after 8.
In 10 years of doing that commute (Riverside to the Fenway area) I never saw the lot full. It would sometimes fill up in the afternoon/evenings if there was a red sox game - it’s also a convenient path for people to get into the games.
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That’s great to know…that’s where she is working, so I am glad to hear there will be people returning to Riverside when she is after games.
She had no problem finding parking today, though she didn’t have the plate number and may end up with a ticket. 
In her college town, she needed the space number so that’s what she was planning to use on the app. It will be an expensive parking day for her!
…and she made it to work without any issues, aside from not knowing the plate number. It was a LONG commute, but it will work for the week. Thanks for all your help in pacify an anxious mama!
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Using the Pay By Phone app, she can store her plate number in the app, along with payment info.
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She should check with her employer about pre-tax monthly transit passes (that work on the T.) You don’t say what her commute will be when she is done with Dover, but this might come in handy for those months
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