I've recently relocated from my old home base to a new home base seveal thousand miles away, but I am presented yet again with the age old question of how to most efficiently and safely commute to work from where I live.
In the area I've moved to, it's quite common for people to ride bicycles everywhere, even moderate distances (which I consider to be 5 miles or more one way), or use ride sharing applications for trips that would usually require a bicycle trailer or car.
I located a place to live within walking distance of my new office job, but I soon realized that the area that I had chosen was not very friendly to walk through at night, with many tales of crime, lots of gang activity, and a very large homeless population. It was impressed upon me that I did not want to walk much in my neighborhood, and lower rents were more attractive in other parts of town. So, I purchased a cheap, early model used car (2000 Mazda 626) for about 1600 dollars, paid some outstanding registration fees with the local state, and bought liability only car insurance.
After driving 3-5 miles per day for 3 months, I'm ready to move a little further from my workplace. I realize that this is likely to come at an additional commuting cost due to more driving, but I am at something of an impasse on this front. Even though my employer is willing to reimburse me for public transportation expenses, I would be unable to use public transit to go home from work due to my schedule, and living alone means that I would have no-one to pick me up if I took the bus or light rail to work. It is not really economically wise for me to take public transit to work, and then hire a ride share back home, not is it particularly wise for me to cycle in complete darkness to make my way back home. Thus, I will continue to car commute.
