How Different New York Transportation Methods Impact Your Lifestyle

New York City residents often love their lives. They can enjoy sports, museums, fine dining, and everything else the city offers. They can make new friends, launch their careers, and perhaps find a romantic partner they’ll marry. The city offers so much, and you can enjoy a thrilling life there.

You must get around New York, and you can do that in several ways. We’ll discuss some of the available transportation methods. We’ll also go over how each can impact your lifestyle.

Use an Uber or Lyft

Maybe you like taking an Uber or Lyft whenever you can. You can grab a Lyft and head to work in one. These vehicles have drivers that the company vets before hiring them. That should make you feel confident they won’t cause an accident.

Even if they do, Lyft provides accident victims $50,000 of bodily injury coverage. That should make you feel better when you use the app and get in the car with a driver you’ve never met before.  

Lyft and Uber provide private rides, assuming you’re not sharing one with another rider. You might like that. You’re not on the subway crammed into a seat between two people. You don’t have anyone’s body pressing against you.

While Lyft and Uber provide more luxurious riding experiences, they cost more. You will pay much more if you take Uber or Lyft vehicles everywhere versus riding the subway.

That means taking Uber or Lyft can hit your wallet pretty hard. If you’re making piles of money at your job, that won’t bother you. If you’re barely getting by in this expensive city, maybe you’ll use this transportation method sparingly.

Ride the Subway

You can take the subway most places. Riding the subway gets you into work much cheaper than you’d pay for constant Uber or Lyft rides. If you don’t have very much money, the subway can help get you around. You’re living in New York and saving money on transportation, an essential service.

The subway comes with some headaches, though. For one thing, it’s often crowded. If you live along a popular train line, like the R, the F, or the 7, you might find that you’re packed in with other riders, especially during rush hour in the mornings and evenings.

You may find that some people don’t smell so great. Homeless individuals stay on the subway at all hours, and you may also run into drunk people or those with obvious mental problems. You may have someone ranting about the world ending the whole way into Midtown.

Walk

You can walk around New York if you like. That costs nothing, and it gets you some exercise. If you cannot afford a gym membership or you rarely find time for a workout, you can get your steps in while you head to work.

If you walk and have a job across town, though, that’s nearly impossible. You might leave your apartment or house hours in advance, and only then can you reach your job on time.

There’s only one way walking works. You must get a job very close by. If you walk half an hour each way, that’s probably not too bad.

Even if you live and work in close proximity, though, you might not enjoy walking very much in the winter. When snow or rain moves in, and it blows off the water, it might freeze you as you head to work each morning. You might wish you took the subway or some other transportation method if that happens.  

Of course, you can walk around on your off days for exercise. Taking a walk around a nearby park might appeal.

Ride a Bike

You can buy a bike and ride it around. If you do this, you have the initial expenditure. You can get a more high-end bike, or you can buy a relatively cheap one. You should also buy a helmet for safety.

You can also rent bikes. These days, you can find bike racks all over the city. You can use your credit card, rent a bike, and ride it. You can find a bike rack near your work and park it there.

Biking gets you some exercise, and it is not very expensive. You can save money that way, and you won't spend that much when you compare this choice to Lyft or Uber rides.

You will find bike lanes in New York, with new ones showing up every year. That’s great, but some drivers don’t respect cyclists or even acknowledge them. Cars hit many cyclists every year, so you might avoid this choice for that reason. You don’t want a careless taxi driver running you down.

You might ride your bike in an outer borough’s quiet streets with not much traffic. If you must attend work in Midtown every day, though, you’re probably safer avoiding the bike lanes. You’ll find too many kamikaze drivers who don’t mind running you down and might not even stop after they do.    

Ride the Bus

You might ride a bus if you live along a bus route. Buses and subways cost the same. They also have virtually the same cons and pros.

Buses don’t cost much, and that’s probably their biggest appeal, like the subway. You can save money versus several other transportation methods.

If you’re on a popular bus route, though, and you’re taking one during rush hour, you likely can’t find a seat. If you can, you might barely have enough room.

Standing up on a bus for half an hour isn’t much fun, and you may also have rude individuals playing music or ones who don’t bathe very often. Still, this might emerge as a viable option if the other choices we’ve mentioned don’t appeal.

You must consider your unique situation before choosing how to get around New York. You might also switch up your transportation method when considering the weather and how you feel on a particular day.