If you only care about your own personal transportation and the weather and roads are good in your area you could consider a motorcycle. A used motorcycle shouldn't cost you much. They are very fuel efficient, easy to park and great at getting past traffic.
a very fuel efficient motorcycle (like 100 cc displacement) runs like 30 kilometers per liter, that's about 60 mile per gallon
the fuel tank volume for small motorcycle is like 4 liter, the bigger ones is like 10 liter, so the tank ranges from 1 - 3 gallons
so for 60 miles roundtrip expect to fill the tank every day or two (about 5 mins wasted at gas station)
but still it's much cheaper unless your hourly rate is 100+ dollars
it might be safer (paradoxically, riding a bike makes you feel unsafe, just like driving small car which in turn increases safety)
i use it to train my perception (more feedbacks from wind, noise, smell, sights)
but yeah, once you ride motorcycles, you'll never look back
i agree, consider motorcycle, if you turn out not liking it the risk is very low (like < $500 USD)
also, maintenance is super easy and cheap. just unscrew, dump dirty oil to recycle bin, screw back and fill 1 quart of motor oil. no filter required! total maintenance (tire, oil, lamp, gaskets, etc) is like $30 USD per year
There are quite a few motorcycles over 600cc displacement that get better than 60mpg. Even their 1000cc displacement ones get 65mpg. The BMW F650GS has a 4.6 Gal capacity and gets 65/75mpg, that would get you around 300-350 miles on a single fill -- so you'd need to visit the gas station once every 5 days or so.
Out of curiosity, why do people need to split lanes in New Hampshire? Is there traffic there? Just kidding, kind of. (from a former New England motorcyclist)
