You have my sympathy. Long Island went that way, and the commuting part, particularly, made it so nasty.
Once in a while, we take the bus from Bethlehem, PA to NY on a Wed to see a show. The bus is actually full of commuters. We discovered that it's best to leave NY at night with the commuters before it gets too late. Otherwise, we ended up being on a bus going back to Bethlehem with LOW-LIFE drug runners.