I decided to finally follow MMM's advice on transportation and start biking. Instead of buying a new or used bike I fixed one I had in highschool. It was still in my parent's basement. The tires had dry rotted. I got some new tires/tubes and brakes, and today I switched out the tires with the help of my step father. My step dad was sure we were going to need a bike shop to switch out the back tire because of the gears & chain, but we were able to switch it out. I did have the chain going in reverse for a second, but we fixed it!
Work isn't too far away so I'm going to try biking the trip this weekend to test it out before dealing with Monday morning traffic.
