Commuting is expense from more than a monetary point of view.
Amen to that. My Mother used to commute during a nursing school rotation from the outskirts of Chicago to Cook County Hospital by train. She hated it.
Yes, that is a pain in the derriere. Better than driving, but still not that great. I commuted from one city to another by train for grad school (liked where I was living, rent was much more reasonable than in Boston where the school was, so didn't want to move)...it was over an hour train ride. It was doable, because I used the train ride to read/study, but I don't miss that commute at all!!