A commute is a journey you take from home to work and back again. You might enjoy your subway commute because it gives you lots of time to read.
Your commute is your trip to work, and the verb commute describes making that trip — like your preference to commute by public bus. Another meaning of commute describes changing the length of a judicial sentence, like when a judge commutes someone's time in jail. You can see this meaning in the word's origin — the Latin word commutare, meaning "to change altogether."