I could do this and have done it a couple of times, but 1) I can’t always leave work right away and usually would get to the bus stop after that 7A passes by, 2) at least at Ronkonkoma, the trains are roughly every 30 min, so if one is canceled, its better than an hour wait. There was one day the 5:31 PM train at Patchogue was canceled and if I went that way I would have gotten off the 7A at around 5:00 and would have had to wait for the 6:31 train. 3) Plus, a few times the 7A has been early and I have just barely made the 5:28 PM train, saving me close to 30 min, so overall I’d rather take my chances at Ronkonkoma.