Have your own way home. It’s hard to leave a place when someone else holds the keys.

Depending on somebody else for the journey home means your leaving time is theirs. It sounds small until the night you want to go and cannot, and then you are waiting out an evening that stopped being good two hours ago, negotiating with a driver who is having a wonderful time. An exit you control is one of the more practical freedoms available.

Plan the way back before you go out, every time. Fare saved, a bus you know, a lift arranged, somebody you can call without awkwardness. It costs a few minutes beforehand and it buys the ability to leave.