The Doc says Naked pedals for most city commuters
I had dinner with an orthopedic surgeon a couple of nights ago. He told me that he does a lot of work on bicyclists. Of course, this encouraged me to find out why. He said that next to accidents involving automobiles, having some kind of accident while using clip-in or other foot restraining pedal caused the most damage and the worst kind of damage.
Do to riding with a lot of traffic with lots of stops, and in winter having the need for immediate ice-balancing, I use “naked pedals” for commuting.
If your commute is mostly long stretches of non-stop pedaling, or if you have the luxury of commuting without auto traffic, then clip-in or other fixture type pedal might be appropriate. As for me, I chose not to put the orthopedic surgeon’s kid through college.