Lots of good info above....here are some ideas (or opinions)... based on your replies some are repeats:

Bike: Go for a road bike (not race, could be cyclos cross, could be touring (ie long haul trucker) with drop bars
clothes: bikes shorts, bike gloves
rack: get rack for the bike..don't try to use a back pack
pedal: clipless

Ease into it.... assuming that you cannot do multi modal or drive one way bike the other. try something like

Bike in Monday and Bike in Friday.......do this for a couple of weeks.....then add Wednesday......... and so on.

trying the ride on a weekend is probably the single best idea out there