As for my commute today, this was my 5th commute from Brooklyn to the Grand Central area of Manhattan. It is 10 miles each way and takes about an hour, give or take depending on the lights. Today was a beautiful day, but a bit windy, in my face of course, on the way home. The commuting is getting easier as I do it more. I've figured out an easy way to secure my backpack to my rack without any additional hardware, just the one specially made Blackburn cord for the rack. I'm still figuring out the best commuting clothes, and I still don't have a shower. My route takes me up two hills, and I try to take it easy up them so I don't get too sweaty. On days without perfect weather I still take the subway as I've done for 40+ years.

Best of all though is that I'm only in traffic for the final 2 miles. Most of the trip is either in bike lanes or totally separate paths and it is still pretty much direct. And those last two miles are on the cities hit list for adding bike lanes. They are pretty quick about it once they decide.