I recently switched to two sided clipless pedals (SPD) on my hybrid. As a complete newbie to clipless pedals I found them easy to adapt to and I see no reason why they would be troublesome while actually commuting. I don't use them on my commuter (a Dahon folder) because I just don't care to deal with carrying extra shoes and swapping them out. You can walk in SPD shoes well enough for modest distances but most people would not care to walk around in them all day. So commuting with SPD pedals pretty much means dealing with swapping shoes at work. That is not really such a big issue even for me but my commute is just under 5 miles and takes quite a flat route so I don't really see enough benefit to clipless pedals to justify the shoe swapping. I do much longer recreational rides on my hybrid and I think the SPD pedals are great for that.

Riding SPD pedals in ordinary shoes is something you can do. I have not tried it myself. The Shimano SPD pedals have a combination reflector assembly/platform pedal that you can clip to one side of your pedals. I bought a pair on a whim and have only tried them once. They certainly do work. In my opinion they would not hold up to very many insertion and removal cycles so if you are going to leave them in, which probably is not too much of a bother, they would likely last a reasonably long time and make riding in ordinary shoes comfortable. If you install and remove them often I fear you would wear them out quickly. If you have another brand of pedals they probably won't work though some other brands may be compatible with SPD cleats and could possibly use them.

Ken