I have a 10 mile commute from Brooklyn to Midtown Manhattan. I start out on quiet Brooklyn streets through blocks w/ Victorian houses, into Prospect Park for about a mile and a half, down through a brownstone area, across the Manhattan Bridge into Chinatown, then up Allen St to 1st Avenue to 42nd St. I'm on bike lanes almost the entire way so I'm not in NYC traffic really. I do the 10 miles in just under an hour, with all the stops and starts thrown in. The only hills are in Prospect Park and then the Manhattan Bridge, neither are steep and my mantra is "Steady, not sweaty". I ride an 18 year old Trek 8000 mtb which I put slicks onto. Since I have protected indoor parking, I've been thinking about trying to do it on my expensive road bike, but I'm not sure it'll be any faster as the deciding factor is traffic lights, not raw speed. It's pretty typical for me to catch up to the guys blowing by me on their fixies at the next major intersection. And while they may have the young hipster attitude about riding, I don't and just wait for the lights.