I have a commute that measures out to be a little over a mile and a half for the shortest route. I walked it for many years, most of the time taking a longer, more pleasant hike. When I started biking it last year, I found that traffic and road conditions motivated me to take a slightly longer route - about 2.5 miles. I found pretty quickly that that was not much more than a warmup and so I have extended it to a 6-7 mile one way commute. My point is that if you just walk the mile, you will not use your bike. If you bike the mile, you will most likely end up biking more than you originally planned.

-Gary