Hello from Juneau Alaska
I just joined a couple of days ago. I live in Juneau, Alaska. I am a commuter cyclist mostly, year round, rain or shine. I do about 15 to 16 miles a day depending on side trips.
The trip consists of shoulder semi-rural to shoulder busy boulevard to separated path beside divided highway. Hostile drivers are rare, but you do have to watch for those not paying attention.
Road maintenance: a challenge in winter. If you let them get away with it, they'll use the shoulder and path to store snow. There are a number of us who stay on 'em to maintain the roads for cyclists.
Also, as a side note, I work as an engineer in transportation. I have two projects in fact whose goal is to improve the roadway for cyclists and pedestrians. I feel fortunate to work for an organization that is willing to give such projects to a guy who actually commutes by bike.
I actually have a couple of questions I would like to throw out there on potential design features to accommodate cyclists. But that will be for a future post.