1970s-80s sport tourer, with upgrades as necessary, makes a good commuter. One example:



Older rack, clip-on fenders, easily removable light, easily removable panniers, stem shifters. Putting a modern ramped freewheel on such a bike is a great way to get smooth shifting with older friction shifters (almost as good as indexed, without the click in the shifter itself). This one I pulled out of a dumpster and was my backup commuter until I had an incident and bent the derailleur hanger to hell. I've since built it up as a cruiser with a 2-speed kickback hub, but that's another story.