1. Dress warm but not too warm.
2. LIGHTS
3. If in doubt Oil your chain!

The bike pictured looks like a decent one, but I prefer gears for a commute personally. There are pros and cons for single vs multi, most of what I hear for cons is that gears are more to wear out than single. That said, I have run multi geared for quite a few winters and it just means more oiling and cleaning.