I moved to Seattle last August and live only 1.8miles away from work. Waited until December to start commuting by bike to work. Sometimes I would do the 33-36min walk 1.8miles which was pleasant.

Doing the math it takes 6-10min to drive to work and on bike it's 11-15min. Commuting by bike is a no brainer.

Also the bike parking situation is good (covered parking and well monitored/video cams). One thing I didn't expect was how hilly Seattle is! Its like San Francisco level steep and plentiful hills. 1.8miles should be a 10min bike ride on flat land but I'm in the granny gear going up the big two hills to and from work. Also the Seattle permanent mist/light rain/heavy rains over fall/winter are a downer when commuting on bike. Over the next weeks the commute/hills did become easier and now I have a built in 10-15min HIIT workout if I want lol.

I am super happy to have a co-worker suggest getting a Garmin Varia or any other radar/lane assist. It really is a game changer to know when vehicles are coming also when you need to take a left turn and have to go into the lane. I also tried the Cadence APP for iphone and realized that my bike rides are almost no different from driving now, I have a live map, speed sensor, and lane assist on my phone/handlebars while riding. I had to go to a nearby post office and I had turn by turn directions on map with lane assist on a bike friendly route (through residential streets closed to through car traffic).

Commuting for the last couple of months renewed my love for cycling. I ended up buying a road bike and now I'm going to buy another road with electronic shifting and get back into riding around the city for exercise and pleasure too.

My commuter bike is actually pretty old now but still clean and going strong!