Well, my commute is about 2.4 miles, mostly flat, and I'm not allowed to bring a bike into the building, so I'd have to lock it in the "secure" tenant bike parking area. With that in mind, were I to commute by bike, I would not need much in the way of shifting, nor much in the way of brakes, not would I want to use a bike that was worth a whole lot, either to me or to the market in general.

With that in mind, I'd probably fix up my old Cannondale hybrid from the mid-90s, with mechanical shifting, and cantis.