I've done commutes up to 17 miles each way. Rode a workhorse fix gear with fenders, LowRider, front panniers and full fenders with a real, English-style, front flap. In winter, I'd put on a Zzipper fairing which added basically one cog tooth of speed and was a real blessing in winter wind, rain, snow and cold. (Kept precipitation off my glasses as long as I was moving. And I looked over it, not through it so the build up of water or whatever didn't matter.)

Bike specs and parts:
Early to mid '80s usually part cro-mo Japanese or Japanese copy sport frame with dropout eyes and plenty of tire and fender clearance. An ordinary 110 BCD crankset like might come on a lesser Fuji. Mafac RACER brakes. Levers varied but I evolved to Tektros which fit my hands well, are cheap and work. Quill stem and drop handlebars, usually Japanese, usually from coops. Platform or semi platform pedals. I started with the Lyotard Berthet pedals and moved to the Shimano D-A/600 semi-platforms. Those Lyotards are the easiest toeclip pickup out there when starting. With homemade tabs from Home Depot flatbar, the Shimanos can be modified to even better.

I built my own wheels around fix gear rear hubs and road quick-release fronts. Butted spokes, Open Sport rims and Pasela 28c tires.

Handlebar headlight which kept getting better as car headlights got brighter. Red flasher taillight in back. Lots of reflecting tape. An orange reflective cycling specific vest with tailights sewn to each front bottom corner so directly visible to drivers coming out of right side streets and driveways and left turning vehicles coming toward me. (Those little flashers on the front of my hips stop traffic. It's impressive.)

I am no longer doing the night riding. 72 yo, retired and my night vision is deteriorating. But what I described was the evolution of 40 years of commuting in 5 different cities and piling about 70k miles on those workhorses. (Everything got replaced around 5 times but as needed. Crash a frame? I'd buy a new (used) one and swap the parts over. I call it one continuous bike. Started as a Peugeot UO-8, ended as a Trek 4something with 3 Japanese frames in between which I still have.)