Originally Posted by moxfyre

As I said in another thread, I find stem shifters just as bad/good as downtube shifters, except that they tend to be of lower quality in general since they're mostly on low-end bikes.

I say switch to bar-end shifters. You can get SunTour Barcon or Accushift bar-end shifters CHEAP, or modern Shimano ones for a bit more. Bar-end shifters are ideal for commuting: they can be used in either friction or indexed mode, they are nearly as convenient as STI in my opinion, and they are very very very reliable and durable. I don't think I'll ever want to commute with any other shifters!