As a commuter it is much safer for you to ride as fast as you can try and be a close to the speed of traffic. They tend to pay more attention to you. I don't have much time to spend checking out the scenery in heavy traffic. There is way to much going on in urban traffic not to be paying attention to everything going on around you. I save that for my pleasure rides and that tends to be away from heavy traffic. If you are timid about traffic it will eat you alive (no exageration) stay on the trails then