I rode a touring bike with racks and fenders now touring xtracycle and fenders. With 700x32 marathon plusses it handles crap really well. I can cut through sand, glass, brush, lawns and even handle some pothole, gaps, drops and roadruts pretty well. Even though my FD has been frozen up for the last couple months the gearing is wide enough to take me from a stop to over 20mph well before I cross the intersection. Unless traffic is really gunning it I can keep up pretty well which for a nearly 70lb bike and 270lb rider isn't too bad.

If I had room I might get a cheapie mtb or hybrid with some studs for weather like today. they reported 200 accidents in fort worth on the news this morning (of course that could be just 1 more then normal for all I know) so I came to work pretty late to avoid the stand still. If I had an ice bike like I did back in Connecticut I would have been at work before traffic without any worry.