In Japan, the land of Shimano and Sugino, they still have what I think is the a real city bike



People ride them everywhere and really commute on them. But somehow the regular Japanese commuter is not obsessed with getting there too fast or having performance options. 9 miles and hour is probably fast enough. Here I heard people commute and go fast as 40 mph (gasp).

People commute on all type of bikes but I think generally a hardtail MTB is a great commuting format in the US at least psychologically . The problem with the US market is that the manufacturers are treating it like a car market... new models every year. So just like we have crossover SUV's we have to have crossover bikes as well..

Old but well kept road bikes are the best IMHO..