I have had several Raleigh Sports over the years and commuted to school and work on one all through the early 80's. I also had a Schwinn Speedster and a Collegiate 3 spd which was used as a Winter commuter rain bike a few years then passed on to my grandsons. They rode the crap out of that bike and couldn't break it.
I agree on the better handling of the Raleigh vs the Schwinns but someone had switched to steel drop bars to my Collegiate which allowed a more aero position and it could hold a much higher cruising speed with less effort than the Raleigh.
I used to time my 4 mile work commute and several of my faster times were accomplished on the 3 speed, almost as fast as on a modern road bike. Several co-workers who bike commute, thought the fast time resulted from the fact I had two short, steep hills on a short, mostly flat commute. The single low gear of the 3 spd was higher than the gears I usually used on my derailleur bikes and resulted in a faster uphill speed(with more effort though). Once I was on level ground, it wasn't hard to maintain a fast cruising speed for such a short commute on the heavy Schwinn. Don