That seems generally reasonable, except for the commuting distances. There are people who live and work within a mile or three of work, with no significant hills on the way, but I can only think of two within my circle of acquaintance. (Three if you count jyossarian, who's too experienced a cyclist to have his imagination sparked by this fashion article.)

Everyone else comes in from farther than that, because the apartment rents close to midtown or downtown are insane.

I tried to find some statistics, but all I could determine, without spending a lot of time on it, is that New York City dwellers have the longest average commuting times in the US. I didn't see any mileage figures.