My
Trek Portland is purpose-built and sold specifically as a high-speed commuter. Other than rack and fender mounts, it shares no other characteristics with hybrids of any ilk, including those sold as commuters.
It's a fairly ordinary midrange road bike--drop bars, STI, carbon fork, the works--with a ruggedized frame, room in the fork and frame for my studded snow tires with full fenders, and disc brakes.
It will never be confused with a hybrid.
This is a great example. My fear (paranoia?) is that if the definition of "commuter bike" as something that looks like this:
is allowed to win the day, then it will stifle the progress of bikes like the Trek Portland being developed.
It seems to me that bicycle manufacturers behave in very simple ways. They prefer to build bikes that fit into very well-defined categories. Only rarely do they attempt to create a new category, and when they try they often fail.
So, while the Breezer above is an excellent bike for many commuting situations, if the "commuter" category gels around that, then we won't get a lot more bikes like the Portland, and frankly I am of the opinion that the Portland needs a little more work to make it an ideal commuter.
So, I believe that it behooves us to take up the task, quixotic though it may be, of defining, creating and defending a new category of commuter bikes. Trek uses the term "high speed commuter" as tsl observes. That's not bad, but there's also an element missing. I think beyond "high speed" there are other elements such as long-distance comfort that cause bikes like the Long Haul Trucker to be used as commuters. I don't believe that the ideal commuter bike for this category has yet been developed.
I see the following bikes as strong candidates for inclusion in this category: Surly LHT, Surly Cross Check, Kona Jake, Kona Dirt Drop, Kona ***** Inc., Salsa Fargo, Salsa La Cruz, Soma Double Cross, Trek Portland, Raleigh Sojourn. Notice that most of these are targeted at some other category. Hence the task.