Firday afternoon they opened a new road between by house and work. This cuts my "short route" in half. The new route is slightly more hilly and not quite as straight. Now the question is how to keep from being lazy and taking the easy way out.

Has anyone else one day found their commute suddenly become shorter?

no

Uh. No. 25-30 the long way, 24.7 the short way. Outside of a helicopter, it's not getting any shorter than an hour and fifteen minutes by bike or by car. Glad to hear you've got more options now, though. Good stuff. Stay with it despite the temptingly-short route.

No. But I used to cheat on a 12 mile commute and take a shortcut down the main trail of a nature preserve to make it a 7 mile commute. What a kick!

Take the short route, leaves more time to ride where you want instead of where the "man" wants.

My new job sent my commute from 3 miles each way to..... 1.37 miles each way. It stinks. I leave my house 5 minutes before work. The job is 100x better, but the commute is too short. Hard for me to complain though.

Hey, 1.37 miles is in the ideal range! A bit of cycling in the morning w/o getting tired or sweaty at all... plus in case of a puncture or similar you can just walk.
And then nobody keeps you from going on a ride after work.

Just say no. That would be too short for me. My commute is 9 miles direct and I loop around my office building (very large) to add an extra mile in the morning. In the afternoon, I add another extra loop that makes it 12 miles, and some days I'll take on a few extra miles as well.

Not shorter, but easier. A bridge on the Schuylkill Trail that had been closed for repair reopened, which means I can avoid some nasty climbing and traffic.

I moved to a new building that is 4 miles from home vs. my old 11 since there are no showers, then take a longer, 7 mile route home that is safer in evening traffic. This will be a nice, close arrangement for the winter, then sometime next year I'll move into a new building that is a mile or two farther than my old 11 mile location that has it all (cafe, showers, bike cage, etc).

I think there's an algebra problem in there somewhere.

Unfortunately yes, for the time being. Sold my house - too quick and not ready for next place yet - so stuff is in storage and I'm living with a friend for the winter ---- who lives closer to work.

Now mind you I luv to ride - and end up doing another 10-15 mi every day when I get home anyway but my already small commute of 2.75 miles (one way) is now reduced to just over 2 miles (one way). Busy as hell though as I live just outside of downtown - and have to ride in the the middle of downtown to work.

Spring is when I'll be moving - most likely farther away from the city so my commute with be longer.