I'm a commuter and also ride my bike for errands near my house. I ride a Trek Mountain Bike that my mom gave me and I put a rack and fenders on. My city is about 225,000 people.
I live in a residential neighborhood tucked behind several extremely busy arterials. I work downtown which is 9 miles away. We have only one bike lane in our city that goes for less than a mile (other than a few dedicated bike trails which are obviously for recreation) so I ride on city streets for my entire commute. I see very few cyclists on my commute, and only one that I can tell is a commuter. Most of the people who ride bikes in my city are homeless and they ride on the sidewalk.
I ride as far to the right as practicable. Sometimes I ride in the space where parked cars might otherwise be if the gap between them is large. I stop at all stop lights even if no one is coming. I stop at all stop signs in the "urban" parts of my commute, I admit I do blow through stop signs in some of the less busy residential neighborhoods I ride through.
I'm slow, I probably average 13-14 mph most of the time.
Last edited by Amber_; 12-03-07 at 07:32 AM.