I've been thinking about this more...in the winter, I think we have to accept that the commute is going to take longer. Sometimes it'll take alot longer if the road conditions are bad.

A few years ago when I lived in DC we had a nasty winter storm and the traffic was a mess and the Metro was all in disarray. I did my 14-mile commute on my bike with studded tires and it took me nearly 2 hours--twice the normal commute time. But it was a beautiful ride to work, a few hardy cyclists on the trail, and I still got there in less time with less hassle than by car or by Metro that day.

I knew that I just had to give myself more time for my commute. Usually I took the Metro back in the p.m. because of darkness, with a 2-mile ride from the Metro stop closest to my house (on well-lit streets and I had all sorts of lights). It all added up to a longer commute, but I just had to accept that I wasn't going to be as fast in the winter as in the other seasons.