I commuted to a job in the big city (about 45 minutes away by car, an hourish by bus) for about 8 months.
I started the job in the fall, and riding the bus was fine, but as May rolled around and I saw the weather getting better and better and thinking about all the time I was stuck in a bus instead of outside, I realized it wasn't going to work out. (There were other things going on at the company too, but this was definitely the straw that broke this commuting camel's back.)
Living in the Pacific NW as an avid motorcyclist- it's been a semi bittersweet transition. It was 22.5mi from driveway to (free motorcycle) parking garage- which meant I was riding on average 425mi a week. I used to average MAYBE 2500mi a year, excluding summer road trips, before commuting every day on my bike.
Especially during the spring and summer- I missed that nice, gorgeous, Seattle morning ride as the morning transitioned from pre-dawn light. I'm probably going to have to find a really inneficient and long way to get to the office some mornings now that I think about it.
Sometimes the gloom and rain of Seattle just meant I couldn't bear to ride that day. Sometimes I needed to get some emails punched out or I just REALLY wanted to read a book. Even though it took longer I almost always felt more relaxed when I got home from riding the light rail. But I usually felt more ready to work when I rode in.
By the end of my time at that company I was riding my motorcycle about 90% of the time because I couldn't bare to give up 2+ hours a day to my commute.
When I left and started my own company the first thing I did was find an office space I could ride my bicycle to. It's actually faster to ride my bike than drive.