I've been bike commuting since my roommate crashed my car in 1990. - Try not to carry stuff - I've gotten to the point where I have 2 computers for work, one at home and one in the office so I don't have to carry it between home and work. (In the old days it was easy to convince my employer to do this because hard drives can't take the hammering in a saddlebag and would die every few months) - Rather than bullet proof my bike (I'm the kind of person who can get flat tires no matter how bullet proof the tire is), I go for maximum repairability. That means quick release wheels, rims and tires that are compatible so removing an inner tube and patching a flat is easy, and I've unfortunately gotten good at repairing flats. That doesn't mean that fixing a flat by the side of the road with cold fingers while cars are splashing dirty water on you is fun, but cursing at a tire that won't come off no matter what is even more frustrating. (It also means no generator lights to make flat tire fixing easy) - Rain gear and fenders. Living in California I can get away with clip ons rather than full fenders, and good rain jacket and rain pants covers the rest. Needless to say, Kool-stop Salmon brake pads are a necessity. - Preventive maintenance and simplicity. That for me means I inspect the bike and replace chains and other consumables like brake pads on a regular basis. - Garmin radar. This is great for peace of mind as well as those ugly left turns. - Complain to the traffic engineering department in your city. I've had good luck writing city traffic engineering departments complaining about lights that don't respond to bicycles or even debris in the bike lane. One trick is to CC the local bike advocacy organization. When the city departments see that someone's been CC'd, they assume you're preparing for a lawsuit in the future and they will actually fix things. Recently they even swept the streets after I complained!
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