Based on my bicycle advocacy experience, most of you will have a reason that biking can't fit into your lifestyle. I know for some it is true but not for most.
I always make my bicycle my first choice of transportation. I reject it often. But even frequently being a motorist, I still save in the thousands of car miles. Among my biggest savings is the 12 miles round trip to my gym, twice per week. Rounding, that alone is about a thousand miles.
BTW, I now live in a community in the east that people characterize as having streets too narrow and cars too fast etc. I am not Superman but simply educated urban cyclist.
Anyway if you are looking for a great way to stay fit and save money, I would give it a go. Lots of online help teaching safe on street bicycling practices.
I don't dispute anything said here. I think my biggest issue with biking is safety.
Honolulu put in a bike lane on our busiest surface street (pull a few fed dollars through our legislature's path and they'll pounce on it like, well, fill in your favorite saying.) One full car lane was converted to a bike lane. SO, we have this nice "safe" bike lane which runs the length of S King St. For the first 3 years, my interest was to watch the bike lane every time I drove S King and count the bikes using it. Typically it was zero, though I occasionally did see one or maybe two bikes. Now that it is being "utilized" (I see at least one bike on it almost every time I traverse S. King) I began to worry about safety. The lane is isolated from the street by 'bumpers' so it's unlikely a car would veer into the bike lane. BUT, to turn from S. King into any of the businesses along the street, a car must turn across the bike lane to enter the parking areas of the various businesses. In fact, I had to do that a week ago and just before I was able to turn, I had to wait for an SUV to do the same (left hand turn, across the bike lane.) Now, had there been any bike traffic coming from the opposite direction, it might have been possible to see and avoid it. But, the bike lane is 2 way and as the vehicle in front of me turned across the bike lane, a bike, coming from the same direction we were going, almost t-boned the SUV. It must have been doing almost 20mph. Between the bike and the SUV, they JUST managed to avoid a collision in which the SUV would have been scratched (maybe dented) and the biker would have most likely sustained broken bones. Now, to be honest, I don't know what the "laws" for this interaction are (I suspect the SUV was supposed to yield - but it's difficult to see bikes in the lane because on-street metered parking exists up against the bumper strip) but no matter who was at fault, the biker would have been injured - potentially killed.
So, if I'm making a point it would be that bikes and cars don't mix - not with any safety, anyway. You can pass all the laws you want (they only determine who was at fault after the fact.) Separating bikes from cars is the only way I see to insure safety of bikes. On a small island like ours, carving out isolated bike lanes everywhere isn't practical though we have several bike lanes of various descriptions all over the place. Most simply give a separate, but not isolated path "designated" for bikes. In this configuration, bikers seem much more aware of their vulnerability to cars and it works pretty well from what I have seen (there is a major such bike lane on my main road - worst problem I see is bikes running most of the red lights so they don't lose momentum.) The S King St bike lane gives the illusion of safety and I fear that those on bikes don't sense the danger they face at every turn in point. I'm not anti-bike, but I am for personal safety. The equation just doesn't work for me. Naturally YMMV.
Do be very careful when you ride!