There's a lot of research on the mental health benefits of cycling, and I think a big aspect of that could be chalked up to it being one of the few forms of mostly un-alienated labor available to people under capitalism. You work the machine to move yourself. You own the means of your own transportation production basically. Just some 'shower thought' that keeps coming back to me.
It's very common for people to talk about going for a bike ride like it is a form of therapy, that it clears the mind and puts you in a better mood after a bad day, etc. Let me know what you think about this idea.
Doesn't really feel much different from a car you own, really. I mean the main difference would be bikes are like super easy to fix yourself, comparatively and the infrastructure required is also way less but that'd seem more like an anarchist type of thing (and also why you get the odd libertarian who gets super into bikes)
Think that's just exercise, many people go run.
The difference here I think is that biking at a level compareable to walking still allows you to go much, much further in the same time span, so it's just more practical to integrate into your day to day.