I prefer to bike
Recently my friend offered to give me a ride to our mutual destination. I said I was fine biking, but they insisted that it was on their way and no big deal. I counter-insisted: no thanks, it's a short bike ride there. Later they expressed confusion at why I didn't accept their ride offer.
I had thought it was obvious, but I guess to a non-biker it may not be as clear: I prefer to bike.
Faced with a comparable travel time between biking and driving -- actually, even allowing for a slightly slower bike travel time, in fair weather I will choose to bike every time.
Of course, there are practical benefits to biking. I ride an e-bike, but even though I'm not getting a strenuous workout, compared to driving I know I'm getting free exercise. I don't have to deal with the annoyance of circling the block looking for parking. I also personally get carsick easily, and biking eliminates that nuisance entirely. Not to mention the the warm fuzzy feeling of living an urbanist, low-emission lifestyle, or the stark difference in cost of ownership for biking vs. driving.
Nor is biking as slow relative to driving as many think. In a hilly city like mine, an e-bike rider will often arrive sooner than Google Maps estimates claim. And where there are dedicated bike lanes, cyclists gain additional time. People also underestimate the little time sinks on cars for shorter trips: getting your car out of your apartment garage on one end, finding parking, and walking to your destination from the parking spot can all add upwards of 5 minutes.
But none of that is why I prefer to bike.
I choose to bike simply because it feels great. Biking through the city (especially at night!) with the fresh, open air rushing past your face is invigorating. Speeding down the bike lane past halted traffic titillates; it feels like using a cheat code. When biking I am one with the city around me, exposed to it, breathing it in. I feel so much joy when I'm on my bike, in a way I never do as a driver or passenger in a car.
When Apple released the Vision Pro as a $3500 high-end competitor to Meta's $500 Quest 3, Mark Zuckerberg remarked that while he expected the Quest 3 would be a better value, after trying both, he was surprised to realize it wasn't just a better value: it was simply better. And this is how I feel about biking.
There's a lot of reasons someone might choose to bike -- to save money, to get exercise, even to get there faster.
For me, though, what it comes down to is that biking is just more fun. And I choose fun.