Along with walking, cycling is my favorite mode of transport. I've cycled or walked to work in most cities I've lived, including Toronto and several cities in Japan.

Usually, it's faster to cycle than to take the bus or the subway. By the time you walk to the station, wait for the train (or bus), spend 30 minutes or more on the train, then get off and walk to your destination, you could have cycled there in much less time.

It helps if the city has a network of cycling paths. I spent the past 5 years in Singapore (a tiny city-state), which already has a few hundred kilometers of cycling paths -- along coastal parks, along rivers and canals, and along old, abandoned railway lines. It's planning to increase the cycling paths over the next few years to over 700 kilometers (if my memory is correct).

Cycling is not only great for health and inexpensive, it's also a great way for a city to clean up its air and to develop a system that does not rely so heavily on the automobile. Making for a cleaner, greener city.