Cycling is vigorous exercise, and buckets of research have found a strong correlation between improved mental health and exercise. Granted, we don’t know for sure that it’s causal.

But it kind of stands to reason: Cycling gets your heart pumping, which improves blood- and oxygen f...

There aren’t a ton of studies specifically probing whether cycling improves mental health. But there are a few suggestive findings: This study found 

Most people find that when they go for a walk, they absorb the street scene better than when they race by in a car. Obviously! But cycling is, for me, the perfect sensual midpoint between the two. You get the visual banquet of walking, but because you’re going faster you get a bigger, longer feas...

Exercise always feels nice, of course, whether it’s playing a game of pickup football or going for a run. But when you cycle for a practical purpose — i.e. for transportation, to get from point A to point B — there’s an additional thrill. It gives you a radical sense of self-reliance. Travelling ...

In New York, if you’re taking a car or the subway, you’re always slightly nervous that something will screw up and you’ll be late. I mean, maybe you’ll be lucky? But then when you least expect it, wham: You run into a thick knot of traffic or an implacably mysterious subway delay — and n...

Cycling is clearly useful for lifting one’s mood if you’re otherwise healthy, and merely facing normal funks and malaise. If you’re living with clinical depression it’s a different problem altogether, requiring careful medical attention. Cycling’s wonderful, but it is not a substitute for treatme...