Cycling doesn't need to be any more strenuous than walking. It keeps you much cooler than walking, because the higher speed creates a windchill effect if you're lightly dressed. People from non-cycling cultures tend to think that cycling is inherently hot and sweaty, but that's completely inaccurate. It's perfectly comfortable if you ride at your own pace rather than busting a gut in an effort to keep up with traffic.
It's partly fitness, partly technique and partly equipment. If you're totally sedentary, you're probably going to sweat until you develop a base level of fitness. If your bike is badly over-geared, you're going to have to push hard just to keep the bike moving uphill. If you haven't learned to hold your gaze on a distant point, you overcorrect your steering inputs and your pedalling technique is extremely choppy, you're going to struggle with balance at low speed. If the going gets really steep, there's nothing wrong with just getting off and walking.
None of this is rocket science, it just takes a bit of experience. Half the battle is developing a culture in which cycling is treated as an ordinary mode of transport rather than a sport. In places with a very strong cycling culture like Amsterdam or Copenhagen, you see all sections of society on bicycles - ordinary people in ordinary clothes riding ordinary bicycles at an ordinary pace.
I am a fairly avid cyclist and I agree with you, especially the second part. Unfortunately I think well over half of the population in my country, the United States- regardless of political leaning- truly dislikes cyclists.
My personal opinion is that the car culture in the United States creates an environment where everyone is enforcing their own arbitrary set of rules on the road, and in most cases, cycling is very much against these rules(regardless of any legal or logical basis).
Reading any comments, as a cyclist, on almost any social media platform regarding cycling becomes disheartening to downright scary. It's as if there's not even a discussion to be had.
