For most day-to-day things you don't need to cycle longer than 15 minutes in most bike friendly cities. In addition to recommendation by others I would also add that for journeys significantly longer than 15 Minutes you can take public transport for part of it.
Interesting! I picked 15 minutes because that’s the shortest possible distance I could imagine having to go to do anything (yes I’m in the USA). Once in my life, very briefly, I managed to afford to live a 15 minute bike ride from my work, and I did it, but (like I said) with the sweaty consequences. Usually it’s 1-2 hours by car.
I realized part of the problem recently; if you can afford to live in a 15 minute bike city, you're also living in a 5 minute car city. (Or more precisely, if something is a 10 minute walk away, it's about a minute or two by car.)
Until you go from one car to zero, the car is a damn good temptation.
I just did a round trip to pick up something from the library, a mile away. Could have walked, but couldn't have walked and got back in time before my meeting.
