2. Money Saved
Regarding the financial benefits, the calculations are dead simple:
(a) My direct operating expenditures on cycling in 2014 were $0. I do all maintenance myself and didn't have any servicing, part replacement or running costs. You could claim that food is a running cost but I doubt I'd save much money if I switched to a passive mode of transport; I think I'd eat about the same and just put on weight due to getting insufficient exercise. As the saying goes: "cycling runs on fat and saves you money; driving runs on money and makes you fat."
See: How to reduce your cycling operating costs to less than $150 per year.
So that just leaves the amortized operating expenses that I estimate at $138/year - $75/year of which is purely the depreciation of my bike over an artificially-shortened 5 year period (its lifespan is around 15 years but I will buy a new bike approximately every 5 years because I want to and can easily afford it).
(b) There were a few direct capital expenditures in 2014 (total value of $263) but the bulk of this was for a complete bike repair tool kit and repair stand that will be amortized over 20 years (i.e. costing $12/year). (See: Actual cycling expenditures prove how cheap cycling can be). It is too complicated to provide actual amortized yearly costs for all of these CapEx spends I've documented, so I've erred on the higher side and will use $50/year as the cumulative amortized CapEx spend.
(c) I didn't use a car for any local trip under 20km in 2014 (including taxis, Uber, etc). I promise there is no cheating involved in these calculations. I really do deliberately bike everywhere I can because I prefer it.
(d) My public transport costs for local trips under 20km in 2014 were $3.58 - a single roundtrip after 6pm on a tram with my girlfriend to a party. The few other trips recorded on my public transport smartcard (Myki) were taken by others (my sister when visiting town, my girlfriend) or were well over 20km (e.g. a train-bike trip to do cherry picking out of town - 30 Nov to Lilydale)2. For 2015, my aim is to keep one Myki reserved for my trips and then show a complete Jan to Dec record that is pure.
(e) So my total local transport costs for 2014 were: $138 + ~$50 (other amortized CapEx spend) + $3.58 = $191.58.
I don't own or have access to a car. I didn't use cars for any local trip in 2014 (including taxis, Uber, etc). I have very good access to public transport (2 tram lines are 300-400m away, the train is 1km away) but use it very rarely as I prefer to cycle. However, there are situations where public transport is a necessary or superior alternative. See: The most common situations where a public transport alternative helps cyclists