Hmmmm.... I was trying to puzzle this out and figured that the fastest you could go by car would be the typical 65MPH, so that distance is 10.8 miles... well it could be possible that a slow cyclist is only riding at 10MPH... so 10 minutes by car could equal an hour by bike. This is almost a description of my commute... Here is the ironic part... by car, the road is fairly flat and at freeway speed and due to way freeways get "priority" in construction, the route by car is only 6 miles long.

The surface streets that I have to take by bicycle are somewhat roundabout, (zig zag over or under the "direct" freeway) go up and down big hills (that were blasted out of the way for the freeway) and the total distance is almost 10 miles... and I have lots and lots of traffic lights.

So indeed what takes about 15 minutes door to door by car CAN take just over any hour by bike and the worst part is that the roads are all high speed roads... with motor traffic flying by at 45-55 MPH while I grunt out the hills at 8MPH... (downhill is about 30MPH). To say the least, it is a rather discouraging cycling route. And at the end of the commute I have to shower... thus taking more time. (the shower is unavoidable due to the hills).

If on the other hand the route had been planned for cyclists... I would ride about 6 miles, on a nearly flat road, while motor traffic would go the longer route... but it would still be "effortless" for drivers as all they do is push a gas pedal.