This holistic view has an analogy in transportation:
Someone has calculated that often driving a car is much slower than cycling or even walking. This turns out if you do not only compare the vehicle's maximum speed or travelling time but if you also include the time needed to make the money to buy the vehicle, gasoline etc. It may take a few minutes less to drive, but it may have taken months of work to buy the car.

It depends heavily on the driving conditions. At the US averages it's more or less break even. For instance ~600 hours/year are needed to pay off a car costing $90,000 over it's ~12 year life span. With a average vehicle speed of ~12mph assuming no additional costs for the bicycle/food a cyclist would spend ~1000 hours/year traveling and the driver at ~36mph would spend ~335 hours/year driving and ~600hours/year working in order to drive.

If we compare driving to cycling in urban areas it probably results in favorable time costs for the cyclist and if we compared driving to cycling in extra-urban areas the time cost is likely greater for the cyclist. Of course there is much more variation for the driver since if they're frugal and only spend ~$20,000 over ~12 years the time cost is likely even or in most cases favors the driver which is something that a cyclist w/ free equipment/food cannot change, but as a rule of thumb in terms of time it seems that cycling is favorable in cities and driving is favorable outside of cities on average

Where I live the equation comes out in favour of cycling at every term.

I have a four mile urban commute. This town (100,000 people) has relatively good cycling facilities for the UK, and driving is actively discouraged by limited parking space, traffic priorities etc. On a busy day, it is measurably quicker for me to cycle than drive. I save the full cost of owning a car by sharing one with my wife. We very rarely clash over access to the vehicle. I am a lot fitter and healthier for the exercise I get from cycling, and if I didn't cycle I would need to spend time getting enough exercise to keep fit. The extra calories I burn mean I don't have to actively diet to keep my weight under control.

The downsides are a slight increase in clothing costs due to wear and tear, getting wet in the famously reliable UK weather, and a slight risk of being squashed flat. My load carrying capacity is limited on an ordinary cycle.