Only a bike rider could prove to a driver that cycling is a healthier and safer mode of travel than it seems from inside a car.

After trying it for a day, we discovered a secret behind the growth of cycling as legitimate transportation: It is exhilarating, fun and connects riders to the environment in a way that is entirely lost on drivers.

Last summer, we asked cyclists to follow the rules of the road more closely and pointed out the dangers of ignoring them. It is unassailable advice, but it was largely based on a perspective formed in a driver’s seat.

Cyclists unleashed a firestorm of fury in emails and comments posted to our online columns. A couple wanted to punch us in the face. Others suggested cycling is a form of godliness that we are too old and crabby to understand.

A few riders were less hostile, including James Schwartz, a cycling advocate and blogger who asked us to go for a ride with him, so he could show us the ups and downs of pedalling.

We couldn’t say no, so we dragged our 23-year-old Raleigh out of the basement, got it tuned up and joined Schwartz and Andrea Garcia, director of the Toronto Cyclists Union, for a ride through the downtown core.

Before we even started, we apologized for not wearing (or even owning) a helmet, figuring it would result in reproachful finger wagging from such high-minded cyclists.

Garcia shrugged and buckled hers on. Schwartz said it was okay with him, since he wasn’t wearing one either.

The idea was to provide us with examples of the perils encountered while riding, and to show us the need for and advantages of infrastructure that makes cycling safer and more viable.

But an unintended consequence of our journey was soon apparent: Cycling is an immensely enjoyable way to get around, especially on a fall day when moderate exertion results in minimal sweat.

It promotes a sense of well-being and gets the blood flowing without leaving one gasping for breath, and allows riders to quickly manoeuvre through heavy traffic without adding to the queue of gridlocked vehicles.

Aside from the exercise, it creates a connection between the rider and the surrounding community in a way that drivers, who are sealed off by glass and steel, could never feel for themselves.

While stopped at an intersection, you can hear the conversations of people waiting for the green light. You can smell onions sizzling at a hot dog cart, read the signs pasted to a utility pole and observe things that cannot be seen from behind the wheel.

But the positive benefits do not lessen the dangers.

The one that scared us most was squeezing through a construction zone on Queens Quay, where heavy equipment, dump trucks and cement mixers dwarfed us and created a roar that made us almost unnoticeable.

While riding beside vehicles parked at the curb, Schwartz warned us to be on a constant lookout for drivers about to open their door and get out, also known as a “door prize” to cyclists.

We counted five vehicles parked in cycling lanes, which forced us into the traffic to get around them, including a courier truck and a guy who stopped to talk on the phone and was oblivious to the problem he’d created.

The highest level of vigilance is also needed on streets without cycling lanes, where vehicles constantly came within inches of us. After a while, it is easy to become accustomed to them and let down your guard.

Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading...

By the time we were done, we’d seen so many examples of crumbled asphalt and sunken sewer grates near the curb that we had a new appreciation for cyclists’ complaints about having to mix with traffic to get around them.

It was a revealing experience for a guy who had thought of bikes as more of a toy than a real vehicle, one that should be tried by any driver guilty of making the same mistake.

What’s broken in your neighbourhood? Wherever you are in Greater Toronto, we want to know. To email us, go to www.thestar.com/thefixer and click on the submit a problem link. Or call us at 416-869-4823.