The article is about strength training in general. If you haven't read Starting Strength, then maybe the idea is foreign to you. Suffice it to say that lifting heavy with progressively overloaded weight is the only way to build strength.

That said, to your First point, if you live in America, you might be aware that cycling anywhere is dangerous for your health. I myself have ridden my bike many miles through dense traffic in order to get to closed roads to do fun rides and crits, but I would never give this advice to anyone in the general case! Bike infrastructure is a joke in the United States and if you're not a freak with a preternatural sense of spatial awareness, the reflexes of a cat, and a half-serious death wish then quite frankly you are only endangering your own life putting yourself next to 4000-lb vehicles driven by teenagers and distracted adults texting and changing their playlist while driving. As an avid bike rider who logs over 1500 miles a year on the bike I recommending cycling in traffic to NOBODY.