Cul-de-sacs increase distance in many cases. There often is a "as the bird flies" path that would be much faster, but there is a fence (private yard) in the way so you can't go that way. Cars don't care much about a 2 mile detour to get out of a neighborhood, but that is a long trip on a bike and not acceptable for walking.

If work is 30 minutes by car that should be about 4 hours by bike in the worst case (that is you live next to the 70mph freeway on ramp, and the office is at the end of the off-ramp, no city streets). In my case work is 15 minutes by car, 25 by ebike - but that is mostly a function of the type of roads between them, and I'm likely near the most extreme in that direction (for people who can do either)