I tried swapping running with cycling for a few months but honestly as somebody who spends a good portion of my time on my ass, often with suboptimal posture in front of a screen I hate the idea of exercising still sitting on my ass with bad posture.
The most important thing imo is to find a form of cardio you enjoy. It's not worth stressing over the differences between forms of cardio just find something you like and make it a part of your lifestyle.
Reagarding knee injuries, sure intense running with bad form is more likely to get you an overuse injury but those heal quickly, long term studies don't show increased knee/hip risk for runners.
Strength exercises are also very important for runners. Getting all the muscles arounf your hips, knees and ankles stronger significantly reduces the chance and severity of injuries and has a ton of other benefits.
If you are sitting on your ass (as in the normal definition of buttocks) when cycling, you are doing it wrong or you are riding a recumbent.
Typically you sit on the part in front of your hip, which also has its downsides as it is quite a delicate area where pressions on the wrong area could lead to issues.
I was a cycling maniac for some time. It fucks one up (knees, back, elbows) anyways. After 10 years of that I cut it down to occasional pleasure rides. Luckily all my pains had stopped after a couple of years.
I no longer regularly jog / run / cycle, only occasionally for pleasure. I either swim or hike steep hills or if weather is ugly just put treadmill on 15% incline and walk very fast for an hour or so. Wastes energy like crazy and leaves my knees intact.
I think diversifying the physical activities is a good thing.
Also avoiding using your domotics, motorized vehicles, elevators and escalators, kitchen/cleaning robots/electric devices when there are manual replacement as well as not using domotic, does a super job on its own.
People have become lazy, pretend they don't have time to do stuff, then have to actually dedicate additionnal time so that their body doesn't suffer from their lazyiness. This is bonkers.
One day my brother saw me shirtless and asked me if I was going to the gym. I said no, I just have 2 young kids, carry my groceries including cat litter by foot, use a shovel to clear snow, use a manual coffee grinder and kitchen whisk and only use my car when it would take me more than 1 hours / 30kms by bicycle, etc. And I had an office job. Being active, fit and healthy shouldn't involve having to "exercise".
There is the downhill part of the hikes, unless you have ski lifts or similar way of getting down. I used to do running a bit before major paragliding accident, and I hiked like there is no tomorrow and still do... subjectively the hiking down part felt more stressful on knees than running (maybe not on concrete/tarmac).
Running absolutely impacts the knees, but the compression of meniscus for example is what circulates nutrients into it so some impact is necessary for healthy knees as well.
Maybe not, do what suits but I find it helps, particularly over longer distances or up hills.
I’ve never tried real cleats, I just use mounting biking ones, spd. Doubled sided pedals seem easier in traffic and I use them for a decidedly non-pro 2-300km a week.
I don't like the risk factor. I was a serious cyclist for a decade or so, and went tens of thousands of kilometers over all kinds of terrain at all hours of the day. My take away eventually was that I'd get hit by a car eventually (again), and I don't know how severe it would be. I only cycle with friends leisurely now rather than as a frequent form of exercise.
I live in a city where it's challenging to reach safe riding territory in a reasonable time frame. If I was rural and had access to trail riding (gravel, mountain), I think I'd be all over that.
The most important thing imo is to find a form of cardio you enjoy. It's not worth stressing over the differences between forms of cardio just find something you like and make it a part of your lifestyle.
Reagarding knee injuries, sure intense running with bad form is more likely to get you an overuse injury but those heal quickly, long term studies don't show increased knee/hip risk for runners.
Strength exercises are also very important for runners. Getting all the muscles arounf your hips, knees and ankles stronger significantly reduces the chance and severity of injuries and has a ton of other benefits.