Coming from the Netherlands, having lived in the Rushcliffe area for the past 5 years, it amazes me how few people actually use a bicycle for day to day use, especially in the current climate of high fuel prices and enviromental issues.
Before anything can be improved i feel their need to be 2 fundemental change to create room for a major expansion in cycling activities.

1. A cyclist should always be considered right by law.(same in the Netherlands and it works!)
This means if a car hits a cyclist(/pedestrian), whether its the drivers fault or not, the car driver will always be guilty. This will force car drivers to take much greater care and at the same time make cyclists the centerpoint for future road planning. i.e. priority to well established and high quality cycling path, especialliy in towns and villages.
2. In towns and villages cyclist should be considered top priority and cars less important. All roads should be adopted to wider cycling lanes, no strange endings on cycling path ie. suddenly the cycling path ends what to do next?
Cars are good for long distance travel, cyclists are good for small trips to visits friends in nearby villages or towns or do some small grocery shopping.

These 2 changes will encourge people to use or buy a bicycle (not an inconvienent mountian bike, since these are for dirt tracks and mountains, there are much better bicycles out there, Oxford has some good dutch ones such as the Gazelle brand which are way more convienent, have gears aswell and have loading space for groceries.

I know it is not easy to change the car only culture, but with the current troubles facing the world, why are councils or even the government so reluctant to implement far reaching changes?

At the moment, I admit, I don't use my bicycly as much as I should, but this is due to way to many hazards on the english roads, it's simply too dangerous and inconvienent.
It would be intresting to get your views on this matter, maybe I am missing something??
D