Bikes used to be about cheap transport for the masses. Back in the 80's (OK I know it was a long time ago) there used to be a big row of bikes parked outside my school which grew as the year went on as more and more 5th year students turned 16. When I got to college there were even more as many of us used it as transport in from the villages where we lived rather than rely on the unreliable busses and trains.
Suddenly we hit a wall where, for reasons I haven't quite grasped, parents wouldn't let the kids ride bikes. Instead, more were ferried to school by car creating more and more traffic on the roads, making biking more dangerous in the parents eyes.
Around the same time, CBT was introduced making it harder and costlier to actually get on the road. When I was 16, all we did was wait for the clock to strike midnight before we were off riding into the distance. Because so many of our friends and family had bikes, we knew how to control a bike. Because we all rode pushbikes on the road, we all knew the rules of the road. Now, many kids have never ridden a pushbike on the road. Many have not got a friend with a bike to "have a go on down the woods" before they get the keys to the CBT provided bike meaning they wobble all over the place initially.
The other suggestion on the news today was to allow learner drivers on the motorway network and to have a minimum amount of driver training before they can take their test. How will the hours be logged? When I was 17, I never had any instructor based driving or riding lessons. Instead, I drove my own car with my dad or friends who had passed their test sitting beside me in the car. At 18 I knew it all. My dad on the other had thought his driving was superior and mine was a problem. I went away and did my IAM Advanced test then to prove him wrong. He has never complained about my driving in the 30 years since.
If they bring in the minimum 100+ hours they are talking about, that will cost parents £2000+ in driving lessons. Add this to the cost of buying and insuring a car, and bikes may actually make a comeback as the cheaper alternative.