90% scared of cycling in UK cities — new research suggests fear of collisions, road rage and theft putting people off

Completely agree.  However as Chris Boardman has (I think correctly identified) money is in some ways not the issue.  Or rather it's one of the last issues to address when trying to get change at the political level.  If our lords and masters really get it they'll almost certainly be able to do *something* useful - even before substantial moneys were available given the (relatively) vast funds available for "road transport" and other things which sorting our streets could be filed under.

Apparently it works in the opposite direction! (e.g. IIRC councils have managed to get "active travel" funding to pay for improvements for drivers and bus companies...)

You don't need to retest people frequently, if you regularly hold & keep people to the tested standard, it involves more road coppers though, and a willingness to prosecute for road offences.

And fwiw despite the fact a collision is more likely to be fatal, I don't encounter a tenth of the hassle or safety concerns on rural roads that I get from urban areas riding.

We barely have enough capacity to handle existing demand for tests...

But courts should be able to mandate ongoing testing as a penalty for driving offences (i.e. after ban is spent offender is required to repass test every 5 years); For offences above a given severity retesting should be part of court investigation (i.e. you have to do a driving test BEFORE it goes to court and the result + examiner review is submitted as evidence)

Courts should also be able to time limit existing licences (i.e. we aren't banning you immediately, but you have 3 months to pass a test if you want to keep licence)

This focuses limited test resources on problematic drivers.

OF course all of these penalties need to be in addition not instead of current penalties.

Cycling competence should be part of the driving test.

And it should be compulsory for anyone renewing a licence. Anyone unable to ride a bicycle would have the option of a tricycle, e-bike or e-assisted hand cycle.

Agree.  It's those "barriers" overcoming which is necessary (but not sufficient) for people to switch modes *.

Policing is a "necessary" for road safety but I'm just not sure how important.  I certainly don't think that has much to do with people's feeling of safety or the lack of it on the roads.  Plenty people die in car crashes but I'm not seeing people saying "I would drive, but feel the police just won't protect me...".  And it has zero to do with convenience of cycling and also zero to do with the relative appeal of driving a given journey over cycling it.

People won't necessarily know good solutions themselves ** and they also might simply assume some things are given if you cycle (e.g. getting sweaty, "but how will I carry anything" etc.)

Ultimately I doubt how much this is about "personal choice" (unless that is people choosing to pressure their MP / councillor / other people).  Personal choice gets our current 1% of journeys cycled (and falling, without further work).   The people with the power to actually change things (councils, and ultimately the government for allocating funding / setting direction of travel / amending laws) have to feel this is worth not just having (otherwise we get ineffectual "encouraging cycling") but worth the long-term, contentious hard work of selling and making a major change to our transport systems (and indeed philosophy).

FWIW Cycling Embassy of GB have a comprehensive page on people's reported barriers to cycling.

* While it's possible for e.g. extra road capacity to create new driven journeys in general this is about switching from using one mode to another.  Another complication is that for journeys previously driven it may be these are replaced by multi-modal transport, or by "substitution" e.g. used to drive to the out of town shopping centre for a big weekly shop, now realise that I can do this e.g. using the bike on the way home from work at more local shops but split over a couple of shops over the week.

** A bit like asking "why do you drive to the shops?" - it's unlikely that people would identify "you can buy cars which have lights, storage space, locks and weather protection, right from the dealer.  Then there are well-maintained roads for me to drive on between here and there where I don't feel I'll get killed and parking both by my house and the shop, oh, and everyone else does this" - but without those conditions there probably wouldn't be much motorised shopping.