Originally Posted by Da Tinker
Don't forget public school education. Hawaii has the bike safety program in the 4th grade, which has yielded good results.
Lafayette Parish, Louisiana was teaching the LAB Kids II course at the 6th grade level in all public schools, until the funding ran out. While that program had been going for only a few years, the Lafayette area is the only area in the state where cyclist deaths on the road declined.
Attack the problem the way Mother Nature attacks a mountain: from all possible angles, with many different methods, great patience, and never give up. After a few eons, no more mountain.
There ain't no magic pill.
Actually that is the best route for training... start at the elementary level (like I was taught back in the early 60's) with some basic bike handling and safety, then at the Middle school level go into safe traffic techniques. Then finally at the high school level a full 2 semesters of training by simulator, some on road, coverage of laws and ethics (the "why" we should treat each other well on the road). Then the new driver earns their license through a comprehensive test and is followed by at least a 2 year probation period.
All this serves to slowly integrate the student into the roadway use system, by first teaching cycling and the mechanics of road use, and then culminating in the finer aspects of not only road use, but also the reasoning behind it. Makes for smart drivers, not just rote drivers.
Beyond that, incentive programs from the insurance companies (in conjunction with the states... who control insurance) for continual education.
All of this should put the US on par with many other industrialized countries driver education programs... and encourage cycling at the same time.
Check out this wiki on drivers licenses:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Driver's_license
Look in particular at New Zealand and Australia
And yes NZ and Oz have a dramatically lower death rate by auto per capita than the US