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@bq
One thing about London which I think limits its potential as a cycling city is that it is at once too big and too small. It is a city of villages, so if your need can be met locally it is probably within walking distance, and taking the bike is a hassle. If it cannot it is likely bloody miles away, and the bus, tube, motorcycle or car seems like a more practical idea than a bicycle - especially if you figure 'well I'm making the trip anyway so I shall stock up on lots of things while I am there' and then need to carry a load of stuff all the way back home.
We cycling enthusiasts are a bit weird and don't think anything of riding 15 miles (well not me, I draw the line at 7) but for the widespread use of bikes as a primary transport by non-sporty people you kind of need everything to be no more than 3-4 miles away. And in particular, your place of work needs to be that close to your home. That's rare in London. In short the populace will always choose the most convenient form of transport for the task in hand, and cost cannot be a significant factor or nobody would ever use the tube or train. Running a car is far cheaper, yet most Londoners don't do it, because it's less convenient.
I don't think you will remove people from cars by making driving any more inconvenient or expensive. It's already really bloody inconvenient, expensive and stressful. Driving in London is a hateful business, so it can be assumed that the vast majority of drivers don't do it through choice. If you took away the minicabs, chauffeur services, police, commercial vehicles, taxis, buses, ambulances and so forth from the roads in central London I'd bet that there would be hardly any traffic left. The war on the private motorist, if there ever was one, has been won. So if most traffic in London is commercial, then it must be necessary. And if any private traffic is going through Central London then they must have a bloody good reason for it. Or they are insane.
The approach instead has to be promoting cycling and walking by taking all those back streets and rat runs that were made one-way, single ended, traffic calmed, and otherwise ruined and turn them into shared space pedestrian and cyclist streets (with retractable bollards at the ends for emergency vehicles), providing cyclists with a car-free fast efficient network of high quality roads, whilst taking little or nothing away from the existing trunk routes. Indeed these could then be improved by removing the crappy little cycle lanes, to give a carrot to the drivers, (but also improve cycle safety given that they encourage nearsiding and nearly all cyclist deaths in London last year were caused by nearsiding trucks).
Of course there the whole motorcycle option which is always ignored in these discussions. If motorcycles could be treated with bicycles as the solution, rather than lumped with cars as part of the problem I think more progress could be made. Once more bike is one less car, engine or not.