Get 'em while they're young: not working for cyclists?

Earlier today something prompted me to think about a marketing mantra that many companies use: "Get 'em while they're young"

It's like that line about, "Give me a child for the first seven years..." thing: Basically - young children are easy to mould and indoctrinate - they learn fast and most of what is learnt at this age tends to stick - both the good and the bad.

Why do you think MacDonalds (and many other fast/junk food pushers) are so keen to lure kids with 'happy' meals, cartoons and bright colours on the packaging? The logic is probably that if you get a customer at an early age they will stay with your brand for life.

So that got me thinking about bikes. Sure, video games and the internet will be cutting more and more into traditional toys and passtimes, but wouldn't anyone currently in their teens and older have been brought up on more traditional staples of childhood entertainment? And what house with a child doesn't have a bike there somewhere? Kids bikes are plentiful in department and toy stores so surely they are a popular as ever?

If this really is the case, and if the majority of people will have had, and no doubt enjoyed a bike as a child one has to wonder:

Q: Why is it that here in Sydney, drivers in particular, and the population in general are so anti-bike and anti-cyclist?

Is this one case of "Get 'em while they're young" that has failed? It would seem so but I'm at a loss as to why - can anyone enlighten us?