Taking over the towpaths

I am having a real problem this summer and it is all down to lycra louts on the towpaths, writes Amy Dickerson.

In the past two weeks I have witnessed a small dog run over at Kinver, that was with a family with a small girl. Before you ask, the answer is that the cyclists did not stop.

Narrowly missed in tunnel

Whilst exiting Kinver Lock I got off my boat to go through the horse tunnel to close the bottom gates. A few seconds earlier and I would have been hospitalised as a speeding cyclist came through the narrow and low tunnel and narrowly missed me.

Yesterday at Stourport I asked a cyclist why they had to use the towpath? The answer was that it was a cycleway, not a towpath. On Sunday there were a great many people enjoying the spectacle of boats exiting and joining the Severn at Stourport. There were also too many cyclists unable to get off their bikes around these locks.

Macho ego

In the past week I have been threatened with being physically assaulted by two men on bikes. The first nearly ran over my dog and took exception to me telling him to give consideration to animals. He wanted my dog on a lead and wanted to attack me because I had challenged his macho ego.

Last night a speeding cyclist started throwing punches around my head without hitting me, attempting to intimidate and scare me, because I had dared to call him a 'speed freak' and questioned his parentage.

Bringing their agression

It used to be that you could sit outside your boat, engage in polite conversations with other boaters and towpath users, and even enjoy taking your dog for a walk along the towpath. Not any more. Being on the towpath means that you are at the mercy of these idiots who bring their aggression into our world.

Clearly BW are not going to do anything about it. After all they have a history of failing to protect boaters. We pay more than enough for the right to navigate.

Being a Trade Unionist who believes in direct action often being the best way to highlight a problem, it is about time that we took the matter into our own hands. We know who is the problem, and it is about time that we reclaimed the towpath by organising across the country, with publicity (using the media to highlight the problems).

Day of action

We should have at the least a Day of Action to Reclaim the Towpath and deny these lycra louts a passage alongside the waterways. Who better to organise it than narrowboatworld?

Amy Dickerson, Nb Black Bryony

[Sorry Amy, I have enough work already with the site! But would fully support any of the contributors (or anyone else) organising such action—there would certainly be backing from the parents with children using the Regents Canal who suffer greatly from the 'louts', having had days of action themselves.  Tom]