CaRT's response to Strava cyclists

THE Canal & River Trust has responded to the dangers of Strava cyclists (Racing on towpaths at 'average' of 19mph) and as promised are 'educating them' to cut their speeds on the London canal towpaths.

The Trust has achieved this by painting 'Drop your pace' signs on the towpath, in an attempt to stop cyclists using the towpaths to register faster and faster speeds as they attempt to better those achieved by other cyclists using the Strava system, Alan Tilbury tells us.

Used on canal towpaths

This system uses GPS tracking and records such time-trial speeds on its website, and is now used on many of the country's canal towpaths, with average speeds of 20mph often being achieved, meaning that much faster speeds must be reached to gain such an average.

With Easter upon us it is thought that many cyclists will be out attempting to better their speeds on the towpaths, and will be a real danger to other towpath uses. At a Press meeting the editor of narrowboatworld accosted CaRT's Chief Executive, Richard Parry, asking what steps he was going to take to stop this dangerous practice, but all he would promise was that 'we will educate them'.

Have little effect

The painted notice is obviously part of the education, but a cyclist attempting to better his speed, and often more importantly that of his fellow competitors, will have little effect. Only an official speed limit, rigorously enforced, will do that.

Dirk Vincent, a Trust's towpath ranger, told road.cc:

"London's towpaths are a great way for cyclists to get around but they're not suitable for racing or time-trials.

"These paths, full of really interesting historical features and rich in wildlife, are increasingly popular with other cyclists, walkers, joggers, boaters and families just feeding the ducks so it's fairly obvious that trying to be a Strava ‘King of the Mountain' on a towpath is pretty dangerous."

Even Sustrans, that is responsible for so many canal towpaths being turned into fast cycle tracks, is against them being used for time-trials, recognising the danger, stating that it does not condone competitive time-trials using the Strava app.

Quoted narrowboatworld

The website road.cc quoted narrowboatworld where we highlighted that 1,000 attempts by in excess of 500 cyclists on an eight-mile Strava segment on the 'Bradford & Avon Canal in Somerset'. It also quoted our Ralph Freeman stating that the average speed of 19mph will result  that during the speed over the segment, the rider in question will have exceeded that at times.

Adding Ralph's comment that these virtual time trials would explain why some of the Lycra brigade will not slow down for anything and just bawl at other towpath users to 'get out of the way'.

We must all realise that there are going to be more accidents with cyclists, and little doubt that eventually someone will be killed—and then what will happen? Will CaRT come to its senses—too late?