Email: Speeding cyclists

Ross Lydall's story (Evening Standard, 15 April—page 26), about an architect's nutty proposal for an elevated bike path along part of the Regent's Canal, surely should have been published on April Fool's Day. While there is indeed a serious problem on the canal towpaths, where speeding cyclists having all but taken over from pedestrians, this madcap idea is not the answer.

The new chief executive of the Canal & River Trust, taking over soon from the current overpaid incumbent (Robin Evans was paid £248,000 in 2011/12) must address this towpath problem with alacrity. The introduction of a cycling speed limit on the towpath, 5mph perhaps, instead of 15 to 20 mph achieved by cyclists on the flat straights, and the installation of chicanes to force cyclists to slow down on the towpath, would be a start.

Towpaths are narrow, so cyclists really must give way to pedestrians; they must also respect the slow nature of the canal environment, where narrowboats are restricted to 4mph, little more than walking speed. Towpaths should be quiet leisure spaces, a haven in our busy, noisy, city and not treated as training tracks for cycle races.

Lester May