Its head in the sand

WITH Canal & River Trust firmly having its head in the sand over the problem of the dangerous cyclist time-trials on its upgraded towpaths, believing instead in 'education', here are a few of your opinions on the matter.

Sued for negligence?

Rob Dennis asks that as CaRT are aware of these time-trials on their towpaths, and a person, dog or cat stepping off the boat or just walking was to get hurt, could they be sued for negligence?

Or every time we moor up, do we take things off the roof for cleaning (like the barge pole) and accidentally lay them across the towpath?

Help of anglers

Linda Andrews suggests we should encourage more fishermen with their massive roach poles blocking the towpath, that would slow the cyclists up.

Staggered barriers

Richard Attwood believes surely the way to slow down cyclists is to install staggered barriers at regular intervals along the towpath.

Perform 'double-bend'

Ray Smith is also in favour of slowing the cyclists down and asks has no-one thought of installing staggered fencing at frequent intervals on such towpaths, to force cyclists into slowing down to walking pace to perform the 'double bend' manoeuvre necessary to pass through these ?

They could be positioned in such a way that passing through on foot would not be a problem—or is this too simplistic and/or, perish the thought, too costly for CaRT to agree to ?

Bombard Strava

Richard Emsley believes that Strava have a policy to delete all point to point entries that are deemed inappropriate. I would therefore suggest that all people inconvenienced by speeding cyclists on the towpath bombard Strava with emails saying how dangerous cycling on the towpaths has become.

Have the evidence

Martin Cox suggests that CaRT, as the landowners, could insist that any improvement includes the cost of installing simple chicanes at regular intervals, after all the speedy cyclists have already provided the evidence on 'that' web site!

Has the power

Jim Cracken is adamant that CaRT has the power to catch the time-trial cyclists and prosecute for their danger to towpath users, which can be backed up by the entries of their speeds on the Strava website.

Think about the danger

Helen Cripps believes that CaRT should stop its insistence in trying to get more visitors to its towpaths but instead think about the danger to those visitors by the fast cyclists racing along in time-trials and stop them as we all know that educating them is a non-starter.

In addition

The above comments are of course in addition to the many other concerns published in narrowboatworld of the dangers of time-trials on the narrow towpaths, with the editor plainly explaining to the Canal & River Trust Chief Executive, Richard Parry, at the Hatton Press Briefing of this danger to the public using its towpaths, with his answer that 'we will educate them'.

But as others have pointed out, a cyclist intent upon attempting to beat his own personal best speed, and particularly that of his competitors, will have absolutely no regard whatsoever to being educated.

We are now all aware that it is not just a couple of frenzied cyclists trying to better each other by going faster and faster, but as Strava shows, over 1,000 attempts on single stretches of towpath.

The Trust should quickly get its head out of the sand and do something about it—and realise its quest for visitors to its towpaths is of little consequence when compared to the dangers these 'flat-out' speeding cyclists present.