Published: Sunday, 15 February 2015

THERE was a somewhat heated discussion at the Press Briefing at Hatton on Friday, when I attempted to get Canal & River Trust Chief Executive, Richard Parry to agree to take action against the cyclists using the Kennet & Avon Canal towpath for time trials. (Racing on towpaths at 'average' of 19mph.)

It was however in vain. For though I pointed out that there had been over 1,000 attempts at gaining a maximum speed along the eight miles of towpath between Bathampton and Bath, with the result of 542 cyclists uploading their speeds onto the Strava website, and that it was obviously dangerous for walkers, upon asking what the Trust would do about it, all I had in return was 'we will educate them'.

I pointed out that that was not enough, for the cyclists are obviously in competition with each other to get the maximum speed, so they will become more and more reckless to achieve it, with a very real danger of a walker on the towpath getting killed.

Upon which Richard held out the new publication brought out to encourage visitors to the canals, in the shape of four A4 sheets entitled Better Towpaths for Everyone, and pointed to the various signs Thank you for slowing down and Pedestrian priority, telling me that it was all a matter of educating the people who use the towpaths.

I attempted to explain to him how the Strava system worked, with the cyclists being able to download a App on to their smart phones or GPS systems whereas it registers the start and finish of the time trial, calculates the results then uploads the speed on to the website where it can be compared with the speeds of others. And there is the problem—it encourages competition.

Already an average of 19mph had been officially recorded of a time trial on the Kennet & Avon Canal towpath, I explained, which of course means spurts would take the speed much higher, to which Richard told me that along a long straight stretch of towpath with no anglers or walkers, cyclists could go fast. To this I asked what would happen if a dog walker suddenly came out of the hedge in front of the speeding cyclist, to which he admitted 'there is that'.

I stated that the many followers of the Strava system would soon realise the advantages of the traffic free upgraded towpath, especially as one of them had been hit by a car and killed in Hyde Park in London last week attempting to increase his speed, and that the Kennet & Avon Canal time trial was sure to be the first of many, and asked again, what was the Trust going to stop them?

He told again that it was a matter of educating the various towpath users, and signs would be erected. Asking me my opinion I stated that surely a bye-law could be implemented whereas a speed limit and subsequent fines would quickly solve the problem. Its many enforcement officers could easily have their technology upgraded to record speeds.

Personally, I believe the Trust do not want to admit that cyclists are racing along the towpaths and so are dangerous—as they most certainly are—for if it becomes widely known that there are likely to be racing cyclists taking part in time trials along the canals, it will quickly discourage those most important people—visitors.

Tom Crossley