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Hostility towards cyclists on canal towpath


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32 minutes ago, Murflynn said:

 

yeah, exactly that - I can confirm by personal experience in 1962.

 

much better era in all ways.

Yes,it was when mini skirts were introduced and girls still wore stockings and suspenders.

????

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I was insulted by a cyclist for closing a lock gate, when I could see him coming 100 yards away, this meant he had to slow down to negotiate a route round the end of the balance beam. The lock was half empty by the time he got there.  There will always be one.

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15 hours ago, Tony Brooks said:

 

Agreed, those who should have done gave little or no thought to the consequences. However, when it all stated it seems there were not as many selfish people about.

But some of us can remember what towpaths were like when that is all that they were! You don't have to be all that old, in canal experience terms, either.

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My pet gripe is those who ride over water hoses, particularly on cinder towpaths. I've taken to using 3 footstools to raise the hose, and sit with a cup of tea whilst filling. 

Perhaps the most frightened I've been has been whilst using Bingley 5 Rise, where the steep well surfaced slope encourages speeds well in excess of safety.

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3 minutes ago, Ex Brummie said:

My pet gripe is those who ride over water hoses, particularly on cinder towpaths. I've taken to using 3 footstools to raise the hose, and sit with a cup of tea whilst filling. 

Perhaps the most frightened I've been has been whilst using Bingley 5 Rise, where the steep well surfaced slope encourages speeds well in excess of safety.

 

I have seen a cyclist leaving the ground as they sped down the Devises flight. No chance of avoiding a child or pet that did something unexpected. Like wise gangs of licra clad oafs head down arse up speeding along the towpath closer to Bath. I have been hit by a cyclist on the towpath in Reading and had the boat sprayed with mud while moored up because the unimproved towpath had a series of water and mud filled hollows and the cyclist would not slow down. However, none of that seem to be acceptable evidence to some on here.

 

Once again a lack of control of the digital media means what should be easy to do is made impossible.  There is that cycling app that encourages unsafe riding so you can beat yours and others times over a given route.  That must be evidence of speed in excess of a sensible safe limit for mixed traffic paths so would make prosecution easy if the app company were required to hold verified contact details and release them to the authorities.

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14 minutes ago, Ex Brummie said:

Perhaps the most frightened I've been has been whilst using Bingley 5 Rise, where the steep well surfaced slope encourages speeds well in excess of safety.

 

Most of them slow down when going up that hill ...

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6 hours ago, Ange said:

  Unfortunately it only took one arsehole to spoil my day. I could have 99 lovely customers and one arse hole, it's the latter that played on my mind and made me miserable.

It's just such a shame that it's the negative experiences that we remember.

 

Isn't that so true, even when boating

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2 hours ago, Ex Brummie said:

My pet gripe is those who ride over water hoses, particularly on cinder towpaths. I've taken to using 3 footstools to raise the hose, and sit with a cup of tea whilst filling. 

Perhaps the most frightened I've been has been whilst using Bingley 5 Rise, where the steep well surfaced slope encourages speeds well in excess of safety.

Not wise: if a cyclist (or a pedestrian) failed to spot your hose and as a result sustained significant injury, you could be held liable, especially if you were judged to have erected the trap deliberately. Remember that even if the injured party were considered a trespasser you have a duty of care.

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9 minutes ago, Victor Vectis said:

But ex-Brummie could argue that he erected the, so called, 'trap' both as a warning against a potential trip hazard and as a device to protect his property, ie water hose, against damage by other towpath users.

be a bit of an ask seeing as how it was admitted on here that it was deliberate!

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2 hours ago, Tony Brooks said:

 

I have seen a cyclist leaving the ground as they sped down the Devises flight. No chance of avoiding a child or pet that did something unexpected. Like wise gangs of licra clad oafs head down arse up speeding along the towpath closer to Bath. I have been hit by a cyclist on the towpath in Reading and had the boat sprayed with mud while moored up because the unimproved towpath had a series of water and mud filled hollows and the cyclist would not slow down. However, none of that seem to be acceptable evidence to some on here.

 

Once again a lack of control of the digital media means what should be easy to do is made impossible.  There is that cycling app that encourages unsafe riding so you can beat yours and others times over a given route.  That must be evidence of speed in excess of a sensible safe limit for mixed traffic paths so would make prosecution easy if the app company were required to hold verified contact details and release them to the authorities.

 

I haven't seen anybody claiming that a*sehole cyclists don't exist, they do -- as do a*sehole pedestrians, a*sehole boaters, they're there in all walks of life. Some people have had more problems than them with others, presumably depending on the local a*sehole population. If you've had lots of bad experiences with them, that doesn't mean that everybody else has, and vice versa. Presumably cyclists say the same about boaters and pedestrians...

 

From all the cyclist doom-mongering I keep hearing on CWDF I was expecting to be mowed down on a daily basis when I started doing regular towpath walks earlier this year, and was pleasantly surprised when it didn't happen, which is why I commented about it earlier. Perhaps all the a*seholes are somewhere other then West London, though that seems unlikely given all the people on here who think it's a sh*thole...

 

YMMV ?

Edited by IanD
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4 hours ago, Ex Brummie said:

My pet gripe is those who ride over water hoses, particularly on cinder towpaths. I've taken to using 3 footstools to raise the hose, and sit with a cup of tea whilst filling. 

Perhaps the most frightened I've been has been whilst using Bingley 5 Rise, where the steep well surfaced slope encourages speeds well in excess of safety.

 

in my youth on my BMX i’d have seen that as a bunny-hop challenge, no way my fat arse can hop the MTB that high now even with the suspension locked off ?

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6 hours ago, Detling said:

I was insulted by a cyclist for closing a lock gate, when I could see him coming 100 yards away, this meant he had to slow down to negotiate a route round the end of the balance beam. The lock was half empty by the time he got there.  There will always be one.

I've had this on the Farmers Bridge flight in Brum, very little towpath to use with the ongoing building work and the idiots came down the flight as though they were descending from the Stelvio Pass on the Giro d'Italia.

No, I'm not going to stop pulling the gate however many times one of you shouts.....

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Years ago I could have ended up in jail for all sorts of minor infringements (Well I thought so)  Now I am older and wiser but there is an even greater chance of being sentenced for a much more serious offence and that is stuffing a bicycle down the throat - or worse -  of a blasted cyclist.  Down here in the Ironbridge gorge there are all sorts of footpaths and the b***** cyclists tear along as if they own the place scattering walkers and dogs and sending quite reasonable people (like me) into the nettles. Apart from not having mudguards any more it seems  bikes no seems have brakes either. Grrrr

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3 minutes ago, Bee said:

Years ago I could have ended up in jail for all sorts of minor infringements (Well I thought so)  Now I am older and wiser but there is an even greater chance of being sentenced for a much more serious offence and that is stuffing a bicycle down the throat - or worse -  of a blasted cyclist.  Down here in the Ironbridge gorge there are all sorts of footpaths and the b***** cyclists tear along as if they own the place scattering walkers and dogs and sending quite reasonable people (like me) into the nettles. Apart from not having mudguards any more it seems  bikes no seems have brakes either. Grrrr

 

yes, you sound very reasonable :) 

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26 minutes ago, matty40s said:

I've had this on the Farmers Bridge flight in Brum, very little towpath to use with the ongoing building work and the idiots came down the flight as though they were descending from the Stelvio Pass on the Giro d'Italia.

No, I'm not going to stop pulling the gate however many times one of you shouts.....

You mean while all the signs were there to tell them not to cycle down there.

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I've had this on the Farmers Bridge flight in Brum, very little towpath to use with the ongoing building work and the idiots came down the flight as though they were descending from the Stelvio Pass on the Giro d'Italia.

No, I'm not going to stop pulling the gate however many times one of you shouts....

 

 

There are those that cycle responsibly and them that do not

 

Them that do not, are those that need to be selected in some way and reprimanded or punished. 

 

Simples 

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A couple of choice phrases. 

"How much did you pay for that bike and you didn't get a bell?" 

"Won't your Mum let you ride on the road now she's taken your stabilisers off?" - more for ordinary footpaths! 

"They've invented a cordless bell, just shout ding ding." 

 

A walking pole held horizontally under the arm sticking out backwards is a good deterrent, as is a windlass being twirled on the side the cyclist might pass. 

 

I slow down usually, though if the width allows, passing a jogger or solo walker I might call, "Bike coming by on your right, keep going" (then I pass on the left to scare them?). I have rather shrill horn wired to the ebike battery and still have the little ting a ling too. 

 

 

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