A Guardian journalist has called for “menace” cyclists to be banned from canal towpaths at rush hours, saying they are unsustainable as commuting routes due to speeding riders and narrow paths making them unsuitable for sharing with people on foot.
Mark Townsend, the newspaper’s home affairs editor, admits “racing” along towpaths and “swerving past mothers with prams or cutting up small dogs” in his haste to get to work, saying his “desire to reach the office on time was patently causing misery to others.”
He switched to a longer route by road, which “was profoundly more dangerous, but felt liberating.”
Townsend admits many cyclists ride on towpaths because of the lack of safe infrastructure elsewhere, but insists that “canals, particularly in rush hour, have become the domain of bicycles, the trucks of the towpath.”
He continues: “These waterways should be calm spaces where people seek solace. In our cities, their value is obvious as green spaces, linear escapes from the stresses of urban life,” rather than routes for fast-moving commuters.
He adds that codes of conduct are ignored by many, and is calling for a rush-hour ban on cyclists, with transgressors fined – and that money going towards investing in cycling infrastructure.
What do you think? Should all cyclists be banned from towpaths at certain times because of the actions of some riders? Or should other ways be found that can help reduce conflict on the towpath? Let us know in the comments below.
Was gutted when I heard this news. Met him a couple of times over the years. Great fella.
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