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news
Basingstoke Canal (picture credit Faeden 1)Cyclists on Basingstoke Canal told that pedestrians have priority after physical and verbal "clashes"
Cyclists using the Basingstoke Canal in Surrey and Hampshire are being reminded that pedestrians have priority on the towpath, with a code of conduct being drawn up for users to reinforce the point.
The move follows reports of both verbal and physical “clashes” between towpath users on the 32-mile waterway with the area around Woking said to be “particularly problematic,” reports Get Surrey.
Completed in 1794 the canal, which nowadays runs from the Wey Navigation which connects it to the Thames to Greywell some five miles short of the original destination from which it takes its name, has been jointly owned by Surrey County Council and Hampshire County Council.
The volunteer-run Basingstoke Canal Society acts as its “guardians” and since being established half a century ago has led efforts to restore the canal, enabling boats to navigate it, and to restore it to public ownership.
The Basingstoke Canal Joint Management Committee is now working on a code of conduct which will include cyclists being requested to slow down, to give right of way to pedestrians and to dismount at narrow points on the towpath and in particular near bridges.
One of the committee members, Councillor Kevin Davies, said that Woking – the town whose council he sits on – “is the area where we have considerable issues. I think the policy is a good thing and welcome it.”
He acknowledged the value of the towpath to cyclists in enabling them to void busy roads, but added: “Since the route became officially known as cycle paths on maps, cyclists think they are the number one. We need signs that simply say ‘cyclists you do not have priority’.”
Signage telling them that will be erected under the policy, which has been drafted by the canal’s strategic manager James Taylor, who in a report submitted to the committee wrote: “Cycling is a very popular way to commute and these towns all have good access from the canal to local train stations at Woking, West Byfleet, Fleet and Ash Vale.
“The towpath is now at times crowded with many different types of user, and there is inevitably some clashes, physically and verbally. This issue is not unusual to the Basingstoke Canal, and similar issues are seen on many canals throughout Great Britain.”
In 2015 The Canal & River Trust, which is responsible for 2,000 miles of waterways throughout England and Wales, introduced its Better Towpaths For Everyone policy which asks cyclists to “Drop Your Pace” and to give priority to pedestrians.
That same year, we took a detailed look at the problem of cyclists riding at excessive speeds on canal towpaths as they sought to set Strava KOMs.
> Strava users told to cut speed on canal towpaths – "They're hardly the Alpe d’Huez"
Earlier this month, the Basingstoke Canal Society said it was “extremely disappointed” that Surrey and Hampshire County Councils had decided against a proposed transfer of the waterway to the Canal & River Trust.
The society added that it believed “the transfer would offer the most attractive option to secure the long-term future of the canal by integrating it more fully into the national waterways network.”
Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.
Latest Comments
- chrisonabike 1 sec ago
To be fair drivers "expect" to deal with traffic in one direction, then another....
- ktache 29 min 26 sec ago
Is the answer crisps?
- Homebaker 32 min 56 sec ago
Oh you can't block roads, what if I need to drive my elderly aunt to the emergency hospital, and even though there are better routes, I want to go...
- chrisonabike 2 hours 2 sec ago
Tier scooters - When visiting Keynsham I found several apparently dumped (not all at once - could have been the same ones? )...
- mdavidford 2 hours 4 min ago
The answer to this is to have no friends.
- Backladder 3 hours 58 min ago
While original sash windows are nice they make it very hard to keep the house warm, we eventually went for upvc double glazed sash window...
- Andrewbanshee 5 hours 21 min ago
As you said the pedals will be hidden anyway. My shoes, 3 pairs of them, have reflective strips on the heel and my winter trousers do too on the...
- Steve K 5 hours 22 min ago
Other drivers only care about disabled people when it gives them a way to object to cycling infrastructure.
- mark1a 13 hours 25 min ago
I'll put you down as a no then.
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47 comments
ktache - Oddly I know exactly who you are as I often join at the bridge you are drinking your tea at.. many of the walkers and dogs I see regularly and make the same tired jokes too. The sort of tabloid view of angry fights being a regualr occurence is massively at odds with the sense of community I feel on this journey. I've often stopped and chatted to the canal authority workers and thanked them for maintaining the valuable resource we are allowed to use. Large stretches are deserted and there are just herons and kingfishers ... a sense of tranquility to start my day.
Many of the walkers stand to the side to let me through and reply with "youre welcome" when I thank them.
SoBinary, I found the very long, dry summer to be wonderful, I can look around a bit more when I don't have to concentrate on staying upright in some of the muddy bits. Still not as bad yet as the long and wet last year's winter. The wildlife has been interesting and the colours of this fine autumn were spectacular. I like to stop at the lock, after the deepcut bridge, where there is the cottage with the little dry dock, where the trees grow through the fence, and finish my flask of tea, Elite Deboyo, a great purchase. I like to imagine they put the picknic tables out just for me last summer.
I cycle this towpath regularly to work between Frimley and Wey Navigation through Woking. I do the 24Km in about an hour including slowing down for pedestrians. In several 100's of journeys I must have had negative comments from pedestrians less than a handfull of times, have never come remotely closte to hitting anyone so I'm not sure what this is about. I say "on your left/right" followed by "thank you" to everyone I meet with many a "good morning" or cheery comment thrown in. Often I chat with people or pet dogs I take a fancy to.
The only issues Ive ever had have been with people who I suspect if I had walked past them pushing the bike would have been arsey. My biggest fear is people wearing headphones and behaving unpredictably.
This story simply does not chime with my experience.
I noticed today that NCN 221 runs along the Basingstoke Canal from the Pirbright bridge to the River Wey.
Of course that's the nice bit, I leave the canal there on my commute.
Its still a shared use path, so pedestrians still have priority.
.
Shared footpaths are just ride with caution, be able to avoid collisions (including not getting too close to or going past too fast) stop without colliding if someone moves in front, whether that’s 5mph or 15mph depends entirely on the situation. Should be up to the cyclist to decide, if they hit someone or damage property then they should be prosecuted, sued or fined as appropriate with more severe penalties if intent or negligence is proven.
If this kind of path were extremely busy it’d probably be easier to just get off and walk for a bit, chose an alternative route or choose a quieter time if a faster journey is needed.
As for not annoying pedestrians, it’s just about being perceived as being safe and considerate. If anyone can’t do that for whatever reason just steer clear of shared paths.....
In Summer, i am occasionnally using a canal path that can get very busy going from Stretford to Altrincham. I am always astonished at the speed of some cyclists going around pedestrians, plus at pedestrians letting their dogs run loose and usually out of control on an extremely busy shared path. There must be the occasional colision?
I only take it when i am not in a hurry or need a recovery ride as I consider the busy roads I take instead as being safer than that canal path.
It 'works' during rush hour, as it becomes a bit of a cycle highway. Not saying that's right, because peds tend to keep to the side and I hardly ever see dog walkers, and you've got to have your wits about you, but it's what it's become and it's sort of self-policing (rarely see hassle). Don't think I'd appreciate the way it is if I was a local ped...
The geese at Stretford marina are gloriously ignorant of any path etiquette though. Their shitting everywhere, wandering all over the path and generally giving it Billy TenMen, especially when there are nippers around in summer, keeps things real round there. Wouldn't fancy walking through the middle of them. Way scarier than the local scallies.
The Stretford geese are probably the most vicious gang in Manchester. Was attacked by one of them once, barely escaped with my
lifeankles. By comparison, Squirrel "Nutter" Nutkins and his mob of furry tree rats that hang around the towpath near Walton Park are model (railway?) citizens.That's what they want you to think. It's similar to the returns on parachutes - you don't hear about the people attacked by squirrels.
2358584606_91eb993c90_z.jpg
This is just a storm in a teacup.
Although there's been "verbal clashes", how many KSIs are rported on towpaths (or this one specifically)? Let's sort out the ridiculous number of preventable KSIs on the roads first and then we can worry about some pedestrian's dog almost causing an incident with a cyclist or some cyclist going "too fast" for a pedestrian's liking.
This is pointless.
The problem is, and always has been, that "Pedestrians have priority" is too coarse a solution to the problem. What is actually required is a finer code of conduct determining exactly how cyclists and pedestrians should interact in shared spaces.
On the cyclists' side, such a code should govern:
- Maximum speed when pedestrians are in a certain range (because there's no point being restricted when there's no one about, even on a shared use path)
- Speed at which pedestrians are passed
- Room given by cyclists when passing, similar to car close passing
- Notice given, through bell or voice, when passing or approaching a pass
On the pedestrians' side, such a code should govern:
- Allowance of space to pass from pedestrians moving in the same direction of travel as cyclists. Groups of pedestrians moving in your direction of travel, fully blocking the towpath, aren't obligated to move because they have priority, which is just a window for people with a bone to pick to be cantankerous and is not acceptable. The vast majority of people do move, however.
- Dog control - both extendable leads taking up all of the room and dogs off leads can be problems.
- Usage of headphones in narrow areas.
Pedestrians should absolutely receive priority in narrow contested zones, but the absolute of "pedestrians have priority" without any finer consideration creates two classes and it just can't work when the second class users move a lot faster than the first class ones do. There's little point having shared use spaces if "pedestrians have priority" causes constant obstructions that reduce your speed further compared to motorized transport.
Why am I posting here instead of contacting the authorities that manage shared use spaces? Well, I recall hand-wringing from them over the issue of people wearing headphones blocking narrow spaces, so I doubt there's much point...
I agree that cyclists should take care around pedestrians when using shared use facilities.
But the elephant in the room is why the cyclists are using this route anyway - I hate cycling on canal paths as they are narrow and, as others have said, often busy with dog walkers and their god-awful extending leads. Fine if I'm pootling and don't mind stopping every few yards but a PITA if I'm actually trying to get somewhere.
I'm guessing the answer is that cyclists are using the canal path because the alternatives are less appealing - probably busy roads with no facilities for cyclists. Build decent facilities for cyclists and the number using the canal path would drop massively.
It's hardly an elephant is it? A canal towpath is a pleasant and flat environment for pootling along.
On the flip side, when I cycled from Fleet to Guildford, I didn't use the canal from Fleet to Ash/Ash Vale because I was fairly rattling along on a road bike.
Behave to your environment and accept you will come across people / dogs. They have every right to be there (off lead if they so choose)...
Don't tell me I'm alone in slowing right down or stopping if I come across dog walkers? No wonder I get some death stares on my bike...
I cycle on the canal. Others do cycle too fast.
I always slow when passing people, especially slow when it involves dogs.
I then thank them and say good morning/afternoon/evening.
It doesn't take much to build that relationship - we all have to take responsibility for our image. Too many people (on here especially), assume the upper hand.
Cheers,
You must have some sort of super fat bike (with ginormous diameter tyres!).
There are signs along the riverside path which I often use simpy calling for respect. Unfortunately, far from respecting others, on every occasion there are people seemingly totally oblivious to everyone except themselves. I would have thought the minimum amount of respect required from a small group of pedestrians would be to leave a little space for cyclists or runners to pass. It probably wouldn't kill them even to glance over their shoulders occasionally - I know I do if I'm out for a family stroll.
Very frustrating if you're going for a KOM!!
What part of the advice that Strava should not be used on shared use paths don't you understand?
It goes straight from reports of clashes, to reminding cyclists that pedestrians have priority - suggesting that the people riding bikes were at fault for these incidents. That may not be the case.
I always make every effort to be considerate on my local shared use path, but a few people hate you for being there on a bike, and are determined to have a go.
'Cyclists dismount' signs are the solution to absolutely nothing at all. If you're designing a cycle route, and you feel you need one, you've failed.
Yes, it was very short sighted that in 1790s they designed the bridges & locks with no thought for you!
I used to cycle along the canal, and for some stretches it was possible to speed along at ~20mph, BUT on other bits 10mph or less was appropriate; slowing down for pedestrians when needed. Kind of like how we expect motorists to treat cyclists on the roads.
Luckily for us, the towpath was designed for the heavy horses that accompanied the barges, thus leaving a legacy of an almost perfect* cycle path. Horses didn't dismount and were larger than cyclists on a bicycles. What were the pedestrians doing in the 1790s?
*so narrow and single sided under bridges that I wonder about towpath etiquette back then.
They were using the
roadsrest of the shared-use, integrated transport system.I don't think you've understood my comment.
It's a step along the road to banning them altogether
Cyclists go too fast!
- ah we put up signs saying slow down, pedestrians have priority
Cyclists still don't give way!
- ah we'll ask them to dismount (ignoring the fact that a rider pushing a bike is twice as wide as a rider actually riding a bike and therefore more difficult to pass on a narrow towpath...)
Cyclists haven't dismounted!
- oh sod it, we'll just ban them.
Completed in 1794 the canal, which nowadays runs from the Wey Navigation which connects it to the Thames to Greywell some five miles short of the original destination from which it takes its name, has been jointly owned by Surrey County Council and Hampshire County Council.
Does it bring to mind the sonnets of Shakespeare?
Reading this article reminded me of this video I saw a while back:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U5fhZvH6RW0
Sound familiar?
How wide is the towpath? On the one hand, the committee accepts that their towpath is a valuable commuting route for cyclists, to get them off dangerous and busy local roads, but on the other hand they want them to stop and dismount (which I feel rather reduces the facility of the- er- facility).
After many years of riding on 'shared' paths, my conclusion now is that mixing different users does not work.
Walkers (loose dogs) vs cyclists is an accident waiting to happen.
Segregating & enforcement is the only way forward.
Part of the problem is that pedestrians and cyclists have been driven off the roads by increased and more dangerous motor vehicles, thus overwhelming the very few places they can ride and walk without being mown down by distracted or callous drivers.
Make the roads safe for them and they wouldn't have to fight quite so hard over the tiny remainder.
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