for the cylists among us

[mr rusty]

I had a mental image of a towpath like my local one alongsdide the Stort navigation, very narrow, muddy, and full of holes where if you put a foot, let alone a wheel, wrong at anything above jogging pace you're in the water, I though how can they be

coming at you four or five abreast as fast as they can pedal and swearing when you don't step aside.

until I read that link and then did a google image search on 'banbridge tow path' and what it comes up with is the Newry canal towpath, it's tarmaced, you could drive a car along it, it's virtually a road!.....and it's also part of the national cycling network........ None of which excuses bad behaviour by anyone- cyclists, walkers, dog people, whoever, but there looks to be room for all to enjoy it, It's certainly not like any towpath that I know, if only all towpaths were like that!

[Martin Evans]

Time trials are races against the clock, where riders start at one minute intervals, so you won't see bunches of them together. All competitive events, run on public roads, have to be organised with Police approval and time trials are not organised where there are traffic lights. Our club 10 course was abandoned when traffic lights were installed on the road we used.


You certainly won't find races on tow paths;

Not official ones, however: http://banbridgecc.proboards.com/index. ... 848&page=2
They refer to them as 'leisure runs' but appear to have to swerve a lot to avoid walkers or dogs.
As with any hobby, it's the irresponsible idiots who let the side down.

This doesn't sound like a race to me (Perhaps a fantasy one) and certainly not a time trial. Doesn't sound like the sort of club I would want to belong to either (A bit immature if you ask me; the kind of thing I would expect to read if "Top Gear" took to cycling ).

[TriumphDriver]

To be honest they're probably not the worst - the problem is that the tow path is about six feet wide and completely tarmaced, but half is supposed to be a cycle path and the other half for pedestrians. Pedestrians use both sides of the path as do dog walkers, but the cyclists have a tendency to travel much too fast, so it's the old 'irresistible force meeting immovable object' scenario. There's also a section where the main road bisects the path and everyone - cyclists, pedestrians, dogs, kids and all - just cross the road in front of oncoming traffic.
Having cycled recently through Gleneagles in Scotland I've developed a respect for cyclists... but a banana may have helped somewhat in improving the experience.

[mr rusty]

It's the same problem eveerywhere- in harlow we have a really good network of cycle tracks, when they built the new town they left the old country lanes in place which are now cycle tracks, and we have them alongside the main roads as well, not painted line jobs but properly segregated by a green verge.

There's one runs behind my house, I can be in the town centre a lot quicker by nipping straight out onto the cycle path than I can by getting in the car.

The trouble is, although there's a pedestrian raised sidewalk along most of the tracks, half asleep pedestrians tend to think cyclists are only going to be going marginally faster than they are and they just bumble about all over the place, the dog people being the worst- there are a sizeable minority of folk who think these are dog exercise tracks and let their pooches off the lead to the detriment of everyone else, pedestrians and cyclists alike.

Any reasonably fit cyclist is going to be going 15-20 mph on these tracks,that's what they're for, but you have to be switched on all the time. If I see someone who're obviously in a trance letting their unleashed dog run all over the place I just slow right down and let them know I'm there...it's a pain but something you just have to do. I could just be ignorant and boot the dog out of the way but it's hardly civilised, is it?

Likewise the responsible dog people will have their eyes open and be aware that other people may be on the track will keep their dogs on leads and will reel them in- it's the stupid and irresponsible on all sides who create conflict in these circumstances.