Dog walker pleads for understanding on canal towpaths after receiving death threat from ‘racing’ cyclist

years ago near Mile End Park in East London I stopped during a cycle commute on the canal path after coming across a women next to a bike screaming and spitting blood, and a man standing close to her. A pedestrian came from the park and we stood next to the man and then grabbed him, assuming he had assaulted her as she was screaming and there blood all over the place.

Then another pedestrian arrived who had been on the bridge above the canal path and had seen the entire thing.

He said she was going very fast, and came around the corner and ran into the man on the canal path.

He had raised his arms to protect himself, she rode into him and went over the bars, face first into the concrete path, knocking out a number of teeth. There were teeth among the blood on the path.

I never forgot her screaming, it was ear piercing. We both apologized to the poor man she had run into, I went and waited for the ambulance on the road bridge above.

I've rarely used the canal path for cycling since, there are too many people going too fast, and coming into conflict with pedestrians and slow moving cyclists.

It is worth pointing out (as with the Bristol story earlier in the week) that a lot of money under the Cycling Cities Ambition Scheme is going towards upgrading towpaths, ostensibly to make them better for cyclists.

Reason #23 I do not try and use multi-use pathways... Unpredictable dogs walking off leash, children who jump out in front of you with no time to slow down, joggers who have headphones on and can't hear anyone approaching, dogs who poop on paths and owners don't clean it up, excessive congestion, etc.

I quite honestly can't stand dogs on cycle paths/shared use paths, they are REALLY difficult to predict especially if they aren't on leads (they can be bad on a lead anyway).

This said, if I see a dog on a shared use path, I slow the heck down and thank the dog owner when they (usually) stop and hold their dogs. Bit of respect is all that's needed (and a smile and a thank you to other path/road users).

It's not particularly difficult to not be a total ass when cycling, patience and courtesy is all you need. If I want to go fast, I'll go on a decent road and match the traffic's speed (lol I wish).

As with all things where different types of users are involved, the slowest or least able should be deferred to. I am obviously not as clever as some postetsd as I can see nowhere does it say that the dog was running free or on a long lead.
Simpler fact. What many cyclists see as dawdling is seen as too fast by others.
Therefore the fastest gives way just like you hold the door for an old lady.

Regardless of fault, the suggestion that "I will find where you live and murder you and your entire family" does seem a bit of an extreme reaction to an emergency stop.

That said, there are three sides to this story - the dog walker's side, the cyclist's side and what actually happened.

Killing for a KOM

Perhaps this path has a Strava segment on it and that's why the cyclist was "racing", nearly all the local tracks and paths round my way have.

The roads are for vehicles in a hurry, canal paths are not. If you peg it along a canal path at speed while avoiding dogs, kids and prams etc, you deserve to end up in the drink.

Sharing works BOTH ways.Dogs off the lead or on the end of a long lead with the owner not giving a stuff is common on my commute.

I've had dog walkers verbally abuse me without provocation from me, even after I have slowed to almost a trackstand for their mutts. I suspect this whinger is one of those.

Yes I have a dog, it's not hard to keep Fido under control.

Dogs and bikes don't mix particularly well, but with a bit of consideration on both sides, we should be able to rub along reasonably well. Ideally, we'd have separate walking and cycling paths, but it'll take a while.

While I obviously don't espouse death threats, without confirmation that those actually took place I'm probably with the cyclist on this one. No matter at what speed you're riding, uncontrolled dogs can be insanely dangerous. I love (most) dogs and I'm not one to yell at the occasional careless pedestrian cutting across a bike path and forcing an emergency stop (maybe "look out" while I'm pulling on the brakes, if it can't be helped). I will slow down and shift to the inner ring if I begin to sense a toddler even faintly nearby. But I shouldn't risk crashing because your dog isn't smart enough not to look both ways before cutting across the path or it thinks that the click of my freehub is cue for it to start nipping at my heels. Dogs when on any kind of path should be kept on a short leash, IMHO.

This is a common problem on shared use paths. Some cyclists (I used to) believe that they have priority whereas pedestrians actually have priority even on the "wrong" side (if the path has pedestrian/cyclist sides marked).

Dogs are a particular problem and to be honest, I believe pedestrians should have more consideration for cyclists and keep their dogs under control. I personally think that "racing" cyclists should keep to the roads if they're going to be going more than 15mph and pedestrians should keep themselves (and dogs etc) to one side of the path to allow the path to be shared.

I hate those shared use paths - they just breed animosity.

On the one hand: don't be a dick when you're riding. On the other: keep your damn dogs on a short leash on or near shared paths.