I love to run along the banks of the canal and not only for the athletic satisfactions. The sociology is pretty good too: the rich array of human life, all those mid-rise new build flats packed with young professionals. And then there's the odd, enlightening culture clash.
The other day as I gasped my way past the filter beds on returning from the Olympic Stadium, I encountered a woman walking towards me on the towpath accompanied by a pair of fairly skittish little dogs. At the same time I heard from behind me the high-pitched buzz of a fast-approaching cyclist.
I met the familiar challenge of keeping going while simultaneously observing safety-related towpath etiquette by moving to one side to let the cyclist pass, judging that he would complete his overtake in time for me to then loop around the woman and her dogs without chopping my stride.
The first bit went ok. The cyclist - bearded, quite young, yellow reflective jacket - came comfortably past me on the right. But just before he reached the woman, one of her dogs veered suddenly to its left, sniffing the ground with great excitement and quite oblivious to the cyclist.
The cyclist slammed on his brakes just in time to avoid colliding with the dog's nose. The woman, protective and alarmed, said: "The towpath isn't just for bikes!" The cyclist, who'd ridden on, overheard this, stopped, and retorted crossly over his shoulder: "Put it on a lead or keep it at home."
I kept running, but also began thinking about where my sympathies lay. Initially, they were with the cyclist - the dog's movement was sudden, he hadn't been going all that fast and yet the speed with which he'd needed to brake might have sent him over his handlebars. Also, I felt a touch of solidarity with him - unpredictable canines can get under the feet of weary runners.
But later I felt more sorry for the woman. Maybe the cyclist was going a bit too fast and, given that I, the woman and the dogs were in his path, maybe he should have slowed right down both in deference to our greater vulnerability and in anticipation of the potential unpredictability of the situation.
Cycling is a good thing and more should be done to make roads more hospitable for it. But this particular cyclist did have about him something of that affronted sense of entitlement found too frequently among cyclists who share space with pedestrians. And among motorists.
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