Police Insist Bristol-Bath Cyclepath is Safe

[madhattie]

From the Bristol Evening Post: http://tinyurl.com/92jpr

SADDLE UP WITH SAFETY

11:00 - 12 August 2005

Police have insisted the cycle path between Bristol and Bath is still safe, despite reports of attacks. They have been concerned by recent warnings on television news, which said cyclists on the route have been the victims of attacks, and have described the warnings as "scaremongering".

They maintain the 17-mile pathway between the two cities is statistically one of the safest in the region and that they even use it to travel to their own beats.

The Bristol to Bath cyclepath starts at St Phillips Road, between Old Market and the Lawrence Hill roundabout, and ends at Locksbrook Road in Bath.

The reassurances come after a cyclist from south Gloucestershire was injured by a fishing wire stretched across the path last September.

Placed at neck height, the wire, at North Common, between Victoria Road and Poplar Road near the edge of Bitton, cut into Danny Colyer's flesh and left a red scar across his throat.

Bath cyclist Stuart Curtis said he was attacked from a bridge on the cycleway: "I saw a shopping trolley come flying down off the bridge. It just missed me by a few metres.

"I've come to expect it. Something always happens here - perhaps not a shopping trolley but maybe stones thrown at me."

Inspector Bruce Turball, of South Gloucestershire police, said there was a danger that concerns about safety on the route, which were featured on television this week, could be blown out of all proportion.

He said: "We are averaging about one report a week.

"Most of these involve nuisance behaviour such as mopeds going down the road. Very few involve actual assault."

He added that it was true the police were patrolling the route but that this was simply routine. He said: "Don't pay any attention to scaremongering, because statistically it's a very safe route."

Gavin Cohen works in sales at Avon Valley Cyclery, based at Bath Spa railway station, and uses the route from Bitton to Bath every day.

He said: "I've never had anything happen to me or seen anything happen to anyone else.

"I have heard a few horror stories but those are more down towards the Bristol area.

"I haven't personally been affected by anything and there's another guy who works here and he's never mentioned anything to me either."

[James]