Fairweather wrote:I've long since avoided shared cycle paths as the results have never been enjoyable. Why oh why can't people keep their dogs on a leash?
The ‘unleashed dogs on a path’ thing is really irritating. By all means let them run around unleashed in the parks, but leaving them to run around on a path is monumentally stupid. I have a very loud ‘Hornit’ on my bikes. That does get any errant dogs away from me, but it’s not ideal to have a dog suddenly decide it’s going to start attacking you as you’re cycling along a cycle path / shared path. Before I had the Hornit, I had instances where a dog which was aggressively approaching me ( some dogs really seem to dislike cyclists ) and I’ve shouted “NO” and they’ve backed off, sometimes it doesn’t work, and a quick flick of the foot towards them is required. But it’s easily avoidable if the owners weren’t so thick. On the other hand I had an instance on my commute home last night, where I caught some movement from the corner of my eye, and it was a dog, with a flashing coloured light on its collar, that seemed to want to play, which is fine, but not whilst I’m negotiating a narrow path, by a river .