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@Oliver Schick
Conflict levels on the canal towpaths have gone up as a consequence of the huge increase in cycling. A lot of people who start out immediately assume that they can't ride on the streets and take to the canals. The best advice to them is to get cycle training. Unless they do, some will keep using walkers and other cyclists on the canal as an obstacle course and effectively treat them just like those few of the motorists whose actions they fear on the streets treat cyclists.
BW manage levels of conflict as best they can through the 'Two Tings' campaign. This includes the much-criticised advice that cyclists ping their bells twice to alert pedestrians to their presence, but a lot of pedestrians appreciate being given an audible warning. Ideally, the canal would be left as a pure leisure resource and no-one on there would ever be in a hurry, but unfortunately that's an 'ideal world' scenario, especially in London.