Bike collision on canal path

On the segments of the canals in london, this is true, its very very busy, narrow and the people that do use it are generally oblivious to everything else.

In other parts of the country, they do make for brilliant, quick, traffic (vehicle & ped) free routes to work :p And the odd people you do come upon are generally friendly as hell or at least acknowledge your presence etc etc.
The only real hazards are of the steaming pile variety.

+1 to this - In Birmingham I run + cycle along the canals and can go for miles without seeing another soul, pretty rough in places so only for the MTB tho