Headphones while commuting?
Do you listen to tunes while you ride on city streets?
only in my right ear…
I do but I use crappy apple earbuds for riding. I can hear the music and all the traffic noise.
im also using some apple headphones…my left one got pulled off by a branch , i often only ran one ear anyways. i find running the right lets me hear traffic noise passing on my left a bit better. my commute is only 4.6 k but its down the 101..
depends on the road sitch , but typically just right side in . . . apple ear buds .
Like Fast Orange … earbuds … I can still hear the sound of cars above the music and wind. The day everyone driving goes electric, I'd be f*cked.
Right side in on a set of etymotic buds, but I don't commute
Why slag free swag?:rolleyes:
ummm, as your doctor i recommend against riding with a scaphoid fracture.
Never, ever, ever.
Earbuds throw off your equilibrium, and in the era of near-silent hybrids, you can't just be listening for engine noise, you need to be listening for tire noise as well.
The external speaker on my phone is good enough to be heard from its holster on my bag while I'm riding, and it doesn't mess with being able to pick danger signs out of ambient traffic noise.
I ride to get away from noise/people/chatter, why on earth would I feel the need to headbang while riding. I never understood this myself.
"The song of a bird…We used to ask Ennesson to do bird calls. He could do them. How he could do them, and when he perished, along with him went all those birds…"-Return from the Stars, Stanislaw Lem
"We just walk around, and sometimes we go out and dance, and then we listen to the environment."-Ralf Hutter, Kraftwerk
Off road I do wear Bose ear buds but not on road. The wind noise requires too much volume for one and I have a song in my brain most of the time anyway. In Vancouver though I want my ears working fully on traffic sounds and such. I do ride along Spanish Banks through Locarno and along a short section of 4th Ave and Highbury but I am going slow and cooling down there and traffic is usually light. I see folks riding over Burrard Bridge wearing buds paying no attention to anything. Then they get all bent out of shape when you pass them without a warning that could actually hear. Some of those people are a hazard at the best of times.
Debate? Bikes are made for riding not pushing.
I commute with a set of bluetooth ear bud headphones, my commute in the am is straight down Lonsdale, afternoons climb up St. Andrews.
Also most solo mtb rides I usually ride with them in. I like riding to music.
I keep very aware of the cars around with lots of shoulder checking looking around.
I do, but of my 11km commute, only 4.3km is on road (rest is trails/bike paths).
I find DFA 1979 is great commuting music.
Originally Posted by sAFETY
As a vegitarian, I don't eat bacon, as a human being I crave and miss it.
Hell no - I want to hear the cars coming. And if I did, I wouldn't be able to get all self rightous with the pedestrians zoned out on the BC Parkway.
My friend is using a bluetooth speaker that he's mounted to his stem to blast the tunes. I doubt that's much safer, but at least you aren't pumping the tunes directly into your ears.
I like to be able to hear the cars coming, so its a no for me. It is also illegal to wear headphones while riding if that makes any difference to anyone.
It is also illegal to wear headphones while riding if that makes any difference to anyone.
Not in BC (it is in other jurisdictions, like Quebec - in New York, you can wear headphones, only your left ear must be open). I've ridden by cops in Vancouver lots of times with earbuds on with not so much as a comment.
Some people claim its illegal according to the BC Motor Vehicle Act, but I'd be dammed if its actually in there
http://www.bclaws.ca/EPLibraries/bclaws_new/document/ID/freeside/96318_00
I suspect if there were a rash of accidents involving cyclists with earphones and cars, the AG definitely would look at making it an offense. You usually don't try to listen for cars around you when you drive, but does that make you a less safe driver? I can usually hear cars over the music (especially large vehicles) but my music is at a level that is typically no louder than the wind in my ears would normally be. I'm not saying its not a bad habit, but it often beats the boredom of commuting sometimes 10+ hours a week.
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