gentlegreen wrote:I......................................the OP rang alarm bells because they seemed to be wanting to be cut off from the outside world.......................................
That (above) is not a complete quote of what 'gentlegreen' wrote, but for me sums up the situation. Not everyone will agree with this, but I completely concur and identify with the wording and the sentiment of the above part-quote.
Cutting yourself off with brain-numbing "sounds off" can be numbing to danger - danger to yourself by not being aware, and danger of damage that you can do to others on cyclepaths/greenways by not being fully aware of, nor concerned about, them. We need our full attention to what we're doing. I know one stock response to that is : "tell the motoring fraternity that..........." but we're not responsible for them.
I'm sure that I'm not alone in saying that the best advice is to remove the headphones and pay full attention to what you're doing.