Cycling UK Forum

Big T wrote:Headphones don't block out all noise, even if you have them on loud. I don't ride round town with both mine on but I like to listen to Radio 4 on my commute to work, usually with one ear in (left). Even with both in, I can hear traffic noise and can certainly hear cars hooting.

Perhaps people should try things for themselves before they condemn them. Not cycling, but try walking next to a busy road with an MP3 on. I bet you can still hear the traffic. Perhaps you should all advocate that cars drive around with their windows wound down so that their drivers can hear the traffic better? Or that it's dangerous for deaf people to cycle?

Hear Hear. (as I also said in a couple of previous threads)

I use open back headphones and low level, effectively ambient music - neither singalong or Shostakovich, and take them off my ears for any unfamiliar territory.

The exception being my twice or thrice-weekly training rides from Bath to Bristol on the railway path when there are very few people around when you'll find me recapturing my raving days with music like this as I push through the pain barrier :-

starting soulfully like this :-

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1FB4rlle ... re=related

and followed by this when I'm really going for it :-

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F9-FXjU7mzI

This is very much like the helmet debate....

Does anyone actually have any evidence that there is a problem?

Banning them - like they have in Italy, would be a disaster for me - except in winter when I wear them under a hat - music and physical exercise are inseparable - except on group rides - I got my first walkman around the time I swapped my motorcycle for a pushbike.

40,000 miles later and I would need a lot of convincing ....

I'm a million times more aware of my surroundings than the average moton, hermetically sealed in its air-conditioned cage.

My two cents, then I'm out of here.

Alot of the discussion has been around hearing. Chances are, I won't hear a car when I'm headphone free.
So really, that considered, what harm could some quiet fiddle music do?
And if i'm listening to some Afro Celt Sound System, then... well... dancing at lights? Tyres, from Spaced, anyone? I'm not immune!

I cant understand why people would want to drive with their windows closed and music playing so that they can't hear traffic or bicycles sounding their bells behind them. I would estimate between 90 and 95% of people drive with the windows closed (maybe more) and they can't hear a thing.

Hector's House wrote:And if i'm listening to some Afro Celt Sound System, then... well... dancing at lights? Tyres, from Spaced, anyone? I'm not immune!

Baggy Trousers - can't say that headphones improves it at all.

Hector's House wrote:Alot of the discussion has been around hearing. Chances are, I won't hear a car when I'm headphone free.

I suspect an urban/rural divide in the differences of opinion on this question. In towns there's so much ambient noise anyway that adding to the aural confusion won't make that much difference to the overall balance of hazards. On rural lanes, however, being able not only to hear an approaching vehicle (especially one approaching from behind), but also being able to interpret the significance of subtle differences in the engine note, and to react accordingly, are of fundamental importance to safety on the bike.

ChrisButch wrote:

Hector's House wrote:Alot of the discussion has been around hearing. Chances are, I won't hear a car when I'm headphone free.

I suspect an urban/rural divide in the differences of opinion on this question. In towns there's so much ambient noise anyway that adding to the aural confusion won't make that much difference to the overall balance of hazards. On rural lanes, however, being able not only to hear an approaching vehicle (especially one approaching from behind), but also being able to interpret the significance of subtle differences in the engine note, and to react accordingly, are of fundamental importance to safety on the bike.

Spot-on, Sir.

Several times I have said hello ot a cyclist I am overtaking. They don't hear me. They wouldn't have heard an electric car til it hit them

RIP

I do not use headphones all the time, but do sometimes on winter commute for the dark dreary commute home as I get bored.
I can hear traffic in fact probably more so because the music keeps me alert.
Without headphones i often switch off start thinking about all sorts of other things and the traffic becomes a low background hum.

Don't knock if you have not tried to see for yourself.

More dangerous are those that walk with headphones on combined ped/cycle paths. They never seem to hear us when we approach calling out a warning which it totally ignored.
I also feel very sorry for the kids they push in pushchairs as they are listening to their music and not interacting with the child.

Gareth Rees wrote:I cant understand why people would want to drive with their windows closed and music playing so that they can't hear traffic or bicycles sounding their bells behind them. I would estimate between 90 and 95% of people drive with the windows closed (maybe more) and they can't hear a thing.

Because I like listening to music (and the car is the only place where I can listen to it loud). Added to which, there's no benefit to being able to hear traffic or bicycle bells (why would you need to hear a bicycle bell behind you if you're in a car, or why would you need to ring a bicycle bell for the attention of a car in front of you?).

The only thing I've ever felt the need to hear in the car is an emergency siren - or a low-flying Lancaster

stewartpratt wrote:

Gareth Rees wrote:I cant understand why people would want to drive with their windows closed and music playing so that they can't hear traffic or bicycles sounding their bells behind them. I would estimate between 90 and 95% of people drive with the windows closed (maybe more) and they can't hear a thing.

Because I like listening to music (and the car is the only place where I can listen to it loud). Added to which, there's no benefit to being able to hear traffic or bicycle bells (why would you need to hear a bicycle bell behind you if you're in a car, or why would you need to ring a bicycle bell for the attention of a car in front of you?).

The only thing I've ever felt the need to hear in the car is an emergency siren - or a low-flying Lancaster

Because you may well be reversing...
Or just blocking the road unnecessarily...

I don't personally wear headphones while cycling but I really don't get why the argument against them is that "you can't hear cars' and 'this is dangerous...'
When you are in a car you can't hear other vehicles around you and you are aloud to have music as loud as a rock concert playing away. In a car you are suppose to be checking your mirrors to see where other vehicles are and the same can be done on the bike by looking over your shoulder.

But, my final point is: It's not wearing headphones that causes the danger, it is the impatient or just down right cr*p driving by other road users that makes it dangerous. I mean you wouldn't say that someone who was deaf shouldn't be allowed to cycle would you!?

[XAP]Bob wrote:Because you may well be reversing...
Or just blocking the road unnecessarily...

But if I'm reversing I'm looking behind me, so I don't need to hear what's behind me.

And I can't think of a scenario where I'm blocking the road unnecessarily (I'd like to think I don't do that anyway) where a bicycle can't get past but can if I move (if I'm in a car and I'm stopped, it's probably because I can't move) and I can't see my mirrors.