Thanks for taking part in the poll, flawed though it may be. Kind of wish I’d added the one ear option. Guess I mentally shuffled it into the first option. The simpler the poll the better, I thought.
Also, mea culpa, there is enough of a difference between earbuds and earphones to make clear the distinction, as the latter are configured to block out more environmental noise because they burrow into the canal. (Until I read up on them just now I thought I used earphones. I don’t.) My chief interest wasn’t in the exact delivery system, but if you’re plugged in at all; and if not, if the perception of danger kept you from doing it, or your experience informed you.
That aside, my own thinking is that mono is actually “worse”. I’ve never tried it, except involuntarily when one side goes bad, which completely ruins it for me. This was also addressed by a commenter
elsewhere:
as someone with a degree in Sound Recording, whose dissertation was on spatial perception and localisation of sound sources, I feel the need to point out that having an earphone in one ear effectively makes your hearing one-dimensional in terms of ability to pinpoint sound sources (e.g. cars, pedestrians, fellow riders). This is because localisation relies almost entirely on your brain comparing the relative volume and time of arrival of sounds between your ears; if one of them is isolated (blocked, for instance by an earphone), the brain has no frame of reference.
A way to test this is to block one ear with a finger, and you'll have less ability to tell where a sound is coming from. Within reason, obviously.
I’ve never tried audio books either, so this is speaking from ignorance, but I’d think there would be a greater possibility of distraction – if only because songs have a certain expected rhythm, but who knows where a book will take you! However, I reckon that those who read with their ears or listen to podcasts can manage just fine.
I see no evidence that riding* with ‘buds or ‘phones causes harm to anyone (which is not to say some don’t come to grief while wearing them; people come to grief for all manner of reasons). Clearly it has the power to offend sensibilities about what cycling should be.
When Boris Johnson was London mayor and suggested the practice be banned**
Boris not being distracted
I got ready to mourn having to leave my ears open for the abuse regularly handed out by cabbies & the like. Put me solidly in the Leave Me Alone camp. Or the Whatever Works For You camp, if they'll have me.
* it's my view that pedestrians are more likely to get lost in their music than cyclists
** so far it hasn't been, but I expect that eventually
'ealth and safety will win the day