Advocacy & Safety - Is music and cycling safe?

I cycle in San Francisco and there can be a lot of traffic. I just stept out of the dark ages and bought a Delldiddy MP3 player specifically for cycling. Small lightweight and inexpensive. Great little machine, but now I am getting concerned about riding while listening to music. Is it safe? Do I need my audio senses? Are there a lot of you who listen to music while you ride? Runners do, but they are not exactly part of traffic. Am I missing the precious seconds from a cars breaks sreaching and it colliding with me? Or am I paranoid and everything is cool.

I like being able to listen to traffic. I feel safer that way but I don't know about you? It is pretty cool to ride listening to some fast metal or punk though. So is it safe? imo no. Is it dangerous? imo no.

This topic has been debated to hell and gone. There are dozens of threads on the topic.

I don't think I'd listen to music on my commute, but I do listen to NPR and sometimes audiobooks, using open-air headphones and the volume set fairly low. I've tested and I can hear traffic as well with this setup as without. The traffic noise is muted a bit, but so is the background noise that impedes hearing traffic (mainly wind noise in my ears) so it balances and I can still hear traffic just as far away (about 20 seconds before they get up to me).

It is funny you should say that. The one main reason I didn't get an IPOD is b/c I like listening to talk radio in the morning. And the Dell (if you want to check it http://www.dellditty.com/ ) had a FM tuner. I also wanted to be able to listen to my SF Giants play (when they had a shot at first). But I just wanted something cheap, light, played MP3s and radio.
If I get too paranoid, I guess I can turn it down or pull one ear piece out.

Opinions about the safety of listening to music with headphones while riding a bike vary. I would never do it and would never let my kids do it. In about 10 weeks I'll be launching a new product composed of a mini speaker that can be mounted to handle bars and connected to an mp3 player (or any audio device). The mounting clip fits most handlebars from kids (22 mm diameter) to standard adult (26mm) to larger size (32mm) and anything in between. The mp3 player is held to the bike frame in a pouch that has an external velcro fastener. An audio line-in cable (included with unit) connects it to the speakers. You can see a picture of the speaker on our website, http://WWW.ACTIVE-TUNES.COM . We've been selling the speakers to consumer electronics stores. The clip goes into production in about 2 weeks and we'll be delivering in about 10 weeks as I mentioned above. Producing the packaging takes a while unfortunately and then everything has to ship from overseas and go through customs. We'll be selling over the web as well as through retail bike stores and sporting goods stores.

drop me a line if you have any questions.

Regards,
Mick

Its a personal thing, some claim it works fine for them, others don't.

But the simple fact that you are questioning/wondering out loud if it is safe for you to do it means that you probably sense you may be safer without music.

Al

You should be SINGING, not listening. You're making your own transit horsepower, why not make your own music? If you want to entertain passersby, try singing the guitar parts of your favourite Hendrix tune:

Mohn-neek, mohn-neek, mohn-neek, mohn-neek, bwanna noo now, meddle-mee nyow…

I don't do it. Did for a bit several years ago, but evaluated it and read these forums and decided against it.

Music is safe.
Biking can be safe.
Biking while listening to music NOT safe.

Steve W
Who NEVER has an opinion.

I cycle in San Francisco and there can be a lot of traffic. I just stept out of the dark ages and bought a Delldiddy MP3 player specifically for cycling. Small lightweight and inexpensive. Great little machine, but now I am getting concerned about riding while listening to music. Is it safe? Do I need my audio senses? Are there a lot of you who listen to music while you ride? Runners do, but they are not exactly part of traffic. Am I missing the precious seconds from a cars breaks sreaching and it colliding with me? Or am I paranoid and everything is cool.

IMHO earphones or buds are not safe on the streets. But I'm interested in some small portable speaker sets sold. You could mount them somewhere to listen, but would not be blocking your hearing.

Here's one made for bikes.http://www.bicyclestereo.com/index.html.

I would sure like to find someone who has bought them and can tell me if they are any good.

IMHO earphones or buds are not safe on the streets. But I'm interested in some small portable speaker sets sold. You could mount them somewhere to listen, but would not be blocking your hearing.

Here's one made for bikes.http://www.bicyclestereo.com/index.html.

I would sure like to find someone who has bought them and can tell me if they are any good.

I like the idea of freaking people out with singing guitar solos! I have ridden my beach cruiser with a radio in the basket. That is kind of fun. You get looks. :eek: You are kind of a moving boombox.

Many on the forums will argue it to their death....I think just to justify it because they do it personally.

I think it is quite unsafe. I don't know how many cyclist, joggers and walkers that I have nearly hit because they wouldn't move because they couldn't hear me coming or yelling that I was coming.

Do I need my audio senses? Yes but more importantly, you need your cognitive senses. It's like when a motorists looks right at a cyclist and doesn't see them. Sure, their visual senses were working just fine but their cognitive senses fell flat.

Will you be able to hear the motor vehicle coming at you. Probably. Will you be cogitive of the motor vehicle coming at you. Maybe not. Especially if it's your favorite part of the song and you start getting into that guitar solo more than what's around you. Same issue with motorists and their cell phone useage. Cell phones aren't louder than what's outside, the just take your attention away from what's outside.

I never thought it was a matter of this thing being louder than that thing. I always thought it was a matter this thing taking your attention away from that thing. I personally don't have the brain bandwidth to do both safely. Maybe you do.

d.tipton

Ok, Here is a vote for it depends on you. Are you the type who blocks everything out and gets completely into the music, or do you live in the moment and listen to the music as one piece of your environment instead of the focus of your environment? If you listen to it as one piece then I would say safe, if you get completely lost in the music then I would say unsafe. Volume is key too, if you can't listen to music without it blasting then I would say unsafe. So there, hows that for a definite maybe answer? I myself ride with headphones, but recently I rode an hour and a half and realized I had forgotten to turn the player on so it is not my primary focus on a ride.

My purely anecdotal empirical evidence suggests that headphone wearers are less aware than the unadorned (nice way of saying that I think it's a really stupid bleeping idea). This includes joggers and walkers as well as riders and 'bladers.

Read this

A Bicyclist's sense of hearing: How Important? (http://www.bikexprt.com/bicycle/hearing.htm)

i ride on mostly side streets, listen to NPR with an earbud in RIGHT ear only.