Originally Posted by
Ozonation
I admit, I'm on a rant... but I will still disagree......
.....Even though one ear bud suggests that there is "no effect", I say that you're literally decreasing your own chances of cycling and staying alive. And the main point is that loud, auditory stop signals were missed in 68% of the cases with any nominal use case of earphones. So, maybe the one time you miss a signal is the one that you could avoided being hit by a screaming mass of metal.
Personally I believe that a driver in an airtight cage, with a 5000 watt stereo system, as well as possibly a cell phone, is in no less danger than I am as a cyclist with a small MP3 player and a good pair of earbuds. That driver certainly can't hear any better than I can, and in fact I can probably hear the traffic more clearly than they can.