Originally Posted by
ax0n
None.
PAY.
ATTENTION.
TO.
THE.
ROAD.
FFS, please, pay attention. Bike paths are a little different story, but still. iPod Zombies for the lose.
AMEN!!!!!!
You cannot pay attention to the road in clear detail with headphones blasting your favorite rap or whatever you listen to. Even if you have the volumn way down you still can't hear details especially early signs of problems. A lot times cars will speed up just before you reach an intersection because they want to beat you to it and turn in front of you, if you can't hear that engine speed increase then your missing a clue that could save your life. That's just one example, and if you've been riding for any length of time I'm sure you could think of others that if your hearing was hindered you may have crashed and burned.
Situational awareness is important also as one poster mentioned, however to be as safe as possible you need reduntant senses and hearing is that. If situational awareness was the only thing you needed then the space shuttle wouldn't need 4 reduntant computers and a 5th as back up!!! (get the ideal? 5 computers 5 senses...hmmm). Sure a deaf person could ride a bike, but a deaf person as their other senses heightened to a degree ours are not; but you and I are not deaf so we need to use all of our senses to remain safe.