San Rensho 

What are you talking about?

TRaffic Jammer

SA, to me = being aware of your surroundings enough that you can be proactive in your riding as opposed to being reactive for the betterment/safety of all involved. Moving left to safely pass a right turner as opposed to braking or being hooked..is a good example. Hanging out on the left side of the curb lane at the light to let the right turn go unhindered is another.

zeytoun

By this reasoning, a deaf person would be incapable of true Situational Awareness.

As long as a person can take in information from the environment in real time, and use their intelligence to guide their attention and interpret the information, to form an accurate concept of their surroundings, they are capable of situational awareness....

Maximizing your ability to maintain SA is separate from defining the state of SA, and it involves 3 factors, the variables you set as an individual:

1) Maximizing your sensory perception ability. Both through preventing impediments to your perception (opening your eyes, or removing headphones, if needed), or adding filters (sunglasses, earplugs). The mix you create is an individual one. If we were really interested in taking in the most data, unfiltered, we'd be naked and have our eyes dilated every time we ride. Remember, some data filtration is probably a good idea.

2) Creating perceptual models of your environment. Understanding the dynamics of your situation, and using little attention aids to make yourself more efficient (i.e. looking where are car's wheels are pointing, knowing what different behavior or clues might mean)

3) Focusing your attention. You use 1 and 2 to actively be aware.

GutterNinja!

"True Situational Awareness" strikes me as a pipe dream. Unless your defining the ideal goal as "missing things left and right", I really think you're assuming too much if you expect even a very alert person to notice everything that is happening around them in a fast-moving and dynamic environment. My trade stresses situational awareness in our safety program and it's something that I've learned a little bit about in classroom training and quite a bit more in field experience. That said, I'm under no delusions that I don't have perfect situational awareness (often at the times when it's most important that I'm alert, it's a struggle to avoid raging tunnel vision), and I am acutely aware that there are often things that I fail to notice. My hearing is also very important to what I do, though I routinely compromise that because I'm often wearing earplugs (working around heavy machinery would ruin my hearing fast). Simply compromising my hearing doesn't mean that I'm not situationally aware, but I am aware of the limitations I face and some of the things I won't notice (for example, my radio chirping at me).

In the case of cycling, where hearing is much less important a sensory input, I really don't have a problem with wearing earbuds as I don't acquire that much relevant and useful information from my hearing. It would be misleading to state that earbuds don't compromise your situational awareness, as they do limit some sensory information. As far as cycling goes it's a negligible loss, and I don't believe that you significantly compromise your situational awareness by wearing earbuds while riding a bike.

TRaffic Jammer

I disagree, I can hear how an engine is being gassed behind me, from that I can determine how aggressively it's being driven and react accordingly, I can roughly ascertain distance as well. In the throes of messenger work hearing where everything is around you when there's cars on less than a foot on either side and behind, full hearing is a bonus. I stopped using earbuds while messing for this reason, while admittedly many still do use 'em. If your riding is work/home earbuds aren't going to be a huge issue unless your crankin' it. If you are mixing elbows with side mirrors, earbuds mightn't be the best idea.

So on those days I REALLY want some tunes I use the over ear style, which allows for environmental noise to enter the picture.

Chris516

Knowing what is all around you, when you are cycling.