Dudes dudes! Don’t look at me like that. I know, I know, I’ve heard it a thousand times, (mostly from my nun of a mother), I SHOULDN’T listen to music through headphones while on my bicycle. It’s not safe. It’s probably against the law. It can cause me to become a really reckless cyclist, especially when this band comes up on shuffle. And it generally pisses people off.
BUT…
It is really fucking enjoyable!!! And when I’m on a long ass bike ride, like I’m talking Sellwood all the way back to NoPo, sometimes wearing my headphones saves my fucking life. Drivers can blast music on their stereos inside their cars that have sound proof windows and no one cares. What’s the dif?
Help me out Blogtownies, weigh in and let me know if I’m being an a-hole, or if riding with the headphones on is a-ok.
BIKES AND HEADPHONES: CONDEMN OR APPLAUD?
If I were ever in a wreck and even if it was not my fault…it would still be a case of “well, the guy on the bike was wearing headphones…so it was his fault”. Hence, this is why I stopped riding with headphones.
I watched a cyclist with headphones nearly get ploughed into by another cyclist as she made a right-on-red turn around rose quarter yesterday. She was looking for cars, but didn’t even see the guy coming up in the bike lane – he yelled & used his bike horn – but it didn’t matter. She was in her own world & just made her turn anyway. The guy barely avoided a collision by swerving into traffic and I don’t think the girl even knew anything happened. Wanted to shake her & rip those headphones out of her ears.
My wife is a cyclist and a cop. She assures me that riding with headphones is not against the law. Nor is driving a car (in OR…WA does have a law against driving with headphones on). I think it is marginally unsafe to listen to talk but music is over the line.
i guess i would rather hear the car coming than curse the irony listening to britney spears’ “hit me baby one more time”
Rock out! Duh.
Just don’t crank it up so loud you can’t reasonably hear what’s going on around you, that’s dumb even if you’re on foot. That’s how that woman got hit by the MAX last year.
I think people forget that we really do take our lives in our hands every day when we bike with traffic, and purposefully blocking your second most important cycling sense is a really stupid idea.
If you absolutely have to wear headphones, wear buds, and not over-ear headphones.
When I’m driving, I often to listen to music really loud, and I also don’t feel like it reduces my driving ability too much. However, if I’m wrong, and that leads to a crash, there’s an excellent chance that I’ll walk away from that crash.
How many car-on-bike crashes do you think you’ll walk away from, as a cyclist?
@ commentyc
spidey sense #1?
Considering I work for a newspaper that writes about biking issues alllllll the time tends to guilt me into wearing my helmet and not wearing headphones whenever I bike.
I would just feel super embarrassed if I ended up in a collision that got reported on and then got made fun of on blogtown due to my own controllable factors.
(for cereal)
I can still hear fine when wearing my iphone earbuds and listening to music. Dont have to have it super loud either. As long as it is not illegal, there is no reason for being blamed for accident while wearing them. I applaud thee!
I drive so little now days that when I do drive I roll down the windows because I’m used to being able to hear things, and it feels weird to not…
No on the headphones, but how about some speakers? I’ve seen some guys with boom boxes mounted on their bikes, and many boom boxes have inputs/Ipod connectors…
Employing your senses while biking should really be a zero sum game. Sure, headphones cut off my hearing but riding dick-out feels magical.
I know this isn’t a solution available to most people, but I use the tiny speaker on my iphone to listen to music while biking instead of headphones. I feel that having my music played into the ambient sounds around me is much safer than blasted directly into my ears. That way I am not blocking out any sounds from cars or other cyclists, just playing over them slightly. It fits perfectly into the little phone holder on my backpack strap, and any breast pocket when I’m sans pack.
I have found that audio books are a great way to pass the time while riding. And they only require me to use one ear for listening, since it does not have a stereo split. That also leaves the other ear available for hearing what is happening around me.
I’ve done it. I do it on occasion. But it’s definitely not the smartest way to ride. I get annoyed with people who have their music up so loud they don’t hear me trying to pass or cause a dangerous interaction like the one described above. But this is like the helmet law, I don’t want to legislate someone being a dumbass. A law that say no headphones would be over the line, I think. If someone doesn’t want to use common sense, fine. But please don’t let Salem get involved.
If you can hear well enough to be safe, go ahead. Use earbuds, not over-ear headphones.
I have avoided many collisions because I HEARD the other rider/car. Been riding daily for over 20 years and would never (although wish I could) ride with earbuds.
My buddy was doing this and ended up with a broken limb and a court judgement against him for damage to the car. He says the accident was not his fault, and the headphones had nothing to do with it, but I don’t think he wears them anymore.
How about sticking one ear bud in one ear – leave the other one free to listen for traffic/fellow bike folk.
For all the people who think that the jury in your future bike injury lawsuit won’t hold your headphone use against you because it isn’t against the law, I’d like to add a “ha!”
In california, it is legal to ride with one bud in, but not both. I wonder if it’s the same in Oregon.
I only ride with buds at night, and pretty only when going from my friend Scott’s house back to mine. It’s through Irvington, and I rarely encounter cars. And, when cars do go by, I can still see and hear them from afar (even when blasting Leviathan).
I wish I could ride and listen to music more often. But I feel like it wouldn’t be very smart during most of my rides.
I would be neutral on the idea, but I’ve been a pedestrian run over by a cyclist wearing headphones that didn’t know I was coming. I was a little scraped up is all, but it was all I could do to limit the “flight or fight” reflex from making me beat the shit out of the guy and break all the spokes in his wheels.
I”m mixed on the idea. I really, really want to wear headphones but don’t. I don’t feel comfortable knowing I could be missing someone yelling words of warning that could save my life just so I could hear Eddie Rabbit and my Country Classics Vol 2 mix.
I’m also mixed on others wearing buds. I see some bud-wearers who bike responsibly, pay attention to the road, to traffic, to their movements, to other bikers around them. I also see some bud-wearers who absolutely do none of the above. I think we all know what one vs. the other looks like when we see them.
I wear buds sometimes. I don’t rely on my ears. Many cars and bikes are silent. Listening to music, foreign language lessons, and french women whispering positive affirmations of my virility have trained me to fully use my eyes while I ride. We are safer this way – xoxox
my gf rides with her ‘phoneses around her neck. it works …you just blast it and listen to the people yelling at you to get out of the road while rocking out!
There is even a warning on the HypnoPorn boxes not to ride bicycles while listening.
This is about perception. It looks unsafe but most unsafe biking/driving practices go unseen (sleep deprived, stoned, drunk, stupid). Cars kill 50,000 people a year. Cars are objectively unsafe. And still, we do it. When I wear headphones on a bike, I’m either listening to a podcast or plugging my ears from the unsafe and disorienting decibels of heavy traffic. Do you know I’m not blasting death metal? No. But so fucking what?
Point me to some compelling scientific study (not your anecdotal “OMG WTF that bicyclist last week” story) and, sure, I’ll take em out.
oh pls, Night Moves, you have to be kidding. the studies that have led to banning using cell phones while driving (non-hands free) have nothing to do with what you hear: they’re about being distracted. listening to music, news or audiobooks while biking – to what extent are you paying attention to what? if you know you are paying FULL attention to your riding, then fine. but i doubt you are. you have to decide how much your attention is distracted and, therefore, how much of a threat your are to others. and you need to do so with more honesty & understanding than your comment contained.
tabarhart: you either didn’t read what I wrote or didn’t understand it. I said point me to a scientific study and I won’t wear headphones on a bike.
You say you ‘doubt’ I’m paying full attention to the road. Meanwhile, I’m surrounded by thousands of machines filled with people carrying on conversations and listening to hip hop and talk radio… legally. I’m arguing for evidence before limiting freedoms. Evidence, to me, is more honest than opinion–which is all you’re offering.
@ Night Moves – I doubt there’s much science on the subject, and it’s beside the point. It’s an OK point to say that cyclists shouldn’t block/degrade their hearing so they won’t hit pedestrians or other cyclists.
The better argument against headphones is for YOUR safety, since there ARE so many (often distracted) idiots driving cars. Because of the small margin for error (i.e. you won’t walk away from too many of these), the risk simply isn’t worth the reward. You really shouldn’t need to see any peer-reviewed studies to understand that, and of course, you’re completely free to disregard it, as you have already.
I don’t need any peer-reviewed studies to tell me that’s an unacceptable risk vs. reward for me.
Creed, really?
I say we find PSU students to do a research project (students = free labor) where they measure crash statistics & decibel levels of road noise vs. headphones. The winner gets an ER gift card (since sooner or later, a drunk will blindside us anyway).
so you guys think deaf people shouldn’t ride bikes?
Almost got beaned by cool Mr. Alt cyclist friday in his bike rage when he swung his bike lock at me. Unfotunatly i didn’t have my tire iron or something simular or one of us would be injured. I’m a locomotive engineer and see people doing that ALL THE TIME, they don’t look, just ride in front of me. This happens DAILY to myself and other engineers with my friend Mike having killed two cyclist that were wearing earbuds. I ran down a beautiful young woman 20 years ago, it was as ugly as it can get and i think of her every thanksgiving and that it DIDN”T NEED TO HAPPEN!
This guy had black heavy frame glasses, black hair, white mtn. bike, retro cap on so no helmet to ruin the coolness effect, gold wire earbuds and about 6′ i guess. If you read this better turn yourself in we’re looking for you as well as the police and the Amtrak police, we all come through the Pearl district to get to work so sooner or later you’ll be caught.
signed,- 40 year far left of center cyclist evironmentalist, union memeber that lobbied to get bikes on trains and really pissed of guy.