Contest Time: One Good Earbud

Legal in the UK mate, although not something I would do on the road. I leave my listening to music while riding to my off road trails.

I don’t see the problem on using them, I don’t think it’s smart to use them on a group ride, butnif you ride alone, and depending on the time and traffic, music gets you going.

I sometimes listen to music while biking, but not in a group or in heavy traffic. Always keep the volume low enough to hear traffic, etc. 

Depends on how loud your music is.

What better motivation is there for putting the miles behind you than your favorite tunes.  I’m all for rocking while rolling and it should remain a personal choice whether to use headphones while riding.  Personally, I will wear only ONE GOOD EARBUD while cycling.  We have enough to deal with trying to stay safe with all the distracted drivers out there ‘sharing’ the road… and I want to hear them coming!

I’m curious.  How many of the commenters here, who say earbuds are unsafe, have removed the stereo from their car? 

I thought so.

To be fair, in Cali at least it is also illegal to drive a car with ear buds in both ears ( I checked the vehicle code). I don’t ride with earbuds but I do appreciate that the law is being applied equally to cars and bikes.

i’ve been a marathon runner for many, many years and i have to say that listening to music has been the only thing that has helped me keep my sanity while running all those miles. i have always made it a point, though, to keep an earbud in only one ear during training runs when i’m sharing the road with cars so i can hear them as they approach. i’ve found that the one-earbud approach also works during actual races because i get to hear the conversations around me. and i’ve heard some pretty interesting ones   by the way, the best way to avoid the “dangle” especially if you’re female, is to hook the dangling earbud onto your sportsbra strap. it stays in place and doesn’t bounce around.

while i don’t usually listen to music while cycling, on the few times that i did, i followed the same one-earbud rule out of habit. again, it’s so that i can hear approaching cars, pedestrians, and whatever else might be on the road. and i totally agree with what others have said about hybrid cars being very hard to hear – we have many of them here where i live, and i can’t tell you how many times i’ve been surprised to find them suddenly right beside me… even while my ears are earbud-free!

I don’t ride with ear buds (I guess that’s a good thing since I live in Florida) and prefer to ‘listen to the birds’ as Jim suggests. I like being able to hear what’s going on around me and that includes vehicles approaching me from behind.

A couple of times during the winter I wore a headband ear warmer and didn’t like the way they totally shut down my hearing. I may be wrong but do you not get the same effect while listening to music with an ear bud in your ear? I guess I have a hard time believing you can turn the volume down enough, while still having something stuck in your ear, and still be able to hear anything else. I haven’t tried it so maybe you can.

It’s illegal in BC too… Not sure about the other provinces though. I too prefer to listen to music while riding and agree with the comments t_starry made.

I live in California and was completely unaware that I was even breaking the law by listening to my tunes in both ears on the bike.  I’ve always felt that if I kept them at a safe level and could hear traffic/pedestrians then it was all good.  It sucks to know that I was breaking the law but I guess you’re only breaking it once you get caught huh?  Love the idea of the single ear-bud though.  

Random thought…I wonder if the no text while driving (or operating your ipod while driving) is applied to cyclists as well?

let me do a counter-rant:

1.  Promoting a single ear solution is just pandering to the illogical, irrational basis for the laws that ban earbuds in the first place.  If you ban listening to music on a bicycle then you have to ban car stereo systems. 

2.  Unless you run your iPod at volume 11, traffic noise is still there, even with two earbuds.  Unless you happen to be on a fast decent then the wind noise washes out both the music and the traffic noise. 

3.  Depending on hearing alone is a silly way to participate in traffic.  First, the cars don’t do it.  Second, hearing won’t save you.  Lots of deaf cyclists out there, who cycle in complete safety.

Rant over.

Bicyclists are not the problem –  It is the pedestrians!  I would love to give a One Good Earbud to each and every pedestrian around here.  In Montgomery County, MD it is both legal and encouraged to cycle on the sidewalks on major roads.  You will see cyclists everywhere on secondary roads and in neighborhoods, but only the extremely rare roadie will compete with cars on 355 and Veirs Mill Road.  And the issue isn’t that the cyclists blast past the pedestrians on the sidewalks — everyone I see is going a reasonable speed and being courteous.  The problem is that is that many pedestrians are walking along the sidewalk, and even weaving back and forth, with their ear buds on and their music turned up to 10!  No amount of bell ringing or shouting will get these people’s attention!  After yelling at a really oblivious woman  for 3 minutes, I finally managed to tap her shoulder, which made her jump back literally out of her flip flops!  I yelled, “Your music is too loud!”  to which she replied, “Obviously!” and quickly turned it down.