Quote:
Originally Posted by
alienator 
Your tests don't seem like they were really objective. After all, a human being isn't a very good sensor, and as a sensor a human is vulnerable to all manor of bias from other factors: fatigue, hydration, mental state, state of rest,.......... Also, it's not solely a matter of hearing the traffic coming, it's a matter also of the decrease in attention caused by the mental engagement of the listener with whatever is playing in their ears. There is a very good reason why riding with headphones or ear pieces is illegal in a number of states, and that reason is that the results of objective tests don't back up the results from your tests and the beliefs of some riders.
It's time to get off the bike if someone doesn't have the attention span to ride a bike without listening to music.
I never would suggest my tests were scientific. I merely checked the time that I could hear a car versus how long it took to get to me and every time was over a minute (with the current levels of fatigue, hydration, mental state, etc) -- at least a mile behind me. If I felt especially fatigued or unable to concentrate, I wouldn't have listened to music or audio books. I also know that I don't pay attention to music and other things that I listen to. My primary focus was riding my bicycle and I payed attention to the road and listening for cars. I can't listen to podcasts unless I give them my full attention or I get nothing out of them. I can accidentally listen to a song on single repeat for over an hour before I notice if I am doing something else. So with the time between when I'd hear a car and my ability to tune out things on the radio taken together, I felt comfortable wearing a single earbud. I would never wear dual earbuds.
I would never listen to music or other things while riding in traffic like in a city or heavily driven road. But in Kansas where I could see the cars coming for miles and could hear them for over a minute, and they were only coming by about 5-10 cars/trucks per hour, often with a decent sized shoulder, I felt comfortable. On the GAP and C&O which is a bike path and I didn't see any other people most days, I felt comfortable listening to audio books. When I got near Washington DC and there were loads of other runners and cyclists to contend with, I didn't listen to music.
I would say that listening to music while biking under certain conditions is no worse than people listening to their radio while driving a car as a simple distraction from monotony.
