I’ve complained before about what I call “iPeds” – pedestrians who wander out into the roads completely unaware of danger due to the volume of the music assaulting their senses through their personal music player earphones – but now it seems that cyclists who ride while listening to music are coming under fire too.
Is it dangerous to cycle with earphones in? Some groups believe so, and partially blame the trend for cycling with your tunes on for the 19% rise in cyclists killed or seriously injured in the three months to June 2009, compared to the same period 2008.
Opinions are split on the matter. Edmund King, the president of the AA, has called on the Department for Transport to launch a campaign warning cyclists of the risk. Safety campaigners are trying to raise awareness of the dangers, for both cyclists and pedestrians alike. But the CTC’s position is that the choice of whether or not to listen to music while riding should be left to the individual and that eyesight was much more important than hearing when it came to awareness of traffic.
My own position is somewhat mixed. I don’t use an iPod if I’m riding in traffic or into the city generally as, like many of the spokespeople in the articles above, I believe it’s a dangerous enough situation to be in without removing one of your key senses. I don’t know that I’ve ever seen an “iPod Zombie” cyclist around Belfast in fact, although there are plenty of iPod wearing pedestrians that I’ve (almost) run in to.
On the other hand I find music to be great company during those long, lonely training rides. These journeys tend to be on much quieter, safer roads, so I don’t have a problem with putting some earphones on. But even then I also only ever put one in (the left one) and keep the volume down, so as to keep an effective ear out for any traffic that does come my way.
I’ll repeat my question from earlier: is it dangerous to cycle with earphones in? What do you think? Do you do it? Did you do it before but have now stopped, and why was that? Let me know.
I don’t listen to music on my bike at all. Probably because I live in London and I value my life. As a pedestrian I listen to my Ipod all the time but take care to look around a lot when crossing roads. Its also worth bearing in mind that the vast majority of people in cars listen to music and even if the didn’t, they wouldn’t be able to hear cyclists or pedestrians anyway.
I stopped listening to music as I was getting into all sorts of scrapes (listening to System of a Down whilst having an argument in a car driver isn’t good!).
If I was cycling on quiet country roads, I may think differently, but with the sheer amount of traffic I have to navigate every day – its not worth the risk to me or fellow commuters.
I ride 75% trail and 25% road and with my ipod most of the way. I can still hear traffic & while on the trail good music makes trail riding a pleasure.
It’s amazing just how many people walk out infront of you when you’re on a bike because they haven’t heard you coming. They can’t hear anything coming so they don’t bother too look.
I can foresee loads of people getting squished when electric (silent) cars become popular.
While I agree that it is dangerous to listen to music while cycling/walking, can’t the same be said for listening to music while driving? Perhaps the AA should ask the DfT to include all motorists in their campaign.
There is some genuine concern that hybrid and electric vehicles are too quiet and pose hazard to pedestrians, especially blind and deaf. There was talk of manufacturers adding noise generators to their vehicles in fact.
I think the differences with having your car radio on is that, even then, you can still hear cars (and certainly motorbikes) to a good extent and also that they are much larger and easier to see so hearing them isn’t such an important detection method. On a bike, facing forward, listening out for traffic approaching from behind is much more important.
Most of the time I do wear my iPod while cycling. The majority of my cycling is away from much traffic. I dont cycle in the city, and its mostly on long, stright open roads.
As such, I cant really see a problem. I can see cars coming towards me, and while I may not hear cars coming from behind… one has to hope that cars coming from behind arent going to ram into you anyway.
Regardless, I do most of my riding early in the morning and on long straight roads with very little traffic. I wouldnt be happy be to told that I am “not allowed” to listen to music as I do feel its safe.
I did notice, however, that a few weeks back when a group ride caught up with me, i was gettin some really nasty looks from one or two of the riders directed at me that Im pretty sure was because I was listening to music.
I tend to only cycle with earphones in on the greenway (or similar path), but even then miss the occasional bell from a faster cyclist overtaking (assuming of course that it’s one of the few who seem to have figured out what that object on the handlebars is for in the first place!).
Am getting a bit weary of the CTC’s stance on pretty-much everything: “cyclist to choose”. Feels a bit like an anarchist’s charter …
Too quiet? Dale Vince’s ‘Nemesis’ prototype electric car sounds like a Tie Fighter. Jump to 25:25 here: http://zerocarbonista.com/2009/10/02/car-pool-with-robert-llewellyn/