Driving with headphones on

Yes, it bugs me too...yet deaf people are allowed to drive with no special restrictions. I was in my(windowless) van driving through the nearest city a couple weeks ago, with the windows down and no other vehicles near me, and still couldn't hear the ambulance until it was 1/2-block behind me. Couldn't see it either since it was in the lane directly behind me.

z31maniac wrote: I'd never do it. I didn't even do it when I had sportbike when many friends did. I want to hear everything going on around me.

I tried it once on the bike. Never again. Even with the volume cranked all the way up I couldn't hear it well enough over the wind noise. I can't even listen to it at halfway up in normal situations. I wonder how much long term damage was done to my hearing just in that one ride.

alfadriver wrote:

mad_machine wrote: heck, it annoys me when I see people walking around with headphones on.. I cannot understand how they would compromise their ability to hear and react to an emergency (or even just a friend yelling at them) for the sake of music

Many headphones don't block out the ambient. Heck, the apple ear buds that most people see don't block out all of the ambient. I use those running, and it's pretty easy to hear a car from behind- just the tire sounds. Not to say that everyone uses headphones that allow good ambient sound. Also- a regular subject on the Miata boards- do you wear ear plugs when you have the top down?

I am not talking earbuds.. I am talking full on earphones. They have made a comeback these last few years and I am seeing them all over.

As the past driver of a roadster, I never work ear plugs when driving my fiat.. I did not see a need and because the soft squishy plugs don't fit me. I have such short ear canals I need expensive custom plugs

fritzsch wrote: I think a lot of people are listening to music on their phones, and to me it seems pretty dangerous and stupid if they can't hear emergency vehicles.

with doppler effect being taken in to account, and the tightness'' of modern cars … if I have my windows up, the AC on, and the stereo playing … I won't hear an ambulance until it's inside of a 100 ft … and no the stereo isn't turned up to 10(+) …

"

As a hearing impaired person, I grantee we notice emergency vehicles sooner or as well as 99% of the motoring public. We're constantly scaning mirrors and blind spots. We have to normally. We do so to make up for what we don't have. Regular people covering up a sense that they do have is far worse.

from somebody who has driven commercial, I know exactly what Appleseed is talking about. While your modern car may be quiet to the point of almost being an isolation booth.. the big commercial trucks are a rolling cacophony of sound. Add to that huge blind spots that can hide the largest of SUVs with ease.. and you definitely have to scan your mirrors every few seconds to check behind you. I would even swerve on occasion to check directly behind me.. found many a huge SUV drafting me that way

In reply to mad_machine:

From my cycling days, I've learned to expect SUV operators to be oblivious to the world around them.

Duke wrote: it still astounds me how willing people are to compromise their own situational awareness, even when it is their *own* safety on the line.

You mean like an american teenager throwing around bags of money and getting blackout drunk in a bar in a foreign mexico?

mad_machine wrote: I would even swerve on occasion to check directly behind me.. found many a huge SUV drafting me that way

Crazy Ivan!

If you can't drive your vehicle without ear protection, maybe you shouldn't be driving said vehicle on the street.

Cone_Junkie wrote: If you can't drive your vehicle without ear protection, maybe you shouldn't be driving said vehicle on the street.

That's a harsh knee-jerk assessment. Does that mean it shouldn't be driven on the street if you have inoperative A/C? Or a convertible top?

Tire noise of adjacent traffic is what really does it for me. When my RX-7 had its "loud" exhaust, I couldn't hear it over the scream of tires if something was driving next to me and my windows were down.

I get to drive a Miata to Iowa next month. I drove it 4 1/2 hours each way last weekend, and I was wishing for muffs because of the wind buffeting.

I see drivers every once in a while doing this....baffles me how you could disconnect yourself from the outside world especially when driving. Its illegal here, but, not really enforced. As far as pedestrians, here pedestrians are highly suicidal, they will down the sidewalk, make a hard 90 degree turn onto the crosswalk and proceed across the street without looking up from their phones and with headphones in.....then people wonder why they are being picked off

In reply to Fobroader:

There are these things, called mirrors... You can use them to get a visual assessment of the situation around you. Should be used about ten times per minute.

Knurled wrote: In reply to Fobroader: There are these things, called mirrors... You can use them to get a visual assessment of the situation around you. Should be used about ten times per minute.

I concur....most Edmontonians have no idea what those are there for and I doubt many are adjust well for the amount of close calls during lane changes I see daily.

Just wanted to throw in, today on the way home I had the stereo in the BRZ cranked up, I pulled over long before the fire truck got to me because I saw the flashing lights.

Even right next to me I couldn't hear his sirens over the music.

I value my hearing and protect it in sensible ways, which means using some old Yamaha EP-50 earbuds that finally stopped working from an open in the wiring. Cut off the cord and they work well to reduce enough vehicle noise volume (FR-S is a noisy car with hardly any sound damping added to it) while not blocking out much sound. They also work great when using power tools, especially because they can fit behind a face shield when grinding or cutting metal. Emergency sirens are still noticed quite fine... will hear them long before they are anywhere within sight when in town. I'm also constantly scanning the environment and will actually see emergency vehicles quite a ways off though.

Day in and day out driving in noisy cars means your are degrading your hearing...it's a cumulative effect over time. For my FR-S, cold start idle in the morning is 105dB, warmed up idle drops down to 93dB...that's external level measuring with C-weighted @1m standard, have not measured the internal level...but it's somewhat louder than stock.