Originally Posted by
RoderWrench
…A rider listening to music, with his head on a swivel is much safer than someone riding with tunnel vision.
Originally Posted by
PaulRivers
That's my opinion as well. I feel safer wearing headphones than not, because my brain sometimes it can rely on my hearing to hear cars behind me, when the only thing that's actually affective is to actually look.
Wearing headphones makes my brain realize that I'd better look - which is far far safer than hoping a car passing me is making enough noise to hear it.
You can't rely on your ears for knowing what's behind you, you have to look.
Originally Posted by
Goriot
...Yes there are definitely safety issues with having music playing / having an earbud in, but it does make the commute so much better and I still feel I'm paying more attention to the road than a driver doing the same thing.
Well said, @
PaulRivers. I agree that a
controllable external auditory source can help to
focus on the task at hand, rather than distract. For myself, I work at preparing reports depending on careful detailed analyses, and I always have a talk show on. It definitely focuses me, even though I don't pay much attention; it's more a background awareness. It seems to fill in my mind in addition to the current purposeful activity so my concentration has no other place to wander.
In fact, if there is no ambient “distraction,” the silence is deafening (and I don't have to worry about a car plowing into my desk).