Originally Posted by
GlennR
Difference is in a collision with another car you have a seat belt, air bags and 3000# of metal surrounding you. On a bike you have spandex and 15# of carbon fiber.
But to each their own.
Everyone evaluates their own safety such as people riding wearing masks and not helmets (but that's a whole different topic)(.
Like DrIsotope said, when riding at any pace, you don't hear a car from behind ... there's too much wind noise. I ride with a Garmin Varia and know when a car is behind me, it alerts me with a chime and graphic on my Edge 1030 - much better than counting on the approaching car being loud enough to hear over the wind noise.
With music in one ear and the volume low enough to talk to someone at a stop light, you're not hurting your ability to hear your surroundings.
Nobody is saying you should ride with music, you do you. But the OP asked about doing it safely and you have some of riders with significant experience riding with music sharing how we do it safely. (FYI - I log 5,000 to 6,500 miles each year, year round in Minnesota, on roads, trails, gravel, single-track, on snow/ice ... and 95% of that is with music in my right ear).
Lastly, we all see a lot of people biking, running & walking that clearly can't hear a thing over their music ... I think we can all agree, don't do that!