Safety: Riding with Music🎵🎶
Riding down the road while groovin’ to tunes. 🎵🎶 Ahh, Heaven! But is it safe? Well, that depends on where you are, who you are with, and how you listen to your favorite beats.
Legally, you can listen to anything while biking, including nothing (via noise cancelling technology). AirPods or other earbuds are quite popular and are legal everywhere including California. There are also various types of headphones (covering the ear, on the ear, or bone induction) and speaker setups (through your helmet or from your phone). Some people even ride with boomboxes onboard. ✎
The safety aspect has to do with what is going on around you. Even if you are riding along a car-free bike path or a relatively safe road, can you crank up the volume? Well, it is already tough these days with electric vehicles that are extremely quiet. For me, it is hard to imagine a scenario where one would not want to maintain some level of situational awareness, and external sounds are part of that. Anything that effectively isolates the rider from outside noises is to be avoided.
Of course, this does not apply to ride leaders. (Just kidding.)
Kim Hutchinson, Member at Large