Headphones on Bikes

I have been meaning to write a rant about this for some time, so it will make a good first entry.

My commute by bike began in Kindergarten at age 5. I continued to ride my bike to school pretty much every day unless it was raining hard. Growing up in Portland, this meant a lot of drizzly commutes. Since moving to NYC 14 years ago this month, I have been riding here on pretty much a daily basis.

I am happy to report that there are now MORE people cycling for one reason or another in NYC on a daily basis than ever. I am unhappy to report that the vast majority of these people appear to be complete idiots.

When I first moved to NYC I was a broke, beans and rice eating student and one of my first jobs was working for Breakaway Courier Systems. Then, as now, you could easily tell the difference between the hard core couriers and the poseurs. The guys (mostly) out in February in the 20 degree weather were the ones who did it for a living, and who made good money (by messenger standards). Not a single one of them sported Walkman (no iPods back then). Most of the pros wore helmets and ran geared bikes with brakes (I'll save the fixed gear city riding rant for another time).

For some reason it now appears to be de rigueur to ride around town not only on a shiny track bike, but wearing some type of headphones too. Don't get me wrong, I love music, I love listening to music - but never on a bike riding through traffic. We've all seen morons walking into the street wearing headphones and mashing away on a Blackberry and thought to ourselves:

You oblivious fu#$ing idiot, you're going to get hit, but that's probably not a bad thing...

Now tons of people that I would very much like to like, are doing something just as stupid. I am shaking my head in disbelief that I even have to describe why riding in a city with music - or even your Fresh Air podcast - going in your ears is a bad idea, but here goes:

You can't hear sh1t if you have headphones on

Clear enough? Last time I checked, we each get five senses - if we're lucky. And in the case of cycling in traffic, I'm going to go out on a limb and say that taste and smell don't matter. So if you are artificially crippling one of your senses (I am purposefully ignoring everyone saying "but I don't have the sound up loud at all") you are cutting off at least 33% of your environmental input.

I can't tell you how many times I have heard a car coming up behind me, or a horn, or... and quickly faded over to the side as a vehicle came whizzing past. Without this input, imagine your surprise when some asshole passes you 2 inches from your handlebar when you had no idea they were approaching because you were humming along to your Raconteurs.

Please ride a bike. Please don't be a moron and ride in the city with headphones.