I love those people because I know they won’t bother me. The brain is perfectly fine with tuning out the world until attention is needed and then bringing your focus back at the right time. I could not stand to have just one earbud in - that would drive me nuts. Better to just lower the volume as needed.
I don’t like loud cell phone conversations, and I hate Bluetooth phones because those people haven’t trained themselves not to make eye contact while on the phone. When someone is talking and looking at me, it’s unsettling in that moment where my brain tries to reconcile the false cues.
No. I haven’t noticed that people walking, jogging, or biking with headphones seem more distracted, or more likely to take risks that would put them at fault for being hit.
What does anger and frightens me (as a pedestrian who walks a great deal for fun, and commuting cyclist) is when people in half-ton death machines are doing all the things that make it much more likely they will be distracted or lose control of their car for the few seconds it will take to kill or maim me in my unprotected meat suit. Texting, having animated phone conversations, blasting music, speeding for short distances for absolutely no reason, otherwise driving erratically and taking risks, allowing passengers in the car to act like they’re at a rave, etc.
I (and often my dogs) almost get hit by someone doing one or some of these things, through no fault of my own, about once per week. The best bet is to make eye contact with EVERY driver who has a chance of running into me head on before I go in front of them, but with sunglasses and the non-stop texting, this can be difficult.
Now, I am a distractable person, and I don’t happen to own any portable music-listening devices and wouldn’t use them while cycling etc if I did. Frankly I feel like I’m taking my life into my hands every day with the dangerous, careless way people drive, and I need to be on high alert at all times to keep myself safe. However if I was listening to some music and got mowed down in the crosswalk when I had the right of way by some asshole who was on their phone and wasn’t obeying traffic laws (see it every day) I certainly wouldn’t consider it my own fault.
I suspect the study I cited got different results because they supplied the electronics for the study and the people who were involved in the study were fiddling with player trying to find a song they liked and besides the did the study with teenagers.
I didn’t propose making walking with earbuds illegal, so that is just a strawman you constructed. BTW, it is illegal for drunk people to walk around in Florida. Although it is at the officers discretion to arrest them or take them home.
The study I referred to earlier mentioned they were surprised by their results, since previous studies indicate that there wasn’t a problem with people listening to radios in their cars. I suspect the difference might be the commercials. Radios might be a lot less immersive than mp3 players because of the commercials. Maybe they should try putting commercials on the mp3 players or even a one minute pause between song.
How would you feel if a driver swerved to miss you and took out another pedestrian?
My philosophy is the I don’t want “He had the right of way”, engraved on my tombstone. I learned that one the hard way when someone ran a red light and totaled my car, but the lesson saved my life last year when it was a concrete truck that ran the red light.
I cycle with earbuds in both ears. I listen to talk radio at a reasonable volume. I can hear traffic much better than when I am in a car.
On my bike with earbuds I always can hear emergency vehicles way before they get to me and can yield safely to let them pass.
But I remember many times when I am driving with the windows rolled up and the radio on and a/c on and I get freaked out seeing a firetruck or cop car or ambulance in my rear view window with its lights and sirens on my ass trying to pass me but I can’t hear their sirens at all in my car.
You didn’t come right out and say it, but you did say:
Which lead me to believe that you supported the idea of making it illegal.
Okay, I’m not familiar with Florida law but usually it’s illegal to be drunk and disorderly. If you’re just strolling home after having a few at a neighbourhood BBQ I doubt you’re breaking any laws, even though you’d probably be over the limit to drive. Your reaction times would be slowed though. So should those people be banned from walking?
Incidentally, it seems that pedestrian fatalities have decreased over time: A total of 4,092 pedestrian deaths occurred in 2009, down 46 percent from 1975. Now, clearly there could be other factors involved in that decline, but if MP3 players were so very terrible wouldn’t we see a dramatic increase in fatalities over the last 10 years or so?
The charge in Florida is Disorderly Intoxication. I tried to google Disorderly Intoxication Florida, but it was difficult to find any information among all the links for lawyers. I did learn that the police can’t just pull you for swerving as long as you can keep your car between the lines. I was wondering how some people I knew never got a DUI.
Local bars aren’t common in Florida. I checked and the closest place I would actually go into is over 5 miles from my house.
My old roommate always took a cab home. If you can’t afford cab fare you should drink at home.
There some indications that drunk walking isn’t very safe for the drunks.
Actually, In spite of all the talk about inattentive drivers, traffic fatalities are at the lowest level since they started keeping records. On a passenger mile basis, it is only 1/10 what is was in 1960.
It bugs me when I’m on base, but only because I know there’s a rule against it on military installations.
It doesn’t bug me enough to make me bother to confront folks about it, because, hey, I’ve got better things to do with my day than antagonize every fifth person I meet on the street.
