Oh, nostalgia! Now everyone is wearing wireless earbuds, even while riding a bike. And in greater numbers than I ever saw Walkman headphones. And yet humanity has somehow survived.
I'm a techno optimist through and through. I've spent my life and career close to technology, but in the same breath I think we'd be foolish to pretend humanity's relationship is without drawbacks.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S00221...
And deaf people shouldn't be allowed to do either?
Where is this?
Is it illegal to drive deaf?
https://www.visordown.com/news/general/france-bans-earphones
That's a poor comparison, for a few reasons.
1. Headphones can prevent you from responding to outside sounds in at least two ways: (1) the sound from the headphones might mask the outside sound so it is not audible to you, and (2) you might be distracted enough by the sound from the headphones that even if the outside sound is audible through the headphones you fail to notice it. Also that distraction can also take your attention away from other important things needed for safe driving.
Deafness only prevents you from responding to outside sounds by making it so you don't hear them. It does not add distractions on top of that.
2. Deafness is a disability. We often relax rules for people with disabilities to help them have a more ordinary life.
In the US less than 2 percent of the population is deaf. Letting that small number of people drive despite not being able to hear provides them with great benefit. It probably does slightly increase the overall accident rate but with it only being 2 percent or less of drivers the effect is limited.
People with headphones appears to be way higher than 2 percent. They will have a much bigger impact the 2 percent who are deaf.
3. Deaf people have likely been deaf for most or all of their lives. I'd expect they have learned to compensate by paying more attention visually to their surroundings. When they learned to drive they were likely taught the importance of such compensation and have been practicing and perfecting it ever since.
Headphones are temporary. Very few people wearing headphones while driving are going to have the compensation skills that deaf people have for dealing with not hearing outside sounds.
Cars have come with radios for nearly a century, tape players for 50+ years, and many drivers play their music so loud you can hear it even when sitting in another car
Clearly depriving or overloading auditory input is not deemed to be a risk
Wind in the ears can be a problem. Blocking the wind helps people hear cars/ dangers better, provided the music is off/ very low volume. I, and several other cyclists i know wear buds (no music) for this reason. You can't always tell if people are listening to music, or not. With walkman headphones, i always remember being able to hear the high frequencies of other people's music.
debatable.