Violet
9th March 2016, 09:08
Recently I've begun experimenting with hearing protection during cycling. There is a lot of traffic on my route, highways, trams, buses, trains, planes, loud pedestrians near busy centres. There is too much noise.
I used earplugs with triple protection. Before that I used to occasionally put in music, not sure how much protection that gave my ears, though. Noise can be transformed to a pleasant experience, therefor not necessarily a less damaging one, or safer for that matter.
I'm still looking for a healthy balance.
When I was taking (car) driving lessons I had some very interesting conversations. My teacher, as it happens, was a painter. And some of the talk, self-evidently was about traffic as well.
And one day he asked me to pay close attention to the engine. "You can hear the difference, it will help you to change gears." Then it diverted on to talk about noisy cars, diesels versus gasoline, and electrical and perhaps future full noiseless cars...What would that give in traffic?
One of the observations we made was that that could be quite hazardous, not hearing cars approach.
On the first day of the hearing protection experiment, I noticed this instantly. I was cycling opposite a single approaching car in a calm street which I did - oddly - not notice because I was busy trying to figure out what that buzzing sound behind me was.
The buzzing sounds as transposed through three layers of muffling ear protection and seemingly coming from behind me, was indeed the car in front of me.
The ear protection does not fully block sound, it muffles it, so that it is perceived transformed. Familiar sound settings which I have built up through a routine and which allowed me a certain luxury of inattentiveness, now changed so profoundly that my experience of orientation got distorted. Extra alertness through other senses, visual in this case, are indispensable.
After getting used to the changed sound pattern, I find that decreasing traffic noise, reduces stress and exhaustion in long distance cycling. As well, it's a good exercise for your eyes. We don't look half as much as we think we do! And taking away part of the hearing, surprisingly proved to be like taking away part of the sight.
Looking back, I felt more confident with music, sometimes loud, though there seems to be no good reason for it. With music, esp. if too loud (don't do this in the city! Forests, parks, other off-traffic paths, better) you can't always hear rings, horns, or other signals from co-traffic goers. Not necessarily because of the music itself but it mingling with all the other loud noises. It at least equally muffles ànd transforms environmental sounds. In addition, the music is more diverting, so the distances done, seem shorter.
What is your experience?
I used earplugs with triple protection. Before that I used to occasionally put in music, not sure how much protection that gave my ears, though. Noise can be transformed to a pleasant experience, therefor not necessarily a less damaging one, or safer for that matter.
I'm still looking for a healthy balance.
When I was taking (car) driving lessons I had some very interesting conversations. My teacher, as it happens, was a painter. And some of the talk, self-evidently was about traffic as well.
And one day he asked me to pay close attention to the engine. "You can hear the difference, it will help you to change gears." Then it diverted on to talk about noisy cars, diesels versus gasoline, and electrical and perhaps future full noiseless cars...What would that give in traffic?
One of the observations we made was that that could be quite hazardous, not hearing cars approach.
On the first day of the hearing protection experiment, I noticed this instantly. I was cycling opposite a single approaching car in a calm street which I did - oddly - not notice because I was busy trying to figure out what that buzzing sound behind me was.
The buzzing sounds as transposed through three layers of muffling ear protection and seemingly coming from behind me, was indeed the car in front of me.
The ear protection does not fully block sound, it muffles it, so that it is perceived transformed. Familiar sound settings which I have built up through a routine and which allowed me a certain luxury of inattentiveness, now changed so profoundly that my experience of orientation got distorted. Extra alertness through other senses, visual in this case, are indispensable.
After getting used to the changed sound pattern, I find that decreasing traffic noise, reduces stress and exhaustion in long distance cycling. As well, it's a good exercise for your eyes. We don't look half as much as we think we do! And taking away part of the hearing, surprisingly proved to be like taking away part of the sight.
Looking back, I felt more confident with music, sometimes loud, though there seems to be no good reason for it. With music, esp. if too loud (don't do this in the city! Forests, parks, other off-traffic paths, better) you can't always hear rings, horns, or other signals from co-traffic goers. Not necessarily because of the music itself but it mingling with all the other loud noises. It at least equally muffles ànd transforms environmental sounds. In addition, the music is more diverting, so the distances done, seem shorter.
What is your experience?