Edit: Thanks everyone. I’ve heard your comments loud and clear. I will not wear headphones while driving.
Yes!
Don’t do it, please.
Are deaf people not allowed to drive?
Deaf people don’t have a choice not to hear and have heightened visual awareness. They also have accessibility tools to assist and bridge the gap in awareness.
Oh nice? What kind of tools? I’ve always been curious. Although a heightened visual awareness seems dubious. How could you even begin to quantify that?
Similar for smoke alarms, they have devices that essentially “listen” for specific sounds/frequencies and will then flash (AVC or audio-visual conversion) when triggered. Essentially “if this is flashing, the house is likely burning down”.
Increased visual awareness is just “they pay more attention to this sense due to lacking another” rather than the stereotypical “Im blind but I can see sounds” like daredevil. It would be interesting to see if it is actually quantified or captured by studies though.
Those types of accessories are not used whilst driving.
Lol did you have to Google that. My wife is deaf, half my friends group are deaf. We are laughing at this.
My driving instructor also taught people with various disabilities. He said with deaf people the examiners pay special attention to how much they look around.
He also told the story of a guy with only one leg who really really wanted to ride a motorbike. The examiner made him stop at an incline dozens of times to make sure he always managed to fall to the side with his good leg and that the leg was strong enough to always hold the bike.
That’s really cool. As someone with my own disabilities, it had never occurred to me that I might be able to do things which may seem unrealistic to me now with a little guidance like this.
Many had different accessibility gadgets. Someone missing a right arm would have the stick on their left, someone without legs had accelerator and breaks on levers, someone too short to reach them would have leg extensions. Really fascinating stuff.
That’s fair. It sounds like an official should sign off if they fill the necessary requirements to safety operate the vehicle. But the point I was trying to make is that hearing isn’t a requirement to drive safely.
Your point is technically correct, but the background context matters a lot.
Yes they are, and that’s an entirely different situation.
People who are deaf have learned to work with their disability, and reduce the inherently increased risk of not having auditory cues -screeching tires, honking, emergency sirens, etc. That is a life skill for them.
OP, on the other hand, was asking about whether it was dangerous to voluntarily block out those cues in a situation which is already moderately risky (driving), and implicitly is someone who hasn’t developed the compensating skills.
The question was ‘is it dangerous?’ It absolutely is, as well as stupid and in some cases, illegal.
Have you considered people who have limited impaired hearing and not totally deaf? Do they acquire these life skills? Is it something that is taught or self learned. It just seems to me it’s less about hearing and more about mindfulness and the paying the proper attention to your conditions.
I upvoted you.
People are way too fixated on black and white. Everything is grey.
But also, people are dumb.
VERY DANGEROUS.
WHAT?
VERY DANGEROUS!!!
Yes. In many jurisdictions, it’s illegal to use any kind of headphones while driving.
It’s dangerous to use anything that blocks your hearing, even just regular headphones!
Yes. Anything that interferes with your ability to pay attention to keeping the tonnes of metal you’re driving on the road, is dangerous. It’s a distraction and stops you from being able to hear audio cues like sirens, crossing signals, etc. Horns are also not entirely “fuck you” buttons but to warn other drivers of potential hazards, through sound. Use your cars sound system. Buy a shitty dongle if you have to; but headphones of any variety is a bad idea for driving. It’s also illegal in some jurisdictions.
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I’m a cyclist. Within the context of cycling, everyone agrees that using headphones on a bike is very dangerous because it limits your situational awareness. Yet nobody bats an eye at cars playing music with rolled up windows in a much faster and heavier vehicle with bigger blind spots. Driving dangerously is way too normalized.
They very much bat an eye at drivers who use headphones/earbuds while driving–as they should because it is much more dangerous, blocking or muting external sounds while very actively drawing your attention because the sounds are being sent straight into your ear canal.
Hearing through headphones is not comparable to hearing through an external speaker, even in an enclosed space.
Hearing through headphones is not comparable to hearing through an external speaker
Disagree. I think they are very comparable. Wearing headphones in a car is only slightly worse than listening to loud music in the car. Cars have gotten quieter and more isolating, more powerful, bigger, faster, and with bigger blind spots over the years. You barely have any situational awareness if you even roll up the windows, nevermind playing music in any form. The difference between a stereo and headphones is splitting hairs.
I’m sorry, but I have to disagree. My experience is very much counter to what you are saying.
I’m a cyclist. Within the context of cycling, everyone agrees that using headphones on a bike is very dangerous because it limits your situational awareness.
No, not everyone agrees with that. I bike all the time with bone conduction headphones, this is not a problem whatsoever.
Seriously, what has gotten into people in this thread?
I left out that detail but I do the same. Bone conduction headphones are ideal on a bike and very different from a normal pair of earbuds or on-ear headphones.
deaf people manage it.
Deaf people also have a lot more experience compensating for / adjusting to the loss of that particular sensory input.
no shit? you can compensate for it with practice? damn i shoulda thought of that
Not hearing anything is nowhere near the same as actively distracting yourself with whatever is playing on the headphones while also suppressing a sense you typically rely on. The idea of people who are irresponsible enough to drive with headphones practicing enough to somehow match the experience of someone who lives every second of every day without sound, is ludicrous at best.
your personal incredulity notwithstanding, are you advocating not listening to music too (edit: speakers)? audiobooks… billboards… rainbow crosswalks… very distracting.
edit: shall I assume the lack of response here stems from an inability to successfully address the obvious contradictions in your argument?Not to the point that you can’t hear or with ANC. Im advocating for not using headphones while driving at all, because it’s dangerous and irresponsible. Your point of “deaf people exist so headphones while driving is fine” is incorrect. Furthermore, if I stop replying it’ll likely be due to not wanting to debate with someone trying to defend dangerous driving habits.
my point isnt that deaf people exist, my point is that they represent an obvious contradiction that you have not taken the trouble to explain; now you dont get to have it both ways. either deaf people are deprived of something that makes driving dangerous, or they arent. if there is something that explains the apparent contradiction, id sure like to know more about it. if it seems im bein particular about this, it’s because i am: ive been driving with my headphones on, professionally, for over a decade now. ive heard people claim headphones are somehow dangerous, but nobody has yet subsequently explained how deaf people are somehow safe to drive without sound in a way that i am not. it seems to me a very obvious contradiction.
you try to explain that deaf people might have adaptations and accomodations, (though you forget or are unaware that these are not required to be qualified to drive (or i suppose at least in my neck of the woods. maybe thats a requirement wherever youre from)) and that they have a lifetime of practice. well, i can still hear horns despite the headphones, and i have a helluvalot more practice in these specific conditions than a deaf 16-year-old fresh with their license, or a person who suffered hearing loss but still drives to work the very same day they get cleared to go back to work, however ludicrous you may think that is.
i’ll give you a pass on other extremely common forms of distraction and obscuration, even the audio ones like blaring music, loud pipes, or screaming children, as being the lesser of the two arguments i presented.
all that said, if you aint wanna keep going thats fine, ive said most of what i wanted to say and i dont wanna antagonize you for having a different opinion.
