Short list of headphone drama (that I don't have time to incorporate into the game):<br>
<ul>
<li>Start as a fervent no-headphones cyclist</li>
<li>Road noise is loud and noisy, sometimes I can barely hear my own shoutings into it. A bike bell has no chance in this noise.</li>
<li>Can't hear a cyclist approaching -- a cyclist is audibly invisible.</li>
<li>Shouting to emulate human equivalent to a car honking, or using car-horn equivalents, just makes me a <q>crybaby</q>, apparently. (And a car-driver using an actual car horn isn't?)</li>
<li><q>Loud pipes save lives</q> so I put music on through my Bluetooth speaker.</li>
<li><q>What an asshole, playing music in public</q></li>
<li>Okay, I'll put white noise. To be precise, synthesized car engine. (Proudly home-made, unrelated small-time audio-engineer experience)</li>
<li>White noise is barely heard in actual road noise, and too loud in mixed pathways etc. I can modulate volume by pressing my phone volume buttons in my pocket.</li>
<li>I can always upgrade to a bigger speaker, but how big do I want to play into the arms-race?</li>
<li><q>Loud pipes save lives</q> but damage my ears</li>
<li>I only have a set of ears. I've abused it to the point of tinnitus, pain, near tone-deafness, etc. and now my job is in danger as it requires fine-tuned ears.</li>
<li>I also wonder <q>what about disabled people?</q> (specifically deaf cyclists, and perhaps the blind and elderly trying to cross a fast-amber walk-light)</li>
<li>I have tried bone conductive earphones. They are good for listening to audio, but not for muffling reducing road noise or restoring my hearing. Unfortunately, sometimes I think everyone else was hearing what I hear, a dangerous assumption.</li>
<li>Earphones are back on. I don't care about the blame-shifting anymore. I care more about actually restoring my hearing.</li>
<li>Music is on (for morale boost) but never overpowers ambient/road noise. Also sometimes I leave the earphone <i>unplugged</i> (no music), but I doubt it will help against blame-shifting.</li>
<li>Anyone notice cars can have massive soundproofing and blasting audio system, but a cyclist cannot protect their ears (and/or are mandated to be eventually deaf/insensitive to sounds)? And if anyone chimes in that the safety onus is on the cyclist, that's exactly why cyclists break laws--because <a href="deadRight.html">you can be right and be dead-right</a> (so why bother be right?).</li>
</ul>
<br><br>
Musing rest-stop is over; time to <a href="road.html">hit the road</a> again!