Ear Bud

There’s a sound you get on trains that really grates on my nerves. It’s not a mechanical sound, as such (although I understand some form of physical movement is involved), it’s more a buzzing sound.

Now I’m a bee keeper, by hobby, and I know what a ‘buzzing sound’ sounds like. Trust me – on those late July days, when the hive is full of bees and you open it up to see if they have enough stores for the autumn/winter, you get a certain amount of buzzing. Lots of it. 

50,000 to be precise.

But it’s not like the sound you get on trains. The sound on trains has a certain rhythm to it. A certain bzzz, bzzz, bzzzitty, bzzz. The sound of music. No sorry, the sound of high pitched white noise. (You may not be aware, but there are a number of sources of noise you can generate – my favourite is Brown Noise. With this one, you can have your headphones on, the audio levels reasonably high and drown out all background noise. There are other flavours too; some of them you might have heard of – especially if you hark back from the 1970s – Pink Noise and White Noise).

This noise though is much more annoying. On the irritation scale it’s up there at about 9 or 10 (the scale goes to 11 – a tribute to Spinal Tap: The Movie) along with bursting balloons near one's face, drunkards crawling out of the pub late at night, Broad Street on a Thursday and any loud road works noise that you can think of.

It’s the sound of earbuds. 

Too loud. 

Too loud for the wearer (obviously, because I can hear the beat) and too loud for the other passengers sitting in the quiet zone. THE QUIET ZONE!! The clue’s in the name, ok? So please, if you’re reading this and you’re one of those, move or TURN IT DOWN!!! (Most likely anyone reading this is not one of those, as you’re all too smart to be one).

Talking of earbuds. I find it quite odd that cyclists wear them. 

I’ve seen them do it.

Yes. I get that a cycle journey can be boring (yawn). I understand that sometimes the power music can help with the push for peddle (faster, faster. The lights are turning' red). I see that wearing earbuds is better than hearing the usual city din that we are surrounded by on the daily commute. What I don’t get is that this compromises a vital sense – hearing. Maybe I’m being a little judgemental here. Maybe the volume isn’t high enough to make the cycling in traffic a high risk factor (or more than it is usually). Maybe they don’t even have sound coming through. But if they have, my experience is: in this type of environment, the volume has to be pretty high for the signal to rise above the external noise.

Me? I’m not gonna chance it. I’d rather be able to hear the rather large bus/lorry/truck/tram/plane[?] as it is sneaking up behind me ready for the inevitable blow of the horn or worse, God forbid.

Maybe those guys who wear earbuds, and have them on when they’re cycling, have a separate set of ears for alerting the brain of impending danger from behind. Maybe they don’t.

It’s a risk I’ll not take.