Morning Friend,
All aboard the “ban-wagon” everyone.
Now that some truly sensible laws are in place banning the slow asphyxiation of children in cars and the hand-held hamstringing of drivers, let’s roll the wagon on toward another “proven” menace; deranged music-listening cyclists.
The latest “proof” linking music listening and cycling tragedy appeared in a small story in last week’s paper.
A young cyclist was killed when he rolled through a red light and into the path of a large truck.
The fact that the young man had a personal listening device in use at the time was considered a “contributing factor” in the tragedy.
As a cyclist myself, this story obviously touched me, but not just in the obvious way.
“What in heaven’s name”, I asked myself, “was the poor soul listening to, that it was a “contributing factor” in his demise?....Perry Como?...self-hypnosis?....self hypnosis voiced by Perry Como??”
May the Good Lord rest and comfort the poor departed lad and his family, but for goodness sakes, let us for a moment gild his memory with a shred more respect than by suggesting he was so distracted by the music he was listening to that he failed to notice a red light!?
Contrary to the ignorant conclusion inferred by the newspaper, I would beg to differ on behalf of those who know...and the young fellow who I think knew too.
Lo these many years I have cycled the year around and having traversed none of the many miles unaccompanied by some form of music, I can think of zero times when I went suddenly color-blind or lost my mind in some casualty-causing fashion or another.
I would in fact have to strongly argue that if anything, music enhances my skills and critical awareness on the road.
The relaxing soundtrack of my ride nicely compliments the steely sensory process and physiological rigors of a safe journey.
In tunes I am in tune.
Obviously the volume is not so loud as to obliterate the ambient and potentially emergent siren-sounds of the street.
For me the idea is not self-induced deafness ( or blindness?), but a safe spiritual compliment and imaginative enhancement to a bicycle ride.
I might appear to be ambling along on a rusting green Norco, but with an energizing jolt of some blistering southern rock as a backdrop I may well be high in the saddle of some trusty coal-black trail horse named “Storm” or “Lightening”; something biblically titanic.
The badlands of the mean streets lie ahead on the trail with bad drivers lurking like black-hatted rustlers in the sage.
The reins of my handlebars are gripped as tightly as the cast of my baleful Lone Ranger stare, scanning warily for pothole snakes and traffic control devices; relentless as an AC/DC backbeat.
Or it could be the notes of an etude trailing behind me on a gallop through a fine Austrian meadow.
Or perhaps with my “motor running” I could be heading out on the highway, looking for adventure....and whatever comes our way?...my “horse” is now a “hawg” of course.
In any event, the magical world I create for my ride through the use of energizing and inspiring music is not some “bizzaro-realm” of science fiction where up is down and left is right and red means “go”.
The same basic rules of physics, chemistry, biology, and the road are distinctly applicable.
As are the rules of good common sense.
It makes sense to ban things and practices that are bad for children and hazardous to the public’s safety.
A car filled with cigarette smoke is not a “contributing factor” to a child having trouble breathing, it’s the cause.
By all means my friend, ban it.
Listening to music does not cause insanity in cyclists nor does it contribute factors rendering them as drones haphazardly meandering through intersections like suicidal twits.
Let’s ban bad luck, bad brakes, bad mornings or the darned bug or whatever bad thing which got in that poor kid’s distracted eye that day.
If such an absurdity as a ban on music while cycling were to come to pass I can definitely foresee traffic light problems of my own...I’d be seeing nothing but red.
love tImMy:/
Laugh as much as you breathe...
Love as long as you live (saddled up)
