IPOD while riding - ILLEGAL?!

i didnt read the thread so if someone brought it up sorry... what about helmet speakers.. they arnt IN your ear techincaly MD has those laws 2 and they are ok here

 

I don't agree with the hand-free devices, it's just an excuse to make consumers buy more things. Talking on the phone distracts you, period. Think about it, if you're having a conversation with someone in your car, and a deer jumps out or the car in front of you slams on their brakes, you stop the conversation and focus everything on driving. Having to concentrate on what someone is saying in your ear piece, regardless if you're holding it or not, distracts you.

Back to the topic, how are we allowed Bluetooth in our helmets but not allowed earphones, even in one ear? Laaaame

 

So going back to the OP regarding PA, I guess you can't have a blue-tooth or other hands-free, in-ear device for use with your cell phone?

edit:
Think this is the PA VC:
§ 3314. Prohibiting use of hearing impairments devices.

(a) General rule. – No driver shall operate a vehicle while wearing or using one or more headphones or ear phones.

(b) Exception. – This section does not prohibit the use of hearing aides or other devices for improving the hearing of the driver nor does it prohibit the use of a headset in conjunction with a cellular telephone that only provides sound through one ear and allows surrounding sounds to be heard with the other ear.

So since most "phones" these days are your music player and/or your GPS, it should be ok with one headphone, yes?

 

Think about it, if you're having a conversation with someone in your car, and a deer jumps out or the car in front of you slams on their brakes, you stop the conversation and focus everything on driving. Having to concentrate on what someone is saying in your ear piece, regardless if you're holding it or not, distracts you./I]

That's not been my experience after safely using a Motorola ear bud for many years, which by the way has always sounded far more clear than merely holding my cell phone to my ear while driving.

I don't drive around wearing my ear bud unless I'm expecting a call. Instead, if I receive a call, I will briefly pick up the phone, answer, and then ask the caller to wait a moment while I put the bud in place. Then, and only then will I will talk.

Last January I purchased a 2010 Infiniti FX35, which includes an in-cabin BlueTooth phone system as part of the vehicle's voice-activated GPS navigation package. To place a call, one need only push a button on the steering wheel, and then speak to the system what you want it to do, simple as that. An in-cabin microphone sends out your voice, and the person's voice on the other end of the call is heard quite clearly through a high fidelity Bose speaker system. Wonderful technology. (Push-buttons on the steering wheel allow for adjustment of volume, muting, etc.)

In my opinion, whether I'm using an ear bud, or the FX's in-cabin phone system, it is no more distracting than talking with one or more passengers. In fact, I will argue that talking with the aid of a BlueTooth device while driving is actually less distracting than talking with passengers, because in the latter situation we will naturally and quite frequently turn our gaze away from the road ahead in order to make eye contact which is rather instinctual in terms of how humans communicate with one another.

And so, when talking with a front passenger, we will frequently turn our heads towards them in order to make periodic eye contact. Likewise, when talking with people in the back seat (or even the dog in the back for that matter), we will typically engage in back-and-forth eye contact through the rearview mirror while driving. Furthermore, if a conversation between driver and passenger(s) becomes really engaging or heated, we will tend to make even more frequent eye contact at the expense of watching the road and surroundings. On the other hand, there is no distracting eye contact to be made or attended to while talking over a BlueTooth system. Duh!

This issue of eye contact while driving is why several U.S. States (e.g., Ohio) have either proposed or passed laws in which young, new drivers are forbidden to have more than one passenger for a period of time after they are first granted a license, and said passenger is limited to the front passenger seat, and no rear passengers.

Indeed, several years ago, while I was stopped on my (then) Honda CB750 Nighthawk at a light in a long string of traffic, a 17 year old female driver right behind me, who had a front passenger and 3 more girlfriends in the back seat of her car (radio blaring)... I watched in my side mirror as she was totally engrossed in a conversation with the girls in the back seat, her gaze fixated on looking at them in her rearview mirror.

Well, as the traffic began to inch forward, she was not paying attention because her eyes were still fixated on her rearview mirror, chatting away with her girlfriends. She soon absentmindedly let off the brakes and then bumped into me from behind pretty good, but I had the clutch pulled in, so she didn't knock me over, and there was no damage. Nevertheless, I soon tailed her and she pulled her over. I gave her a lecture and a good scare, taking down plate number and names, and left it at that.

Bottom line: Those of you who think that it's somehow safer and less distracting to yack on a cell phone that's held to your ear while driving, rather than using a hands-free BlueTooth system... I believe you are mistaken. Also, I have been using Autocom's Super Pro AVi kit (with in-helmet speakers and microphones) for several years in order to hear Zumo GPS voice prompts, radar detector signals, talk rider-to-passenger, talk bike-to-bike, etc., while using 20db earplugs... I feel that this system increases safety in many respects. That said, I keep 2-way chatter to a minimum while riding under certain conditions, and even though my Autocom rig and Zumo 550 allows for music playback as well as BlueTooth phone pairing and chatting while riding, I have never, nor will I ever, rig up those options because I know that they would be very distracting for me. YMMV.

I will add one final thought: If you get pulled over by a LEO, and as you pull off your helmet, if a pair of ear buds are seen dangling (or still plugged into your ears), this will probably not look good in the eyes of the law, especially if they're heard to be blaring music. On the other hand, in-helmet ear speakers (and microphone) with a hard-wired rig like that offered by Autocom will be much less likely to draw much attention, since the speakers are in-helmet rather than being ear buds. To my way of thinking, this is rather like the difference between being caught wearing headphones while driving a car, vs. listening to the car's speakers. On a bike, in-helmet speakers are safer and far less conspicuous than ear buds, IMO.

 

so if PA says no music, does that mean even speakers?