1

So, the SIGO and I had a conversation today about wearing headphones/earbuds/etc. while you were driving a car. These are basically devices that do not amplify hearing of ambient noise (e.g. hearing aids), but do allow you to hear your phone, block ourt road noise, use your CB radio, etc. and do add a layer of seperation between you and ambient noise.

So, do you wear headphones/earbuds while you’re driving (you’re operating the vehicle)?

  • Yes, but it’s not against the law in my state/province/district.
  • Yes, but it is against the law in my state/province/district.
  • No, but it’s not against the law in my state/province/district.
  • No, but it’s against the law in my state/province/district.
0 voters

Tripler
My position after I vote. . .

2

Even if it is legal why would someone do this? It is dangerous since you are less able to hear things that might be important to operating the car safely.

What’s wrong with the stereo in the car? These days you can connect your phone, get satellite service and so on. It’s common.

ETA: It is illegal in Illinois where I live.

3

[Note] The poll got set up wrong accidentally–I just wanted one vote.

Anyway, SIGO and I were talking about a long drive coming up, and using my earbuds to listen to podcasts on the 2+ hour drive. I told her that I don’t like to do that, as it eliminates me hearing sounds and reducing situational awareness while I drive; I can’t hear sirens or horns as easily, and it could be a distraction.

I plan on buying a portable cigarette-lighter-powered BlueTooth-to-radio plug to let me stream podcasts through the ol’ car’s radio (it’s a 2002 car).

This got me thinking–who is using earbuds or clamshells on the road? Is it legal where you are? I learned (30 years ago) that it was illegal in my home state, but now with the proliferation of cellphones and hands-free tech, it’s kind of ubiquitous.

Tripler
What do you do?

4

You ninja’d me. . . but my one car is pre-BT.

Tripler
I’m on your side, though.

5

I drive my deceased mother-in-law’s 2006 Camry, complete with cassette deck, resentfully. It has no Bluetooth. But years ago we bought a portable Bluetooth speaker, and now it lives in my car, so I can listen to podcasts while I drive.

6

No, because I feel like they make me less aware of my surroundings.

My car stereo went out a few weeks ago, though*, so I did think about it. It was right before the eclipse (totality would normally have been about a 1.5 hour drive away, but traffic was bananas, so it was like 4 hours away) and there was no way I was going to make that drive in silence. So I do have a little bluetooth speaker hooked up to play music/podcasts/audiobooks. Obviously, the sound quality is not great. But it works for now. Earbuds would sound better, but be too distracting.

*a fuse, probably. I don’t have the spare money right now for kind-of-a-luxury car repairs, but I do have to get a definitely-a-necessity car repair now and it looks like the fuse might not be actually that expensive or difficult to replace, so I might see if they can do both or if I can figure out how to do it on my own.

7

In Illinois, where I live, it’s illegal to wear a headset which occupies both ears while driving (a single-ear headset is legal).

I’m in the same situation; the stereo in my car died back in January. It’s happened once before, and it required the unit itself to be replaced (which won’t be cheap). So, for now, I’ve been using my smartphone’s integrated speaker on short trips, and a portable Bluetooth speaker on longer trips.

8

That sounds like a terrible thing to do and I don’t know why anyone would even want to do that.

And wtf is a SIGO?

9

It’s illegal here but I’ve never had reason to do it anyway. In the era before connecting your phone to the car was a common option, holding your phone was usually still legal and you had speakerphone. For playing audio from the phone or other device, I had a 3.5mm jack in the car. Prior to that was a CD full of mp3 files or something. I’ve never had a period where wearing headphones would have made sense (and wouldn’t have done it anyway)

10

Car fuses are very cheap (maybe $5-6). Very easy to replace too.

Take the bad one into a car parts store and they will make sure you get the proper replacement.

Changing fuses is easy. Unplug and plug back in. The hard part is reading the legend to know which fuse it is (that, or you pull one out at a time to see if it is broken…putting the good ones back in…a bit of a fuss but even that would only take a few minutes for a car).

11

Significant Other, I imagine.

12

Exactly. SIGnificant Other.

I will note that on a return trip home along I-40 this week, I counted on two hand the number of truckers that seemed to be wearing clamshell headsets. This kind of brought the question up in our discussion . . .

Tripler
There were easily 50 or 60 trucks I passed within a 5 hour drive.

13

The article I quoted above (about the Illinois law) also states this:

And, it looks like most of the states that do prohibit it are in the northern half of the U.S., while I-40 runs through the southern portion of the country.

14

Usually abbreviated “SO”, FYI.

15

To be fair, I’ve heard “SIGO” (pronounced SIG-oh) in the past, though not recently.

16

There’s no way I would do that in my car. I’d be afraid I’d have to reset something after yanking fuses will-nilly.

17

Not only have I not heard it, Googling returned nothing.

18

I tried googling “siggo,” and got this. (I only thought to try that, realizing that I’d only ever heard the term, not ever seen it in writing.)

19

Silly me, I tried Googling what the OP actually wrote. :slightly_smiling_face:

20

Unasked advice: I used one of those in my 2000 vehicle, and it was great in the vast stretches between cities, but in any sort of urban area there was too much interference from local radio stations for it to work. The one I have can do multiple channels, but all of them were taken. If you have any way to do a wired connection, such as a tape adapter, aux plug, or even a cassette Bluetooth receiver I would strongly recommend it over the radio thing.

To the OP: Does a motorcycle count? I believe headphones are illegal in Colorado, but because the speakers are attached to the helmet it counts the same as like a car stereo, and is legal. I use that, along with ear plugs, on the motorcycle.

Before in-car Bluetooth I used to use a hand free single ear thing if I had to talk on the phone in the car. That was legal.

My current earbuds (Sony WF-1000XM5) have an ambient sound mode that passes through and amplifies sound. Sort of a cheap hearing aid type setting. Wearing those while driving would be illegal, but I don’t think it would be unsafe in ambient sound mode (assuming reasonable volume).