The White Ear Buds Epidemic
Idiocy Meter
Asshole Meter
Is it just me, or are we having a serious epidemic of Angelenos driving around with these white ear buds in both their ears? I fault cell phone retailers for not making it known to consumers that it is illegal to drive around with ear buds or headphones in both ears unless you’re hearing impaired. I also blame cops for not enforcing this, though this doesn’t really surprise me. For the most part, cops charged with enforcing driving laws and regulations don’t seem to care about what drivers are doing inside their vehicles, whether it be texting, chatting on a cell phone without a hands-free device, or tuning out the entire world by blasting music into their headphones. This latter point has serious safety drawbacks. Consider how many fewer cars are actually stopping and pulling over for oncoming emergency vehicles. Just today, on two separate occasions, I saw drivers plowing through intersections, making turns, and refusing to pull over for ambulances and firetrucks. Given the increasingly large number of oblivious drivers you see on our roads with these white ear buds jammed in both ears, I wouldn’t be surprised if at least one of these drivers who failed to yield the right-of-way to emergency vehicles resembled this early 20s, gelled out blond kid in a beaten up red Honda Civic (license plate 6DEN). I snapped this photo while waiting at a red light at Sepulveda and Wilshire. To test out my oblivious theory, I sat there with my head completely turned and stared at this kid…the entire time. Yeah, I felt silly doing it and started laughing at one point, but this kid was none the wiser. As if we actually needed to diminish the observation skills of drivers in this town even further….
Filed under: clueless, observation
I contacted a prospective employee yesterday, whose honesty I commended. … Intelligence was another matter.
The candidate had 5 years of relevant pest control experience for a position at my company, but when I asked why he left his last position, he said, “Well, to be honest, I crashed the pest control company truck.” Ouch! So I asked, “How did that exactly happen?” You know the rest. “Well, to be honest, I was texting while driving.” Asked how he gets around now, he said he rides a motorcycle. The candidate tried pointlessly to explain that he had learned his lesson, but I retorted, “Don’t you think you should be concerned about getting killed by someone texting while driving?”
Interesting tale. I wonder how he feels knowing that motorcycle deaths are something like 26 or 27 times more likely to happen than car-related deaths.
The ear buds thing is nationwide. I’ve spotted several in the DC area in the past months. In fact, its not just ear buds, its multiple varieties of headphones. No passing it off as some bluetooth contraption either, its people with some pressing need to listen to their device through headphones. I really want to find out what these people are thinking.
I can’t wait for the post when you finally see the next level. Someone in the center lane of the interestate with a 17inch laptop fired up on their dashboard.
J Dawg, someone submitted a video a year or so ago that had someone driving on the freeway with a makeshift TV on the driver’s dashboard. You shouldn’t be able to play any video in these devices when the car is in motion, but there you have it.
In defense of ear buds:
1. Not all of us can afford $150 Jawbones and the built-in mike works very well on those apple earbuds (spent all the money on an iPhone
)
2. Those things don’t do shit to block sound, nor do they dim your mirrors so you can’t see emergency traffic lights.
Hey K, I see more attentive/knowledgeable drivers with just one ear bud in one ear, and they seem to be chatting away just fine without having to hold the built-in mike in one hand. And I agree that no matter how loud the music is blasting, you should still hear sirens and see lights coming your way. Yet, plenty of drivers here fail to stop for emergency vehicles even when they’re not wearing ear buds. So even diminishing the surrounding traffic noise with non-sound proof headphones is probably a bad idea. Lastly, it’s the law….
Haha. I’m so sorry, but I am one of those shit drivers that have caught this problem. I just started to recently, just because it’s better than listening to the radio or the CDs that I have (it gets really repetitive). So I just listen to my ipod. Yes, I know it’s illegal, but being stuck in traffic for an hour and 30 minutes is just hell (not a good excuse, I know). I’m trying not to as much as I can though.
Hey jeshika, unless you’re driving a car that still has a tape deck, I’m pretty sure you have an aux input jack somewhere in your car. Check in and around your dashboard and armrest area. The cable is cheaper than the headphones, and your music will play through your car’s speakers. Do what you can to make the commute manageable, but just know that there are safer, legal alternatives.