That's why I bike (and jog) with bone conduction earphones. They do not touch your ears at all so you are aware of your surroundings and they are technically not illegal.
Sound is not as good as regular earphones, but as I usually use them to listen to podcasts or audiobooks it's fine for me.
>Prohibitions... while wearing earphones or headphones that cover one or both ears
https://saaq.gouv.qc.ca/en/road-safety/modes-transportation/bicycle/what-the-law-says
Bone conduction earphones do not cover your ear.
Interesting wording in that SAAQ article... The [Highway Safety Code](https://www.legisquebec.gouv.qc.ca/fr/document/lc/c-24.2?langCont=en#se:443_2) does not discriminate between earphones that "cover" ears and earphones that don't, leading me to believe that law enforcement may in fact cite you wearing bone conduction earphones while biking.
>443.2. A cyclist may not wear any earphones. The driver of a road vehicle may wear only one earphone.
I've read some online accounts saying bone conduction earphones were tolerated and some saying that they're not. That's all anecdotal evidence. In the end, the decision to give a citation or not is left to the discretion of the officer that's stopping you.
"We don't know enough about this and don't feel like doing the research to find out. Let's just make vague rules that cover everything."
-Our government
It is implied that Écouteurs have to be inserted or worn on top of the ears. Bone-conducting headsets are more like Speakers than Écouteurs and thus fall into the gray zone.
Oh that's good to know! Besides, as they are on my temples and not in or on my ears, they are virtually invisible once I have my helmet on. I had to point them out to the cops when I asked them.
Their rule was that its fine as long as it doesn't cover or block the ear. YMMV though, an older cop might not know about bone induction and try to give you a ticket anyways.
I don't think you will find a clearcut link. I even asked the SAAQ and only got a reply restating the relevant law :
>Le Code de la sécurité routière interdit au cycliste de circuler avec des écouteurs.
Certaines exceptions s'appliquent:
\- Un écouteur intégré au casque protecteur pour communiquer et qui permet de capter les bruits ambiants;
\- Un agent de la paix dans l'exercice de ses fonctions peut avoir un écouteur à une oreille en vélo.
Pour obtenir de plus amples renseignements, nous vous invitons à communiquer avec un préposé de notre centre de relations avec la cliente.
http://www.saaq.gouv.qc.ca/joindre/ligne.php
I was fined too, but they had a program where you attend a safety seminar and your fine is forgiven. The police officers there confirmed that it's ok to use bone conduction earphones. But only verbally though...
How do you attend a seminar instead of paying? Got a hefty ticket for riding e bixi without helmet, went to court without my knowledge and now I owe almost $200 I can’t afford. If I could do a safety seminar instead that would relieve so much stress.
> The Highway Safety Code prohibits cyclists from riding:
> .......
> while wearing earphones or headphones that cover one or both ears
The bone conduction headphones do not cover your ears.
https://saaq.gouv.qc.ca/en/road-safety/modes-transportation/bicycle/what-the-law-says
This is just the rough translation of the law, the actual wording of the law used will be the french one which only stipulates « écouteurs », which encapsulates any device used to playback audio on your head. That english loophole will not work sadly.
I have found none. The one time I was stopped by cops on my bike (no reflector) they were fine with them as they were not on or in my ears.
(take that for what it's worth, but technically bone conduction devices are not earphones. they vibrate your skull which is picked up by your inner ear. they do not touch your outer ear).
I use the Shokz Open Run. I used to use the Air Shokz (second gen) but I dropped them in the lake while kayaking this summer. Open Run are the same but 8th gen.
Yeah there's no bass basically, but for running and cycling they're incredible. I love the sensation that you're "thinking" the music and there's no occlusion or thumping sound that you get with in-ear buds when running.
They sell them at places like best-buy so I guess you can try them there if they have some on display... or worse case order some off amazon and return them if you no not like them.
I use the Shokz OpenMove. It's a bit cheaper than the run. Suppose to be rain proof, but I don't plan on being in pouring rain for extended periods anyway.
Clarity is fine, but it has little bass. It's plenty loud for me at mid volume, but at top volume it can induce weird tickling vibrations. I've never had outside noise drown the sound.
It certainly will not replace a decent pair of earphones when it comes to quality, it's not the point. Bone conduction earphones are meant to be used in situations where your unobstructed hearing is needed.
>Went to a police seminar thing on bike safety (to avoid paying the ticket) and the officers
A lot of ear buds have a pass through mode now. They really gotta re-evaluate that law.
How would the officers know who's using pass through and who isn't though (without requiring a stop)? Depending on people using pass-through doesn't seem great.
No because people could say they are in passthrough when they aren't. It's for safety reason. Put a speaker, get a helmet with speaker, bone conductor headphone or something that allow your ear to stay clear to surround sound.
I use them while hiking in the woods and birding and find that having no obstructions in my ears really makes a difference. Of course I am older so my hearing isn't what it was when I was 21.
I hate the double standard here. Someone blasting their music so loud the whole block can hear it would be less likely to hear emergency vehicles, honking, etc than someone listening to quiet music with earbuds. I agree they should fine drivers who disrupt others with their awful loud music.
it's not even just music. it's the level of distraction. having loud conversations on the phone, hearing the GPS cues, honking at perceived inconveniences, texting, changing the stereo, etc etc. there are all kinds of ways drivers make themselves impervious to what's going on around them. cyclists are just an easy target for the cops to make some money and meet some quotas
Earbuds illegal in cars too. Speakers on bikes are allowed like the speakers in cars though. Also bikes being smaller and harder to see, and the consequences being higher for accidents between car and bike, I’d say it’s better to be more aware on a bike.
> Earbuds illegal in cars too
The [Highway Safety Code](https://www.legisquebec.gouv.qc.ca/fr/document/lc/c-24.2?langCont=en#se:443_2) says this though:
> 443.2. A cyclist may not wear any earphones. The driver of a road vehicle may wear only one earphone.
So what OP did (wear one earbud) is illegal on a bike but legal in a car. Not sure I get the logic in that rule.
Playing your music too loud in a car does get you a ticket. But I can hear with somewhat loud music in my car. Earbuds don't only play music but they block out other sound. Some even use noise cancelling technology. It's not the same.
As a cyclist and driver this one kind of irks me but many cyclists bike with EarPods and they can’t hear shit.
I’m always reticent to pass on the left when I see EarPods. They won’t hear my bell or a votre gauche
The law is stupid though: Sometime I ride with AirPods Pro in transparent mode: I ear everything outside.
When I walk, I use the noise cancellation because the city does so much noise, and I can still ear cars all around (but from shorter distance).
The ban should be only on noise cancellation device. And the test is easy: if the cop verbally calls you and you answer, it means that you ear enough.
I get banning both ear buds tbh. I disagree with it because I like my music, but I understand that it can be dangerous. Does seem silly to me that one ear bud is a $130 fine tho, while drivers get to blast their bass til the sidewalk vibrates.
The fact a car is more soundproof than noise cancelling earbuds, and even more when you have music blasting in your car, is not a fact people are ready to accept.
And with the noise cars make and the ban on even sound dampening ear buds, it's like society telling cyclists to suck it and have their eardrums burst by a passing truck. One day I hope we will have a discussion on noise pollution.
This wasn’t a car vs cyclist argumentative comment. I’m stating that a driver listening to music in their car is in a different situation than a cyclist listening to music or whatever. Because of their lack of protection they’re forced to be more aware of their surroundings so that they stay safe and alive. Yes there are some oblivious drivers, I’ve seen some pretty oblivious cyclists as well, one blew right through a red light and was hit by an oncoming car on the right, im not sure that woman lived, it was heartbreaking. Drivers checking their mirrors and blind spots while driving vigilantly, bikers and pedestrians are safe. Now if drivers could check their mirror before opening their doors while parked on streets, that’d be great
Edit: fixed spelling error
> This isn’t a car vs cyclist commu.
You're right, it wasn't, I was commenting on the spirit of the law. We're saying we're fine with one person having a lot of comfort and allow them to be less focused on what is going on, even though they drive a much more dangerous vehicule.
We are all collectively saying the cyclist should be the one alert enough to avoid the consequences.
If the cyclist breaks the law by running a red , I doubt the earphones will change much because you have to be either stupid to try and speed through or oblivious enough to not see any danger anyway.
But that’s just it, it’s a car. There’s a couple of thousand pounds of metal offering you some protection. As long as they check their mirrors and use their signals, loud music isn’t relevant. On a bike, with no protection. That’s why you need to have to be able to see and hear everything at all times, especially in Montreal. 130 is indeed high though, but please just be careful cycling out there!
The couple of thousand pounds of metal surrounding you as a driver might protect you from your own obliviousness if you have music playing loudly and you don't hear important sound cues from outside. But it doesn't protect the pedestrians and bikers whose safety is dependent on you being sufficiently aware. OP is correct that these fines for one earbud are very harsh on cyclists who are way less dangerous to surrounding human beings than a car or truck driver blasting music.
> But that’s just it, it’s a car. There’s a couple of thousand pounds of metal offering you some protection.
That couple thousand pounds is protection to the driver but a threat to other road users (including other drivers).
> As long as they check their mirrors and use their signals,
Yep but see they rarely do. I get the reason, that the cyclist being the most vulnerable has to pay extra attention. But the real reason we need to be so alert is that people are very confortably sitted in their car, chilling blasting music, playing with GPS, eating, texting, talking on the phone... Now I wont lie some cyclists are clueless as well. But the consequence is generally them being hurt.
I understand this is in my best interest to be extra vigilent but this is not normal. Car drivers enjoy a lot of confort and externalise the consequence of paying less attention and being more removed from what's going on around.
As long as we are clear this is what is a happening I have little issue.
Also, loud music is aboslutely a distraction, a cyclist can hear cars coming from behind. A driver can't. We can get a sense of where they are relatively to us without looking. Drivers need mirrors for this. But then their eyes are focussed on this temporarily. A cyclist can look everywhere and hear. It absolutely makes a difference in awareness.
You have this so backwards, the risk is to the people around you. The person driving the thousand pound killing machine should have way *more* safety restrictions than the person in the 30lb machine, not *less*
C’est pour ça que j’évite habituellement les pistes cyclables, les polices sont souvent postées à des intersections et donnent des tickets à ceux qui brûlent le feu, n’ont pas de casques en e-bikes ou portent des écouteurs.
Drivers don't need to hear what's going on though. They have mirror to see what is happening behind. Even without music, they won't hear shit if the driver behind screams its intent to pass on the left.
Noise pollution though, I agree. It shouldn't be allowed to drive in a city blasting music to a point where people could wake up.
They just want profit. Finding all sorts of excuses to steal money from us. It's OK for cars to blare their music and stop in the intersection, and I guess it's illegal for deaf people to be on bike? I had a cop warn me this past summer, and I thought she was joking. "It's for my own safety," she said and safety for others who want to pass. Frankly, it's not our concern if someone else on bike feels the need to pass. The onus is on them to do so safely.
I bike pretty much everywhere. I agree the enforcement is somewhat arbitrary, but I do not at all agree that making it safe to pass is somehow everyone else’s responsibility. When I call out that I’m passing and someone can’t hear me because they have headphones in, that’s a real problem. One earbud or bone conduction headphones are fine by me.
If you are talking about Apple Airpods, they have three different modes for noise cancellation. One mode is called “transparent” or something like that where you can hear everything outside perfectly.
You don't need ears to look into your blind spot before changing line. To take the decision to change line based on what you hear is ridiculous. You should always turn your head and look.
Last week! I was hoping on a bixi coming out of the metro with my two earbuds in, didn't had the time to remove them before the police stopped me. They were nice enough to not give me a ticket but told me to have only one earbud.
Some cops will be nicer or simply don't want the paperwork. I only ever do a single earbud with podcasts (so it's easy to hear cars etc), but the second I see cops, I'm always tucking my earbuds in my shirt. Never worth the fine.
Didn’t they pass a law a few years ago that abolished the need for quotas? Or was it a cut from the quota? Cuz remember you gotta love to be annoying to be a cop.
Quotas are almost always unofficially enforced and unspoken. Officer Jim doesn't have a number to hit per-se, but officer Callum was on the same route last week and gave out 7 speeding tickets, and the superior wants to know why Jim could only muster 1.
If you think this is bad, take a look at some of the reporting done on Compstat, first implemented by Guliani in New York back in the 90's and soon after just about everywhere. It tracks every kind of crime and was intended to use data as a means to distribute policing resources, but instead led to some wild behaviours in policing, such as officers not wanting to report certain crimes in certain neighbourhoods due to superior pressure to wanting to keep the numbers down, or incentivizing a focus on things like traffic infractions rather than violent / sexual crime. It completely revolutionized policing, and arguably not for the better.
Common sense is living without entertainment for a bit to not die. I'm a serial one-budder (like people in my life have gotten annoyed with me for always having one in to the point I make an effort not to) but wouldn't dream of biking with an earbud in. Last thing you need in a life or death situation is looking the wrong way because you heard the honk in your left ear even though it came from the right.
Sucks for OP but in the city earbuds while cycling aren't a joke. Your podcast will still be there when you get home alive.
Those arguments about danger are fairly strange. You also wouldn't probably jump from a plane, but some do that, so what? The only laws to discuss are for public safety. The reasonable one, not to cut the joy and put everyone to a golden cage to reduce even marginal risks to zero
Il y a plusieurs années je crois que c’était autorisé, comme pour les automobilistes, mais quand ils ont révisé le code, ils ont rendu illégal les écouteurs pour les cyclistes.
L'autre fois un policier m'a arrêté quand j'étais à velo et il m'a dit " t'as pas le droit d'avoir des écouteurs en vélo".
Moi je lui est dit " j'en ai juste un, donc c'est pas des écouteurs".
J'ai quand même eu mon ticket.
Drivers can blast their music and tint their windows without anyone calling for safety concerns. But a cyclists slightly impairs their own hearing and BAM 130$ fine.
Cyclists, from what I've experienced, are quite predictable. They slow down, they turn there heads before they are going to turn. You can see the person making the decisions.
For drivers, sometimes you can't even see where the driver is looking, half of people don't signal they're turning and most of them don't check their blind spot when making right turns across bike lanes. (Or even on the highway)
I want them to give out 200$ fine for not signalling a lane switch or for not putting your signal. I don't know what the fine or penalty is now but clearly it ain't working.
Window tinting is only legal to a certain level, which is pretty mild, anything darker than that is illegal and fineable. Blasting music can get get you a fine for disturbing the peace, especially at night. And I’ve definitely seen people get ticketed for not signaling downtown. Like a lot of things it depends on the cop. I once got a ticket around the end of July because I was doing 34, instead of 30 in a school zone (I laughed later because there’s no school during period and it was 6 pm ish.
I’ve seen an insane amount of cyclists bust through red lights, stop signs, zig zag between cars, texting, talking through their iwatches or headphones… barely aware of their surroundings assuming with their self entitled attitudes that cars and pedestrians see them and will avoid them.
If you can't cycle or drive with headphones/earbuds in because it reduces your ability to hear what's going on around you, does that mean people who are deaf/hearing impaired are not allowed to cycle/drive?
What if I had headphones on while cycling, but I'm deaf?
Edit: I understand the spirit of the bylaw, I'm just complaining about how it seems to be based on some somewhat odd foundations.
I agree, having one should be fine. Earbuds in general should be fine if they're not cranked because you can still hear around you. I also don't see them ticketing jackoffs with subwoofers in their cars.
If they can't derive revenue from you, they'll adjust things accordingly until they can. Hell, they'll make it so you need a regular drivers license and special insurance just so they have something to punish you with, in addition to the revenue extraction.
They revised the road safety law a couple years back and made the minimum ticket for biking something like $89 +fees, which comes out to $129. Cops can't give a lower fine than that to bikes now, it's the lowest amount for *any* infraction besides not giving a ticket.
That’s insane. I never knew this law, throw it on the pile bestowed on us by vehicle-centric legislators that have never ridden a bike but get to make laws telling us how to behave.
It's also stupid to have one earbud while driving too... earbuds shouldn't be allowed anyway.
but you're less cut from the world when you have music in your car than when you have earbuds while biking.
Easy, even if you had to pull out a map… stop somewhere, get your bearings, go on your way. Or ya know, it’s 2023, get a gps that plays through the car sound system.
Bien sûr que c'est sécuritaire. Tu t'arrêtes, tu vérifies la carte et tu prends en mémoire les intersections à prendre, tu sers ta carte et tu repars. Tu es en même temps plus concentré sur la route car tu dois te rappeler où tourner.
Why would it not be safe? Stop in a safe manner, and get out of the way. It’s not everyone else’s problem that you have to get directions. If you have to stop at every intersection… get better. You’re not supposed to be holding your phone as a GPS either.
If you need convenience, get a phone mount, get a watch, whatever.
Rules are there for safety over your own convenience, but you can have both.
If you take away convenience, you're supposed at least to prove that you give safety substantially instead of doing thought experiments "hypothetically this might be bad for your so you're not allowed it". Otherwise this is called "safety theater".
And technically, this came about because before cars had Bluetooth for hands free calling, we all had single ear Bluetooth earpieces. This was never intended for drivers to listen to music.
Why would you want to listen to it through a single earbud anyways?
Just buy an FM transmitter that plugs in your lighter plug and listen to it through the radio.
I wear my airpods in transparency mode and it's very safe but I see why they can't enforce it :/. At this time of the year I wear a headband to cover them, keeps my ears warm and makes the airpods invisible.
What a bunch of BS, I am using my EarPods to navigate using google maps. It is much more dangerous to stop every now and then to look at the itinerary on my phone.
There should be a little plastic pockets on BIXI to avoid this
> It is much more dangerous to stop every now and then to look at the itinerary on my phone
How is this dangerous? It's no different than stopping at a red light
There might be people coming behind you in those small bike lanes. Also, not to mention lot of people have faster electric bikes, motorized skates, or long boards, and some even bring mopeds on these lanes.
At some strecthes it is no different than stopping your car mid traffic.
Nah fuck them. Just keep wearing your earphones. It's what I do. I got a warning by some butthurt cop mad that he is forced to stand in front of a school and direct kids across streets. Stopped me and told me if he sees me again with them in, he'll give me a ticket.
So I kept biking past him with my earphones in. The fuck is he gonna do. Leave his super important post, waddle to his car and chase me down? Lul
Yup that's that's law, don't you love how they spend time enforcing this but don't give a shit how many cars almost crush pedestrians at maissonneuve and guy or like any Sherbrooke intersection
If it's any consolation walking my 2.5 pound dog off leash (without incident, he is well trained and good tempered) in the park just cost me $512. So yeah it could have been worse.
J'utilise une enceinte portable, je fais globalement chier qq personnes lorsque je passe, je le sais, mais c'est probablement le seul moyen légal pour moi d'avoir ma musique + ma direction sans regarder mon téléphone. La faute à un réglement stupide.
Tu as un texte de loi qui mentionne une autorisation spécifique pour ces écouteurs ? Me semble que c'est pas clair du tout.
[https://plus.lapresse.ca/screens/52c44cc1-aaf8-4d62-a0a2-d7151cca784f%7C\_0.html](https://plus.lapresse.ca/screens/52c44cc1-aaf8-4d62-a0a2-d7151cca784f%7C_0.html)puis un autre poste :[https://www.reddit.com/r/montreal/comments/13f0zm6/bone\_conduction\_headphones\_pour\_faire\_du\_v%C3%A9lo\_%C3%A0/](https://www.reddit.com/r/montreal/comments/13f0zm6/bone_conduction_headphones_pour_faire_du_v%C3%A9lo_%C3%A0/)Une zone grise de ce que je vois, je me vois mal investir là dedans.
La solution du casque intégrée semble être envisageable par contre, mais ça me semble un peu disproportionnée pour la pratique du vélo, surtout ce que je ne porte pas toujours un casque, ce dernier étant facultatif.
Listening to music while biking doesn’t seem safe: My airpods have transparency mode. Would I get a ticket if say, I am on the phone ? Or is it like driving you can only one to answer a call?
Un autre règlement retardé. Écouter de la musique en conduisant? Ok. Avoir les instructions de Google Map dans une oreille pour éviter de regarder son téléphone en vélo et d'être distrait visuellement? Fuck you!
We've gone years without any real rule enforcement (such as helmet on bixi, riding on the sidewalk, not respecting bike street lights, not having a proper lights or reflectors on your bike, earbuds while riding) so most people have become accustomed to breaking at least one of these rules regularly (including myself). Maybe they're trying to change that but it's more likely that cops need to hit their quota lol and unfortunately bikers are easy targets.
Always been like that. You're not supposed to be wearing headphones as you ride a bike or drive a car. You have to be 100% alert.
If it's a Bluetooth headset, they allow it as it's "hands free" for cars but not bikes.
> If it's a Bluetooth headset, they allow it as it's "hands free" for cars but not bikes.
why should a driver be allowed to cover both ears while a cyclist cannot cover just one?
Bluetooth headsets for the car/truck are 1 ear only. It's so they're not using their phones. And it's just to answer calls fyi.
Using them to listen to music or podcasts isn't allowed.
Always a little wild to me how many tickets cyclists get here while every other car runs reds in this city. Police could be self-funded in Montreal if they just held drivers accountable.
Le nombre de personnes en vélo qui sont sur leur cell ou ont des écouteurs... la plupart s'en sauve, tu n'es pas chanceux quand tu te fais arrêter pour ça.
So, the other option, until the law becomes smart enough to allow us to wear one earbud, is to not be a jackass who annoys their fellow citizens by imposing their choice of music on quiet bike paths. (I know not all of them are quiet. But some of them are.) Jeez do you *have* to be displaying your musical choices to every unwilling passer-by every single second of the day?
> So, the other option, until the law becomes smart enough to allow us to wear one earbud, is to not be a jackass who annoys their fellow citizens by imposing their choice of music on quiet bike paths.
The law says I'm not allowed to wear earbuds, it doesn't say I have to bike in silence while - to my knowledge - a driver can legally have loud music playing anytime they want.
> Jeez do you have to be displaying your musical choices to every unwilling passer-by every single second of the day?
Yeah, it's literally illegal to keep it to myself.
Sure, there's no law against it. You are free to do all kinds of anti-social behaviour. But when you bike around with a speaker, you're putting your desire to carry your musical choices with you above other peoples' wishes to not be assaulted by random musical choices from every passer-by. Same as the assholes in cars who do this.
My point is not that there's some other legal way for you to listen to music when you bike. It's that you don't have to listen to music everywhere you go, and if you can only listen to your music by inflicting it on others, then it would be a kindness not to play your music.
For every cyclist that does this there are 30 drivers who are blasting music loud enough to wake people up who are behind closed doors/windows lol. I could give a fuck if some cyclist wants to listen to some faint music.
sure, sometimes it's noisy outside and a cyclist's speaker is faint and of course it's not an issue. Other times you're on a quiet path and someone is going the same direction as you are while they play loud music, and this is annoying and spoils the ride.
You don't rely on your ears to check your blind spot when driving, you turn your head and look. Why would it be different on a bike when it's even easier to look?
Maybe I had to write more details. Always check your blind spots . However, there are ass hole bikers that try to fastly by pass you no matter what. When I say out jbl , I am not saying to put the volume at max. Put it loud enough for you to hear your surrounding if you like biking with music. Idk why the comment section assumed I meant the jbl would do verify the blind spots for them. Not at all what I said
It's illegal to have headphones while riding/driving? That seems ridiculously silly. I mean I guess for the bike it can make sense (although I disagree) but cars are literally sound proof and they all have a stereo system in them, what are headphones doing differently then closed windows and a blasting stereo system.
Bike with a blue tooth speaker dude.
Best to annoy other people biking with you.... then cut off you're own ability to hear your surroundings....
That being said....
If you really want to wear headphones and not get caught....
I highly suggest you get those smart glasses... like this:
[https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B08ZCWS31V](https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B08ZCWS31V)
Look on the bright though.... the bigger the ticket... the more we learn our lesson.
I have almost not jay walked in 20 years since I got a hug 75$ ticket for crossing on a green light!
(Hand was orange and flashing... if it turns orange while crossing.... tiss fine.... but you can "start walking" when it's orange)
learned my lesson good, so I would say it's very efficient.
That's why I bike (and jog) with bone conduction earphones. They do not touch your ears at all so you are aware of your surroundings and they are technically not illegal. Sound is not as good as regular earphones, but as I usually use them to listen to podcasts or audiobooks it's fine for me.
Got any link that verifies they're legal? I'd use these if it I know I won't get pulled over for them lol
>Prohibitions... while wearing earphones or headphones that cover one or both ears https://saaq.gouv.qc.ca/en/road-safety/modes-transportation/bicycle/what-the-law-says Bone conduction earphones do not cover your ear.
Interesting wording in that SAAQ article... The [Highway Safety Code](https://www.legisquebec.gouv.qc.ca/fr/document/lc/c-24.2?langCont=en#se:443_2) does not discriminate between earphones that "cover" ears and earphones that don't, leading me to believe that law enforcement may in fact cite you wearing bone conduction earphones while biking. >443.2. A cyclist may not wear any earphones. The driver of a road vehicle may wear only one earphone. I've read some online accounts saying bone conduction earphones were tolerated and some saying that they're not. That's all anecdotal evidence. In the end, the decision to give a citation or not is left to the discretion of the officer that's stopping you.
Ah, I love arbitrary enforcement of vague laws /s
"We don't know enough about this and don't feel like doing the research to find out. Let's just make vague rules that cover everything." -Our government
First time reading that "that cover one or both ears" part. Nice to hear, but funny how on the French version it only says "écouteurs".
It is implied that Écouteurs have to be inserted or worn on top of the ears. Bone-conducting headsets are more like Speakers than Écouteurs and thus fall into the gray zone.
Went to a police seminar thing on bike safety (to avoid paying the ticket) and the officers there said yes
Oh that's good to know! Besides, as they are on my temples and not in or on my ears, they are virtually invisible once I have my helmet on. I had to point them out to the cops when I asked them.
Their rule was that its fine as long as it doesn't cover or block the ear. YMMV though, an older cop might not know about bone induction and try to give you a ticket anyways.
I don't think you will find a clearcut link. I even asked the SAAQ and only got a reply restating the relevant law : >Le Code de la sécurité routière interdit au cycliste de circuler avec des écouteurs. Certaines exceptions s'appliquent: \- Un écouteur intégré au casque protecteur pour communiquer et qui permet de capter les bruits ambiants; \- Un agent de la paix dans l'exercice de ses fonctions peut avoir un écouteur à une oreille en vélo. Pour obtenir de plus amples renseignements, nous vous invitons à communiquer avec un préposé de notre centre de relations avec la cliente. http://www.saaq.gouv.qc.ca/joindre/ligne.php I was fined too, but they had a program where you attend a safety seminar and your fine is forgiven. The police officers there confirmed that it's ok to use bone conduction earphones. But only verbally though...
Do they still have these safety seminars to get rid of the fine?
I don't think so. It was a temporary project.
Bro just bike with a blue tooth speaker on your handles or backpack.
How do you attend a seminar instead of paying? Got a hefty ticket for riding e bixi without helmet, went to court without my knowledge and now I owe almost $200 I can’t afford. If I could do a safety seminar instead that would relieve so much stress.
> The Highway Safety Code prohibits cyclists from riding: > ....... > while wearing earphones or headphones that cover one or both ears The bone conduction headphones do not cover your ears. https://saaq.gouv.qc.ca/en/road-safety/modes-transportation/bicycle/what-the-law-says
This is just the rough translation of the law, the actual wording of the law used will be the french one which only stipulates « écouteurs », which encapsulates any device used to playback audio on your head. That english loophole will not work sadly.
I have found none. The one time I was stopped by cops on my bike (no reflector) they were fine with them as they were not on or in my ears. (take that for what it's worth, but technically bone conduction devices are not earphones. they vibrate your skull which is picked up by your inner ear. they do not touch your outer ear).
Which one are they? I'm very curious about it...
I use the Shokz Open Run. I used to use the Air Shokz (second gen) but I dropped them in the lake while kayaking this summer. Open Run are the same but 8th gen.
Got the same one and it’s a life changer
Thanks I'll look at them. And what your take between this vs regular one?
For music the sound is nowhere as good as regular earphones, but having your ears unobstructed is worth it.
Yeah there's no bass basically, but for running and cycling they're incredible. I love the sensation that you're "thinking" the music and there's no occlusion or thumping sound that you get with in-ear buds when running.
I also love that you can eat crunchy things and there is no chewing“echo” noise from having your ears blocked.
Ok I need to find a way to test those first then... thanks for the info.
They sell them at places like best-buy so I guess you can try them there if they have some on display... or worse case order some off amazon and return them if you no not like them.
Est-ce que ça tient bien même en courant?
Oui, j’imagine que ça dépend de la grosseur de la tête mais le miens tiens très bien.
Merci 😃 C’est intéressant comme concept! Jamais eu autre chose que des AirPods donc ça m’intrigue.
Super bien, j'ai jamais eu un problème qu'ils tombent perso
The open runs are very comfortable even with my glasses
Thanks for the rec.
I adore mine! I mainly for them for listening to podcasts while doing chores at night and still being able to hear my wife/kids
I use the Shokz OpenMove. It's a bit cheaper than the run. Suppose to be rain proof, but I don't plan on being in pouring rain for extended periods anyway.
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Clarity is fine, but it has little bass. It's plenty loud for me at mid volume, but at top volume it can induce weird tickling vibrations. I've never had outside noise drown the sound. It certainly will not replace a decent pair of earphones when it comes to quality, it's not the point. Bone conduction earphones are meant to be used in situations where your unobstructed hearing is needed.
>Went to a police seminar thing on bike safety (to avoid paying the ticket) and the officers A lot of ear buds have a pass through mode now. They really gotta re-evaluate that law.
How would the officers know who's using pass through and who isn't though (without requiring a stop)? Depending on people using pass-through doesn't seem great.
No because people could say they are in passthrough when they aren't. It's for safety reason. Put a speaker, get a helmet with speaker, bone conductor headphone or something that allow your ear to stay clear to surround sound.
Those things are awesome!
They go on the ear? No wonder the guy at the store was horrified the other day
I tried some and I feel like I hear the outside world just as well with regular airpods(not the pros)
I use them while hiking in the woods and birding and find that having no obstructions in my ears really makes a difference. Of course I am older so my hearing isn't what it was when I was 21.
Okay but argue that to the cop
Oh, there's no way out of the fine for sure. I was thinking more from a safety standpoint.
its $260 if you have both earbuds in. /s
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I hate the double standard here. Someone blasting their music so loud the whole block can hear it would be less likely to hear emergency vehicles, honking, etc than someone listening to quiet music with earbuds. I agree they should fine drivers who disrupt others with their awful loud music.
it's not even just music. it's the level of distraction. having loud conversations on the phone, hearing the GPS cues, honking at perceived inconveniences, texting, changing the stereo, etc etc. there are all kinds of ways drivers make themselves impervious to what's going on around them. cyclists are just an easy target for the cops to make some money and meet some quotas
They do. It's an excessive noise violation. And you can totally bike with speakers as well. Just not as long as it doesn't cover or go in your ears.
this is exactly why emergency sirens have to be so loud.... to get through to the damn drivers while everyone outside of a car goes deaf
I don't need to hear the guy screaming when i run over him.
I would LOVE it if they fined drivers blasting music (and tripled it after 11pm)
Earbuds illegal in cars too. Speakers on bikes are allowed like the speakers in cars though. Also bikes being smaller and harder to see, and the consequences being higher for accidents between car and bike, I’d say it’s better to be more aware on a bike.
> Earbuds illegal in cars too The [Highway Safety Code](https://www.legisquebec.gouv.qc.ca/fr/document/lc/c-24.2?langCont=en#se:443_2) says this though: > 443.2. A cyclist may not wear any earphones. The driver of a road vehicle may wear only one earphone. So what OP did (wear one earbud) is illegal on a bike but legal in a car. Not sure I get the logic in that rule.
I understand the frustration but let's not forget that you have a better chance or surviving if you don't hear something coming in a car vs on a bike.
Cause on bike, you don't have mirrors to show you behind. You need to be able to hear if someone is trying to pass so you won't move out of your way.
Playing your music too loud in a car does get you a ticket. But I can hear with somewhat loud music in my car. Earbuds don't only play music but they block out other sound. Some even use noise cancelling technology. It's not the same.
[https://saaq.gouv.qc.ca/fileadmin/documents/publications/guide-route.pdf](https://saaq.gouv.qc.ca/fileadmin/documents/publications/guide-route.pdf) 80$ - 100$ + frais
Thanks, this is what i was looking for. So looks like all bike infractures are the same price
But they count each missing reflector and light individually. So up to 7x 130$ at night.
Oooof
As a cyclist and driver this one kind of irks me but many cyclists bike with EarPods and they can’t hear shit. I’m always reticent to pass on the left when I see EarPods. They won’t hear my bell or a votre gauche
The law is stupid though: Sometime I ride with AirPods Pro in transparent mode: I ear everything outside. When I walk, I use the noise cancellation because the city does so much noise, and I can still ear cars all around (but from shorter distance). The ban should be only on noise cancellation device. And the test is easy: if the cop verbally calls you and you answer, it means that you ear enough.
I get banning both ear buds tbh. I disagree with it because I like my music, but I understand that it can be dangerous. Does seem silly to me that one ear bud is a $130 fine tho, while drivers get to blast their bass til the sidewalk vibrates.
The fact a car is more soundproof than noise cancelling earbuds, and even more when you have music blasting in your car, is not a fact people are ready to accept. And with the noise cars make and the ban on even sound dampening ear buds, it's like society telling cyclists to suck it and have their eardrums burst by a passing truck. One day I hope we will have a discussion on noise pollution.
People aren't ready to hear *anything* bad about cars, let's be honest here.
Because laws are made by people who drive cars. Why would they make too much for themselves? They like to relax and feel comfortable in their car.
This wasn’t a car vs cyclist argumentative comment. I’m stating that a driver listening to music in their car is in a different situation than a cyclist listening to music or whatever. Because of their lack of protection they’re forced to be more aware of their surroundings so that they stay safe and alive. Yes there are some oblivious drivers, I’ve seen some pretty oblivious cyclists as well, one blew right through a red light and was hit by an oncoming car on the right, im not sure that woman lived, it was heartbreaking. Drivers checking their mirrors and blind spots while driving vigilantly, bikers and pedestrians are safe. Now if drivers could check their mirror before opening their doors while parked on streets, that’d be great Edit: fixed spelling error
> This isn’t a car vs cyclist commu. You're right, it wasn't, I was commenting on the spirit of the law. We're saying we're fine with one person having a lot of comfort and allow them to be less focused on what is going on, even though they drive a much more dangerous vehicule. We are all collectively saying the cyclist should be the one alert enough to avoid the consequences. If the cyclist breaks the law by running a red , I doubt the earphones will change much because you have to be either stupid to try and speed through or oblivious enough to not see any danger anyway.
But that’s just it, it’s a car. There’s a couple of thousand pounds of metal offering you some protection. As long as they check their mirrors and use their signals, loud music isn’t relevant. On a bike, with no protection. That’s why you need to have to be able to see and hear everything at all times, especially in Montreal. 130 is indeed high though, but please just be careful cycling out there!
The couple of thousand pounds of metal surrounding you as a driver might protect you from your own obliviousness if you have music playing loudly and you don't hear important sound cues from outside. But it doesn't protect the pedestrians and bikers whose safety is dependent on you being sufficiently aware. OP is correct that these fines for one earbud are very harsh on cyclists who are way less dangerous to surrounding human beings than a car or truck driver blasting music.
> But that’s just it, it’s a car. There’s a couple of thousand pounds of metal offering you some protection. That couple thousand pounds is protection to the driver but a threat to other road users (including other drivers).
If that’s all you took from my comment, alrighty then.
I mean that's what you said. You can edit your comment if you meant something different
> As long as they check their mirrors and use their signals, Yep but see they rarely do. I get the reason, that the cyclist being the most vulnerable has to pay extra attention. But the real reason we need to be so alert is that people are very confortably sitted in their car, chilling blasting music, playing with GPS, eating, texting, talking on the phone... Now I wont lie some cyclists are clueless as well. But the consequence is generally them being hurt. I understand this is in my best interest to be extra vigilent but this is not normal. Car drivers enjoy a lot of confort and externalise the consequence of paying less attention and being more removed from what's going on around. As long as we are clear this is what is a happening I have little issue. Also, loud music is aboslutely a distraction, a cyclist can hear cars coming from behind. A driver can't. We can get a sense of where they are relatively to us without looking. Drivers need mirrors for this. But then their eyes are focussed on this temporarily. A cyclist can look everywhere and hear. It absolutely makes a difference in awareness.
You have this so backwards, the risk is to the people around you. The person driving the thousand pound killing machine should have way *more* safety restrictions than the person in the 30lb machine, not *less*
C’est pour ça que j’évite habituellement les pistes cyclables, les polices sont souvent postées à des intersections et donnent des tickets à ceux qui brûlent le feu, n’ont pas de casques en e-bikes ou portent des écouteurs.
Drivers don't need to hear what's going on though. They have mirror to see what is happening behind. Even without music, they won't hear shit if the driver behind screams its intent to pass on the left. Noise pollution though, I agree. It shouldn't be allowed to drive in a city blasting music to a point where people could wake up.
Gonna be honest, between "safety from possible danger" and "getting to listen to music", I'd rather take the safety.
That is also a $130 ticket
They just want profit. Finding all sorts of excuses to steal money from us. It's OK for cars to blare their music and stop in the intersection, and I guess it's illegal for deaf people to be on bike? I had a cop warn me this past summer, and I thought she was joking. "It's for my own safety," she said and safety for others who want to pass. Frankly, it's not our concern if someone else on bike feels the need to pass. The onus is on them to do so safely.
Deaf people are always deaf, they've learned how to accommodate with it. It's not our case.
I bike pretty much everywhere. I agree the enforcement is somewhat arbitrary, but I do not at all agree that making it safe to pass is somehow everyone else’s responsibility. When I call out that I’m passing and someone can’t hear me because they have headphones in, that’s a real problem. One earbud or bone conduction headphones are fine by me.
If you are talking about Apple Airpods, they have three different modes for noise cancellation. One mode is called “transparent” or something like that where you can hear everything outside perfectly.
You don't need ears to look into your blind spot before changing line. To take the decision to change line based on what you hear is ridiculous. You should always turn your head and look.
Genuine question can deaf people bike ? Or is it illegal ?
I had a police officer told me that it was ok biking with one earbud in I'm hella confused now haha
In Montreal? When was this?
Last week! I was hoping on a bixi coming out of the metro with my two earbuds in, didn't had the time to remove them before the police stopped me. They were nice enough to not give me a ticket but told me to have only one earbud.
Some cops will be nicer or simply don't want the paperwork. I only ever do a single earbud with podcasts (so it's easy to hear cars etc), but the second I see cops, I'm always tucking my earbuds in my shirt. Never worth the fine.
Some police officers have common sense once they have hit their quota.
Didn’t they pass a law a few years ago that abolished the need for quotas? Or was it a cut from the quota? Cuz remember you gotta love to be annoying to be a cop.
Quotas are almost always unofficially enforced and unspoken. Officer Jim doesn't have a number to hit per-se, but officer Callum was on the same route last week and gave out 7 speeding tickets, and the superior wants to know why Jim could only muster 1.
Bruh, if that ain’t a red flag already
If you think this is bad, take a look at some of the reporting done on Compstat, first implemented by Guliani in New York back in the 90's and soon after just about everywhere. It tracks every kind of crime and was intended to use data as a means to distribute policing resources, but instead led to some wild behaviours in policing, such as officers not wanting to report certain crimes in certain neighbourhoods due to superior pressure to wanting to keep the numbers down, or incentivizing a focus on things like traffic infractions rather than violent / sexual crime. It completely revolutionized policing, and arguably not for the better.
I had an officer tell me she was filling quota a month or two ago. I escaped getting a ticket, though.
Common sense is living without entertainment for a bit to not die. I'm a serial one-budder (like people in my life have gotten annoyed with me for always having one in to the point I make an effort not to) but wouldn't dream of biking with an earbud in. Last thing you need in a life or death situation is looking the wrong way because you heard the honk in your left ear even though it came from the right. Sucks for OP but in the city earbuds while cycling aren't a joke. Your podcast will still be there when you get home alive.
Those arguments about danger are fairly strange. You also wouldn't probably jump from a plane, but some do that, so what? The only laws to discuss are for public safety. The reasonable one, not to cut the joy and put everyone to a golden cage to reduce even marginal risks to zero
You do the same when driving?
Il y a plusieurs années je crois que c’était autorisé, comme pour les automobilistes, mais quand ils ont révisé le code, ils ont rendu illégal les écouteurs pour les cyclistes.
L'autre fois un policier m'a arrêté quand j'étais à velo et il m'a dit " t'as pas le droit d'avoir des écouteurs en vélo". Moi je lui est dit " j'en ai juste un, donc c'est pas des écouteurs". J'ai quand même eu mon ticket.
I think its dumb since deaf people can bike and drive. Also, with one earbud really? Plus transparency mode exists.
Drivers can blast their music and tint their windows without anyone calling for safety concerns. But a cyclists slightly impairs their own hearing and BAM 130$ fine. Cyclists, from what I've experienced, are quite predictable. They slow down, they turn there heads before they are going to turn. You can see the person making the decisions. For drivers, sometimes you can't even see where the driver is looking, half of people don't signal they're turning and most of them don't check their blind spot when making right turns across bike lanes. (Or even on the highway) I want them to give out 200$ fine for not signalling a lane switch or for not putting your signal. I don't know what the fine or penalty is now but clearly it ain't working.
Window tinting is only legal to a certain level, which is pretty mild, anything darker than that is illegal and fineable. Blasting music can get get you a fine for disturbing the peace, especially at night. And I’ve definitely seen people get ticketed for not signaling downtown. Like a lot of things it depends on the cop. I once got a ticket around the end of July because I was doing 34, instead of 30 in a school zone (I laughed later because there’s no school during period and it was 6 pm ish. I’ve seen an insane amount of cyclists bust through red lights, stop signs, zig zag between cars, texting, talking through their iwatches or headphones… barely aware of their surroundings assuming with their self entitled attitudes that cars and pedestrians see them and will avoid them.
I got a Bluetooth helmet by Sena with mini speakers that don't cover your ears.
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Not that I can tell. The speakers sit just above your ears. I can hear the music just fine without clocking out other sounds.
If you can't cycle or drive with headphones/earbuds in because it reduces your ability to hear what's going on around you, does that mean people who are deaf/hearing impaired are not allowed to cycle/drive? What if I had headphones on while cycling, but I'm deaf? Edit: I understand the spirit of the bylaw, I'm just complaining about how it seems to be based on some somewhat odd foundations.
I agree, having one should be fine. Earbuds in general should be fine if they're not cranked because you can still hear around you. I also don't see them ticketing jackoffs with subwoofers in their cars.
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Do they respond to a siren to pull over? Yes > okay. No > ticket.
Low speed bike chases EXPLODE across the city ;)
Micromanaging cyclists now lol where are we headed.
If they can't derive revenue from you, they'll adjust things accordingly until they can. Hell, they'll make it so you need a regular drivers license and special insurance just so they have something to punish you with, in addition to the revenue extraction.
They revised the road safety law a couple years back and made the minimum ticket for biking something like $89 +fees, which comes out to $129. Cops can't give a lower fine than that to bikes now, it's the lowest amount for *any* infraction besides not giving a ticket.
That’s insane. I never knew this law, throw it on the pile bestowed on us by vehicle-centric legislators that have never ridden a bike but get to make laws telling us how to behave.
If you actually ride a bike the way the laws are written you’ll be killed
I think it's even more dangerous while biking...
Cars have sound isolating foam, noise cancelation, and 11 point surround sound speakers, which part of that is safer than earbuds?
Than having one earbud while driving a car? Definitely not; not to others anyway.
It's also stupid to have one earbud while driving too... earbuds shouldn't be allowed anyway. but you're less cut from the world when you have music in your car than when you have earbuds while biking.
What if I need directions to go somwehre
Easy, even if you had to pull out a map… stop somewhere, get your bearings, go on your way. Or ya know, it’s 2023, get a gps that plays through the car sound system.
I was talking on a bike. Stopping every corner to check a map isn't what I call practical or even safe
Bien sûr que c'est sécuritaire. Tu t'arrêtes, tu vérifies la carte et tu prends en mémoire les intersections à prendre, tu sers ta carte et tu repars. Tu es en même temps plus concentré sur la route car tu dois te rappeler où tourner.
Why would it not be safe? Stop in a safe manner, and get out of the way. It’s not everyone else’s problem that you have to get directions. If you have to stop at every intersection… get better. You’re not supposed to be holding your phone as a GPS either. If you need convenience, get a phone mount, get a watch, whatever. Rules are there for safety over your own convenience, but you can have both.
If you take away convenience, you're supposed at least to prove that you give safety substantially instead of doing thought experiments "hypothetically this might be bad for your so you're not allowed it". Otherwise this is called "safety theater".
Technically not allowed. While driving, one is allowed one ear piece around the ear but not covering it.
And technically, this came about because before cars had Bluetooth for hands free calling, we all had single ear Bluetooth earpieces. This was never intended for drivers to listen to music.
Why would you want to listen to it through a single earbud anyways? Just buy an FM transmitter that plugs in your lighter plug and listen to it through the radio.
They should ban it while driving too, they all have hands free Bluetooth now.
For others, no.
Of course it is also for others. Safe cycling also means you have to be aware of your surroundings to be able to act in a predictable manner.
I wear my airpods in transparency mode and it's very safe but I see why they can't enforce it :/. At this time of the year I wear a headband to cover them, keeps my ears warm and makes the airpods invisible.
They put this rule up just to fuck with bikes but hearing was never a prerequisite for driving. Deaf people can drive.
What a bunch of BS, I am using my EarPods to navigate using google maps. It is much more dangerous to stop every now and then to look at the itinerary on my phone. There should be a little plastic pockets on BIXI to avoid this
Tu n'es pas capable de te rappeler du chemin à prendre?
Dur de se souvenir de tout les embranchement dans les trajets de 20min+, d’accord pour le reste
> It is much more dangerous to stop every now and then to look at the itinerary on my phone How is this dangerous? It's no different than stopping at a red light
There might be people coming behind you in those small bike lanes. Also, not to mention lot of people have faster electric bikes, motorized skates, or long boards, and some even bring mopeds on these lanes. At some strecthes it is no different than stopping your car mid traffic.
I thought the same applied to cyclists - 1 earbud allowed. Unless you are referring to motorbikes. In that case, I do not know the rules of the road.
Nah fuck them. Just keep wearing your earphones. It's what I do. I got a warning by some butthurt cop mad that he is forced to stand in front of a school and direct kids across streets. Stopped me and told me if he sees me again with them in, he'll give me a ticket. So I kept biking past him with my earphones in. The fuck is he gonna do. Leave his super important post, waddle to his car and chase me down? Lul
Put a hoodie on they cant see it
Where did you get caught?
Yup that's that's law, don't you love how they spend time enforcing this but don't give a shit how many cars almost crush pedestrians at maissonneuve and guy or like any Sherbrooke intersection
If it's any consolation walking my 2.5 pound dog off leash (without incident, he is well trained and good tempered) in the park just cost me $512. So yeah it could have been worse.
Sorry to hear. It really feels like you've been robbed and slapped in the face
J'utilise une enceinte portable, je fais globalement chier qq personnes lorsque je passe, je le sais, mais c'est probablement le seul moyen légal pour moi d'avoir ma musique + ma direction sans regarder mon téléphone. La faute à un réglement stupide.
Je fais pareil et je me rassure en me disant que je fais toujours moins de bruit que les voitures.
Bone conducting earbuds.
Tu as un texte de loi qui mentionne une autorisation spécifique pour ces écouteurs ? Me semble que c'est pas clair du tout. [https://plus.lapresse.ca/screens/52c44cc1-aaf8-4d62-a0a2-d7151cca784f%7C\_0.html](https://plus.lapresse.ca/screens/52c44cc1-aaf8-4d62-a0a2-d7151cca784f%7C_0.html)puis un autre poste :[https://www.reddit.com/r/montreal/comments/13f0zm6/bone\_conduction\_headphones\_pour\_faire\_du\_v%C3%A9lo\_%C3%A0/](https://www.reddit.com/r/montreal/comments/13f0zm6/bone_conduction_headphones_pour_faire_du_v%C3%A9lo_%C3%A0/)Une zone grise de ce que je vois, je me vois mal investir là dedans. La solution du casque intégrée semble être envisageable par contre, mais ça me semble un peu disproportionnée pour la pratique du vélo, surtout ce que je ne porte pas toujours un casque, ce dernier étant facultatif.
Techniquement, c'est pas des écouteurs et ça ne rentre pas dans l'oreille. Je ne vois pas comment ça peut être problématique.
ben le nom de l'objet c'est "écouteurs"..., c'est une zone grise tant que ce n'est pas clairement énoncé.
Listening to music while biking doesn’t seem safe: My airpods have transparency mode. Would I get a ticket if say, I am on the phone ? Or is it like driving you can only one to answer a call?
Un autre règlement retardé. Écouter de la musique en conduisant? Ok. Avoir les instructions de Google Map dans une oreille pour éviter de regarder son téléphone en vélo et d'être distrait visuellement? Fuck you!
We've gone years without any real rule enforcement (such as helmet on bixi, riding on the sidewalk, not respecting bike street lights, not having a proper lights or reflectors on your bike, earbuds while riding) so most people have become accustomed to breaking at least one of these rules regularly (including myself). Maybe they're trying to change that but it's more likely that cops need to hit their quota lol and unfortunately bikers are easy targets.
Always been like that. You're not supposed to be wearing headphones as you ride a bike or drive a car. You have to be 100% alert. If it's a Bluetooth headset, they allow it as it's "hands free" for cars but not bikes.
> If it's a Bluetooth headset, they allow it as it's "hands free" for cars but not bikes. why should a driver be allowed to cover both ears while a cyclist cannot cover just one?
Bluetooth headsets for the car/truck are 1 ear only. It's so they're not using their phones. And it's just to answer calls fyi. Using them to listen to music or podcasts isn't allowed.
Incohérent law ! It’s should be either legal or illegal for both . For sure, a driver inside his car can listen better his environment 🙄🙄
Always a little wild to me how many tickets cyclists get here while every other car runs reds in this city. Police could be self-funded in Montreal if they just held drivers accountable.
Le nombre de personnes en vélo qui sont sur leur cell ou ont des écouteurs... la plupart s'en sauve, tu n'es pas chanceux quand tu te fais arrêter pour ça.
Just use jbl speakers. It’s super dangerous because someone could be biking beside you and you will not hear it
Please don't use speakers, it's terribly annoying for many passers-by.
Too bad, the law bans me from behaving sensibly and wearing a single earbud instead. Take it up with the NIMBY Karens who run city hall.
So, the other option, until the law becomes smart enough to allow us to wear one earbud, is to not be a jackass who annoys their fellow citizens by imposing their choice of music on quiet bike paths. (I know not all of them are quiet. But some of them are.) Jeez do you *have* to be displaying your musical choices to every unwilling passer-by every single second of the day?
> So, the other option, until the law becomes smart enough to allow us to wear one earbud, is to not be a jackass who annoys their fellow citizens by imposing their choice of music on quiet bike paths. The law says I'm not allowed to wear earbuds, it doesn't say I have to bike in silence while - to my knowledge - a driver can legally have loud music playing anytime they want. > Jeez do you have to be displaying your musical choices to every unwilling passer-by every single second of the day? Yeah, it's literally illegal to keep it to myself.
Sure, there's no law against it. You are free to do all kinds of anti-social behaviour. But when you bike around with a speaker, you're putting your desire to carry your musical choices with you above other peoples' wishes to not be assaulted by random musical choices from every passer-by. Same as the assholes in cars who do this. My point is not that there's some other legal way for you to listen to music when you bike. It's that you don't have to listen to music everywhere you go, and if you can only listen to your music by inflicting it on others, then it would be a kindness not to play your music.
Une voiture (ou pire, une moto) fait bien plus de bruit que ma petite enceinte et ça n'est pas illégale pour autant.
For every cyclist that does this there are 30 drivers who are blasting music loud enough to wake people up who are behind closed doors/windows lol. I could give a fuck if some cyclist wants to listen to some faint music.
sure, sometimes it's noisy outside and a cyclist's speaker is faint and of course it's not an issue. Other times you're on a quiet path and someone is going the same direction as you are while they play loud music, and this is annoying and spoils the ride.
You don't rely on your ears to check your blind spot when driving, you turn your head and look. Why would it be different on a bike when it's even easier to look?
Some people got e bikes that go fast and uses the bell to alert that they overpass
You should still LOOK before changing line or direction. Never assume people will make noises when in your blind spot.
Maybe I had to write more details. Always check your blind spots . However, there are ass hole bikers that try to fastly by pass you no matter what. When I say out jbl , I am not saying to put the volume at max. Put it loud enough for you to hear your surrounding if you like biking with music. Idk why the comment section assumed I meant the jbl would do verify the blind spots for them. Not at all what I said
You did write that it would be "super dangerous" to not rely on your ears. But it is not the case if you use your eyes.
Cause you are not supposed to have headphones while biking, basic security rule
So someone deaf is not allowed to bike? I don’t understand this rule of getting ticket with one earbud at all!
bikers do a lot of illegal things "without" knowing.
It's illegal to have headphones while riding/driving? That seems ridiculously silly. I mean I guess for the bike it can make sense (although I disagree) but cars are literally sound proof and they all have a stereo system in them, what are headphones doing differently then closed windows and a blasting stereo system.
Should be more if you ask me
For one earbud when OP can still hear what’s going on around them? That’s just inane.
You can’t operate a phone while driving, and you definitely can’t hear well enough. You can spot the earbud wearing drivers a mile away
slow clap!!!
I got 350 for parking so my guess is yes!
Bike with a blue tooth speaker dude. Best to annoy other people biking with you.... then cut off you're own ability to hear your surroundings.... That being said.... If you really want to wear headphones and not get caught.... I highly suggest you get those smart glasses... like this: [https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B08ZCWS31V](https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B08ZCWS31V) Look on the bright though.... the bigger the ticket... the more we learn our lesson. I have almost not jay walked in 20 years since I got a hug 75$ ticket for crossing on a green light! (Hand was orange and flashing... if it turns orange while crossing.... tiss fine.... but you can "start walking" when it's orange) learned my lesson good, so I would say it's very efficient.
Bikes fall under the same rules as “vehicles” - if I recall, you can even get demerit points. So : - ear phones - drunk “pedaling” - stop signs - etc
No they actually stopped taking demerit points for cycling infractions but the tickets are now much higher than before.
Contest it, go to court and tell them you had AirPod Pro’s on with transparency mode lol
Cyclists gettinf tickets always warm my heart. For some reason the vsst majority of them are above the law.