I don’t and this is why
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/state/orl-sfl-flbtrain0706nbjul06,0,6472228.story
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I dont either for reasons like that, and dogs and cars and everything else that can “get you” if you are not fully paying attention. The only time I will use an i pod is on a treadmill.
Yep, I run with mine about 80% of the time. I may be wrong, but even if you’re wearing an iPod, you still have to be ON THE TRAIN TRACKS in order to have this happen to you. The iPod alone won’t cause this kind of accident. 
No kidding.
I run with mine about half of the time. On the sidewalks or the trail along the waterfront.
clm
Exactly! And it needn’t be on so loud that you cannot hear other things. I run w/ mine on sidewalks as well as beach and trails.
Never never never…and, while safety is a clear issue, the main reason I don’t is that a nice long run is one of the few times to unplug and disconnect. Kinda nice to run through woods, along sandy paths, by ponds, and listen to nature - and to silence. It can be almost a form of meditation - as long as I’m below zone 4.
The other major problem I have with the ipod is cadence - if I listen to any music, I tend to adopt the rhythm / cadence of the song, rather than running at the cadence I should be using.
Yes. It takes more than an ipod to be that oblivious.
Maybe a better question is, “Do you run across railroad tracks without looking?”. I suspect the deaf don’t get run over by trains at a higher frequency than those with normal hearing.
come on you guys. you never lose your good judgement while out on a long run?
oh for the love of all that is holy - ARE YOU KIDDING ME???
Oh yeah i do all the time… you know i go oh look theres a car but i have headphones on lets run in front of it anyways.
Oh and there is a stream in front of me… darn it i fell in.
This doesn’t pass the logic test… A does not cause B. B is caused by someone not paying attention not by an ipod.
Grant
run with mine about 90% of the time and mtn. bike with it as well and sometimes on the road @ a low volume. I feel terrible about that women but how do you even get an Ipod to go load enough to drown out the sounds of a train that it is literally feet from you? Second she must have also had tunnel vision to not see something so massive in her peripheral. Finally lets not forget the simple rules of general life that we learned as children; look both ways before crossing the street and especially look both ways and stop or at least slow down @ a RR crossing!!!
no I use my sons
his holds more songs
and I can use my nike plus
Thom.
I do and I ride with mine too. When using my IPOD I simply pay attention to my surroundings. I know I know, revolutionary considering I am supposed to go into some zen like trance when running…Never had an issue.
Bob
I better not share about the time I was hit by a bus while WALKING to work for fear you all will not have sympathy.
OK, I will. I was wearing headphones connected to my Sony Sports Walkman Cassette player (long time ago). The bus decided to overtake another bus by driving into the bus stop while the other bus was letting folks on in the roadway due to traffic. I looked left, but I never saw or heard it coming and no way I would have expected it to pass on the right in a bus stop. He honked, I was oblivious. It hurt, but I was fine after about 6 months of PT. No, I don’t run with headphones, but more so because I love to run and don’t need the distraction.
I wouldn’t blame the iPod but would be willing to bet she would not have been hit if she wasn’t wearing headphones because of the extra sense she would be using. I am sure she crossed those tracks every day and there had never been a train approaching until that day. It happens every 115 minutes to cars in similar circumstances. I for one feel pretty bad for a runner who can likely never run again.
I don’t wear one on the bike, but sometimes do when I run. This woman might not have heard the train, but she had to turn up her iPod too loud, get to the tracks, not bother to look, not see the flashing lights or barriers, not feel the vibrations of the train coming, not hear it over her too loud iPod (unlikely), and then go fast enough to get onto the tracks but slow enough not to get by the train.
I don’t think anyone can honestly blame an iPod for that one.
I agree with all of your statements about how unlikely it is. If you’ve been to London though you know that habit overrules common sense in these situations. I have more than once looked left and caught myself just before stepping right out in front of a car. I am super cautious too.
With headphones you better have all other senses turned way up and be thinking about your surroundings.
I won’t tell you not to do it, but I will tell you that headphones got me in trouble once.
I agree with all that, and I don’t run with them on the road very often, and I’m carefuly when I do. I just think that this particular situation is a little different than just not hearing a car pull out or something like that.
Train tracks aren’t easy to miss, and a train is a Hell of a lot bigger and louder than a car or bus.
I do sometimes, but I don’t think it is very safe. I have had mine three years and in that time have heard or seen the following when I was not wearing mine. Louisiana a prettygood size gator crunching in the grass off the LSU lake bike path. Texas, a rattlesnake in full buzz on a jogging path at White Rock Lake. Montana, a freeking mountainlion on the old Milwalkee train jogging path. Don’t think the mountainlion would have made the difference with the Ipod or not, but I sure felt like prey instead of hunter.
Being aware of your surroundings is fairly important. I think Ipod in both ears is pretty close to no helmet riding. I think the worse ones are here in Honolulu running down the bikelane on the main bike rideing course, having packs of riders bearing down on them and having no idea there may be a problem.
The other major problem I have with the ipod is cadence - if I listen to any music, I tend to adopt the rhythm / cadence of the song, rather than running at the cadence I should be using.
Phew, luckily I am a white guy who has no issue with moving out of time to music that I hear.
gregvb.