The music thing is a big issue in the climbing community, mostly younger / newer climbers. I don't mind in some places if they are somewhat contained and they ask first. but not in national parks, nothing loud, and nothing obnoxiously distracting.
Some funny 'drama' on Instagram between a very skilled teenager and an older leader in the community. Kid played music in a national park and complained about not being able to find stashed pads on Instagram (leaving large foam in a national park === bad).
The older community leader posted a photo of him and park rangers taking trash/pads down. Didn't mention the kid but oh boy that kid did what a lot of teenagers do and barfed out a lot of drama. it was funny to read. Made me feel very much in old man on the stoop territory. There were more supporters taking the side that stashing pads and playing music is acceptable in a national park, and the older leaders who actually interact with rangers are 'gate keeping' and just don't understand ;0
But alternatively, just use a selfie stick, the previous biggest nuisance.
Just take your shit back home.
The most baffling part is it's often people on their own, not in groups. Every time I think to myself that now might be the time to pull out the old homemade EMP gun and take it for a spin.
I went to camping on Dartmoor with a friend about a decade ago, he just started screaming out and playing music out of nowhere. He grew up in London like me and for some reason he was unable to handle the absence of noise when we were the only people who miles around.
While we're at it, I hate rock cairns too, aside from those used to actually help people by marking routes. I didn't go to the forest to see trash, graffiti, rock cairns, or other man-made creations.
In my local nextdoor.com thread there was a GIANT flamewar over rock cairns and inspirational painted rocks along hiking trails. "But think of the children!" who like painting rocks and leaving inspirational messages!!
I briefly thought about painting and leaving some "demotivational rocks" around until I realized I'd have to actually collect, paint and distribute rocks to make that happen.
But at the least they could use paint or crayons that just wash off after a bit of rain.
Definitely interesting to explore these boundaries.
The people who are against music and cairns in parks are not protecting any natural law. They are protecting their specific terraforming project, a park. It is driven by a purely human concept of "sustainability" and cannot possibly be something that existed in a world without humans.
Now, that is a nice terraforming project they are protecting (notice how "nice" is another human concept?) We also tend to spend a lot of energy protecting species that trigger the same neural pathways in our brains as human babies, even if the species would most likely go extinct without our intervention (pandas).
What environmentalism actually does is act as a brake on our other terraforming projects, allowing us to go on terraforming longer and not turn our environment into something inhospitable. But even that is entirely anthropocentric.
Littering saves yourself the hassle of cleaning up after yourself. Leaving crash pads behind serves a need for safety. These are selfish acts that benefit you for practical reasons while ignoring the well-being of the environment around you.
Rock cairns, while (probably) less damaging, serve no purpose other than leaving a trace for the sake of leaving a trace.
The problem with emotional acts is that it provokes different responses in people. An innocent stack of rocks gets bested by a bigger one. The bigger stack gets bested by a wider one. The wider one gets trumped by a painted one, and so on.
Look at the example of Mt Everest. Many parts of it are a high altitude garbage dump, turning a unique place into a sort of monument to the throngs of bored dentists looking for a thrill.
Think of it as my own version of the noise emitting devices on EVs. On the one hand I kind of feel like a dick but on the other hand I still make much less noise than a car and there's no other way of people knowing I'm there when they don't have LOS.
Pedestrians need to notice me because a lot of people walk on bike paths and because a lot of people jaywalk. Since I'm much closer to the parked cars and much smaller than cars they're going to realize there's no cars, think it's all clear, and when they advance I'll be there. It happened to me often.
It's not loud enough that people on the sidewalk will hear me clearly - in traffic I often can't even distinguish my own music - but people that are on my way or about to walk in front of me will notice and that's good enough.
Also in my city when there's an underpass the law is to go on the sidewalk, so I like to be noticed by pedestrians so they know I'm here without ringing my bike bell non-stop or speaking to everyone and trying to get them to notice me.
I wonder if there’s some happy medium - some noise that the bike could make periodically that’s less annoying than blaring music, but also doesn’t require you to actively initiate it.
With a bike travelling at say ~10mph the noise is out of earshot in a few seconds.
It is on you to ride defensively and make sure you are on an appropriate speed to avoid accidents with pedestrians, not on them to avoid you.
> when there's an underpass the law is to go on the sidewalk
So, get off the bike and walk.
>So, get off the bike and walk
I am not supposed to and I frankly just don't have the time to walk every time there is an underpass, and there are 6 on the way to my university.
I think I'm very different from those car drivers because I'm not endangering or pushing away anyone, or being aggressive.
I haven't made any judgments of value, mind you. I'm just saying that this is the only way I have of averting this issue.
I certainly agree that ebikes can sneak up on you. Personally though, I would give up riding a bike if I had to use a fairly loud white noise generator.
Nature sounds would be good for humans, but they might be disruptive to the fauna. Perhaps there's something that can be done about that though.
Whether phone speakers are good enough to replicate that experience, however, I’m not sure.
Unlike cars, bikes are very quiet and if a pedestrian comes out jaywalking from between parked cars, the biker might not have enough time to react and ring their bell.
By the time a bell rings, the collision is imminent. Music can be heard from far enough that a jaywalker can avoid the collision path preemptively.
I'd like to emphasize that the music is not that loud - when I'm close to a car I can barely hear it.
I really think a bike bell should be sufficient for your needs. A card in your wheel spokes would also get the job done and be a lot less obnoxious than music.
I do have a bell. It's useful. But when someone pops out of between two cars there's nothing a bell can do.
I would never do this because there are probably some highly unfortunate unintended consequences and I don't want to go to jail.
I wonder what's driving the upsurge? It's the same in the UK too.
I remember being at a park party a few months ago with some fellow 20-25 year olds; I suggested turning the music down, but it took the police to kindly ask for the request to be heeded. What astonished me was that the 20 something girls were indignant at the police's request, as if their human rights were violated.
I don't mind police, but they need to work on discipline. They need to be around more even when they're not responding to anything (proactive instead of reactive).
Back in the day (not my day mind you, lol), every neighbourhood would have a neighbourhood policeman that would do the rounds, do a chat with the locals, that kinda thing. But that was the same time where people working for the post were still respected (by their employer); uniform, full-time job and benefits, the works. Nowadays it's an underpaid part-time mcjob.