Struggling to keep up with advances in technology, police are resorting to yelling to crack down on dangerous earphone-wearing cyclists.

Cyclists with ear-covering listening devices had been easy-to-identify violators of prefectural public safety commissions’ standards, which prohibit citizens from riding bicycles when they are unable to hear “sounds essential for secure operations.”

But now, cyclists with external-sound-capturing earphones are arguing that they can indeed hear the outside sounds.

These safer types of listening devices cannot be easily distinguished from noise-blocking or noise-canceling ones, leaving police perplexed over who to pull over.

The National Police Agency is pushing the approach of Chiba prefectural police who shout at cyclists to see if they can hear sounds outside their earphones.

“Cyclists can pose risks both to others and themselves,” an NPA representative said. “We expect people to ride bicycles in a way in which they can fully hear the sounds around them.”

‘YELLOW-CARD’ WARNING

One mid-October evening, an officer from the Chiba-Nishi Police Station was shouting at cyclists in an intersection in Chiba city’s Mihama Ward.

“Can you hear me?” the officer yelled.

One cyclist in his 20s got off his bike and removed his earphones in response to the officer’s call.

His earphones had an external audio feed feature designed to allow the wearer to hear surrounding sounds.

“I knew that riding my bicycle with earphones is bad,” the cyclist told The Asahi Shimbun. “But I thought my equipment was forgivable because I could hear the external noise.”

He acknowledged, however, that the surrounding sounds were difficult to hear over the howling wind.

The officer told the cyclist to “be careful of possible hazards” and handed him a “yellow card” that details traffic rules for riders.

Personnel from the police station monitored cycling activities at the intersection for an hour. They issued the guidance sheet to 25 individuals that day.

One officer said that earphone-wearing cyclists who cannot hear calls from the police can receive “red card” traffic tickets.

“We are working to reduce accidents as much as possible,” said Lt. Mitsuaki Isono from the police station’s road safety division.

MANY MODELS

Earphone demand grew with the rising number of company video conferences held during the COVID-19 pandemic. Consumers are now increasingly using these listening devices for outdoor activities.

According to Tokyo-based NTT Sonority Inc., an acoustic technology business, external-noise-capturing earphones became popular around five years ago.

They include bone-conductive earphones that do not cover the earholes and open-ear models worn around the organs’ outer edges.

CONFUSION IN CRACKDOWNS

NPA statistics show that bicycle riders wearing earphones and other types of headwear caused 82 traffic accidents in the 10 years through 2022. One person hit by a cyclist died, while 21 were injured.

But the Road Traffic Law contains no provisions that prohibit cyclists from using earphones and other audio instruments.

Police who are trying to enforce local safety commissions’ standards can no longer identify violators just by looking at cyclists’ ears.

These standards can differ between prefectures, and police are often confused about how to handle such cases.

In some areas, officers will target any cyclist seen with earphones.

The website of another prefectural police department stipulated, tentatively and confusingly, that cycling with a one ear blocked by an earphone does “not constitute a violation.”

That spread the false notion that using an earphone in just one ear was acceptable anywhere in Japan.

The NPA in July sent a notice to prefectural police departments, saying officers who find cyclists with earphones should talk to them to see if the volume is low enough to ensure safety.

Cyclists who immediately become aware of the police will only receive verbal guidance. But if they cannot hear the officers’ voices, traffic tickets should be issued, according to the notice.

MOST CASES FROM CHIBA

This approach was initially taken by Chiba prefectural police, the most strict department in Japan in terms of enforcing local cycling safety standards.

According to NPA statistics, Chiba police caught 1,200 cyclists improperly using earphones and other headgear in 2022, 96 percent of all cases nationwide.

This year, Chiba police identified 574 such cases, or 88 percent of the national total, by the end of September.

The Chiba crackdown started in 2015, after a college student wearing earphones on his bicycle crashed into and killed a 77-year-old woman at a pedestrian crossing in Chiba city.

The Chiba District Court gave the student a suspended sentence for gross negligence resulting in death.

No violations of earphone-wearing cyclists were reported by Chiba police the following year.

But the annual number of traffic tickets issued for such violations in the prefecture reached 101 in 2017 and topped 300 from 2018 to 2020.

It soared to 1,143 in 2021.