I dropped $140 on noise canceling headphones for the bus and I can't decide if they saved my sanity or made it worse | Commuter Conversations - Chatter Central
I dropped $140 on noise canceling headphones for the bus and I can't decide if they saved my sanity or made it worse
My ride from Queens to Midtown is 55 minutes each way and the guy behind me talks on speakerphone the whole time, so I paid $140 for a pair of over ear noise cancelers. Now I hear zero of the city and miss my stop twice in one week, plus a lady yelled at me for not hearing her ask me to move. Are you team block it all out or team stay aware of what's going on around you?
55 minutes is long enough that you can do a middle ground instead of all or nothing. I did the same commute for two years and what worked for me was one ear on and one ear off, or just pulling one cup back a little so you still catch the muffled announcement for your stop. You can also set a phone alarm for like 5 minutes before your stop, that alone would have saved you from missing it twice. The lady yelling thing is on her though, nobody expects you to hear a whisper through cans on a bus. Block out the speakerphone guy, he has it coming, but keep one foot in the world so you don't end up in Jersey.