When I commuted, a fit 40-something female colleague reported the random morons shouting condescending snipes at her. It seemed much more common than I'd encountered as a 30-something male. Kind of like wolf whistling has been suppressed and replaced with more miserable misogyny.
I used to cycle with an improvised MP3 ghetto blaster and accessible water bottle so that was the beginning of making my commute into my own world. You can't shoot all the miserable morons (not for long term success at least), but you can silence and ignore them.
First incarnation:
Much cooler 2nd incarnation:
They see me rollin' hey be hatin'
Riding all weather every day no car/bus/train etc. the gutsy lithium powered USB charging speaker eventually succumbed. I had 2 of them I think one survived, but I'll look for a weather proof new replacement now that I've mentioned it for nostalgia.
I haven't been prompted to move from my current mp3 headphone setup, that's been useful in all of life's activities using power tools or hammers or showering, these waterproof MP3 player headphones are the shizzle. I had the NWZ-273 4GB version in black, and added the NWZ-274 8GB international sourced version in white. It's a nice bright "F-OFF" to any attempts for unsolicited communication.
http://www.sony.com/electronics/walkman/nwz-w273-nwz-w274s
I let my white ones get into the hands of a 3yo boy who re-engineered certain qualities, which I made worse trying to reverse engineer resulting in many more smaller pieces. At the time the Smart B-Trainer was just out in Japan, so I upgraded to the 16GB capacity, and the extra features to play with.
http://smartsports.sony.net/b-trainer/p ... index.html
The Sony Smart B-Trainer is intended as a running music player with GPS tracking and training aids, but you can switch some or all of the extras off to just have a great capacity waterproof MP3 player with my estimated 12hr run time just playing music (max I've got to is 10hrs still going).
It only plays shuffle mode, and I want a cheaper non-cycling use unit to burn at home, so I'm still in the market for the cheaper simpler predecessor 4GB or 8GB version to be able to play albums straight through and skip tracks chronologically, and a quarter of the cost.
For ambient noise, you can run a smaller bud or break the seal of proper size. e.g. riding on the beach I keep the sea side sealed to cut the strong sea breeze, but loosen the inland side to still hear the ambient sound of the waves.
I like the sealed in-ear buds in various sizes to get a good seal, reduces excessive wind noise, reduces headphone volume required, music sounds better etc. I ride paths not roads 95% of the time whatever's more safety in my control. I've come from motorcycle riding with an interest in advanced roadcraft for survival before substituting it all with cycling, so I head check every move like an owl and don't rely on the negligible sound from rear approaching people/vehicles.